Does this Unicorn exist: 120V machine for Illy Capsules for Mobile Business

[TheSecondLine]

All, this is my first time to this forum, so I appreciate your help and patience—

I've got a mobile business, that I'm looking to finally add espresso to.
In an ideal world I'd have a 220V double group machine with great burr grinders.

The reality is that I need to be flexible with my power needs, water, cleanup time, and storage.

My distributor and local roaster say Illy capsules make sense for such an operation, and my distributor deals in UNIC machines, which I have lots of experience and love. The question is:

Can I find a UNIC machine (single group is fine) that can be converted to use illy capsules, and also runs on 120V? I've found some 240V machines...

For water, I'll use a flo-jet pump with 5gallon R.O. water jugs direct plumbed into the machine.

Just trying to avoid the mess and space off grinders, knockboxes, etc etc. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[shadow745]

A few things to add... if you're wanting to offer quality espresso based drinks there is NO substitute for having fresh ground coffee. Pods and capsules are a waste at best in terms of quality, environmental waste, etc. The need for a 240v machine also is mainly due to needing massive amounts of steam available at all times to pacify the titty babies as I call them that just have to have milk in every thing coffee related. Any 120v machine won't keep up with the demands of extracting/steaming any real volume needed. For example, quite often I was extracting from both groups of a NS Aurelia while texturing 32 oz of whole milk simultaneously just to keep up with multiple drink orders. That machine was a workhorse that easily recovered from anything I threw at it. Simply wouldn't have wasted time with anything less trying to keep up when having a line of 10+ people at an event, on their way to work, etc.

 

[TheSecondLine]

A few things to add... if you're wanting to offer quality espresso based drinks there is NO substitute for having fresh ground coffee. Pods and capsules are a waste at best in terms of quality, environmental waste, etc. The need for a 240v machine also is mainly due to needing massive amounts of steam available at all times to pacify the titty babies as I call them that just have to have milk in every thing coffee related. Any 120v machine won't keep up with the demands of extracting/steaming any real volume needed. For example, quite often I was extracting from both groups of a NS Aurelia while texturing 32 oz of whole milk simultaneously just to keep up with multiple drink orders. That machine was a workhorse that easily recovered from anything I threw at it. Simply wouldn't have wasted time with anything less trying to keep up when having a line of 10+ people at an event, on their way to work, etc.

well idk what to yell you—I don't have the capacity do haul grinders and plug them in and adjust grind size for shot times, and all that stuff. Pods may not be ideal, but you have to start somewhere

 

[shadow745]

well idk what to yell you—I don't have the capacity do haul grinders and plug them in and adjust grind size for shot times, and all that stuff. Pods may not be ideal, but you have to start somewhere

I get that and there's always a trade-off... either you spend more upfront for a more suitable setup and it 'might' pay for itself in time OR using a barely capable setup might cause customer base loss due to inferior quality and you might end up spending more to play catch up.

You mention pods and capsules, both of which are quite different. Quality espresso can be used in so many ways it's really the backbone of any coffee setup and of course not really cheap or easy to establish. Kinda surprised any roaster would recommend pods or capsules unless they're clueless to begin with, bwahaha, and many are!