Please Critique A Noob's Esprsso Machine Choice

[redBaron]

We'll be opening a new 1 window coffee drive-thru soon. This is our first coffee venture and thus want to take some of the guesswork (skill?) out of providing a consistent product this time around. So, we've "just about" chosen the Nuova Simonelli Master Coffee 1 gr superautomatic machine.

Will this machine keep up with a 100-150 cup/day business? It obviously provides no redundancy, is this an issue?

Suggestions?

Thanks,

[CCafe]

Yes it will do 150 cups a day without any problem. I'm not a big fan of the Master line. Mostly its a very stripped down version of the XS. 1 boiler with a very small element, only 1 grinder, and very few drink settings.

You might want to look at other machines that will give you more bang for your buck. La Cimbali just introduced its entry level M1.
http://www.cimbali.com/us/pr_scheda.asp?id=80

2 hoppers, about the same size boiler and element. You can add a TurboSteam arm for about a grand. They list around $10,500 but you will want to call for a real number.

Rancilio Ergo has a dual boiler setup, 2 hoppers, and big element. They start around the upper $12K section.
http://www.rancilio.com/rancilio/prodot ... ategory=32

[morrisn]

Look at the two group Simonelli Aurelia, under 10K and performs beautifully.