Choosing The Right Equipment for Your Coffee Shop

After choosing your coffee shop location you will need to pay attention to the coffee shop equipment.

It is easy for the inexperienced coffee business owner to buy the wrong or unnecessary coffee equipment which is a waste of needed cash. You don’t have to waste your money.

 Developing your coffee shop concept, developing a business plan with a budget and making good coffee equipment decisions, will help you maximize your money.

 A lot of independent coffee shops don’t last long because the owner loves coffee but doesn’t pay enough attention to the finance side, so get a good advisor early on!

You need to have a menu that is appealing to your client base and your menu will determine what coffee equipment you will need.

Most coffee shops will require the following coffee equipment as standard:

Traditional or commercial espresso machine

Consider how many group heads you think you will need, don’t spend the extra on a 3 group head if you aren’t going to make use of it.

Industrial coffee bean grinder

This could be manual or grind on demand, grind on demand will cost more but they can waste less coffee.

Knock out drawer

Under grinder type make good use of space or the Cafelat tubbi type are easy to keep clean

Barista tools

Milk foaming jugs (have a couple of sizes)

Coffee tamper and tamping mat

Barista towels and apron

Filter coffee brewer

Some clients may request a long black coffee, filter coffee is the quickest option for this and it tastes good too, these don’t need to be expensive.

Arizona Hot Water Boiler

You need a mains fed water boiler that fills up automatically, don’t fall into the trap of purchasing a cheap boiler which is a false economy, they won’t last long and can impact productivity.

Other areas you will need to look into:

• Furniture & Fixtures
• Prepping table, if you are making your own food this will need to have a dedicated table.
• Commercial refrigerator
• Three-Compartment sink, essential as you will always have to wash and rinse dishes and also have a separate hand washing sink
• A mains water feed and drain for your sink and coffee machine

Although many people have their own ideas, some of the basic coffee shop sundries will include:

• Good quality Arabica blend of coffee beans, don’t skimp on buying cheap beans as this is your no1 product and needs to taste right.
• Decaf coffee pods, a very convenient way of providing a decent decaf coffee, you will need a different group head filter basket for these.
• Everyday tea and fruit teas, the Clipper Fairtrade range is a good place for you to start, don’t offer too much to start with as you will end up with old stocks.
• Flavouring coffee syrups, a great way to quickly expand your menu
• Sugar sticks and sweeteners
• Crockery, this needs to be good quality such as the Porcelite range, these have a guarantee and they won’t scratch easily.

You will need some level of barista training to be able to serve consistent quality drinks, for instance, if you’re looking for a commercial coffee machine in Worcester or surrounding areas, our team of coffee experts can help you with barista training, this may need to be repeated every year as new teams come into your coffee shop.

You can browse our range of Coffee Machines to select your favourite. Get in touch with our friendly knowledgeable sales team who can advise on the best options based on your specifications. 01905 337187

Office Coffee Culture