Looking for a coffee machine for a small business

[Venky G]

Hi,

I was hoping someone could help me find a good coffee vending machine for a small office in India. Any suggestions? Please share your experiences...

Regards,

 

[SumitG]

Hi... just wondering, what is the size of your business... how many employees?

 

[Venky G]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in reply... i run a small business - about 25 employees... any suggestions?

 

[SumitG]

Yes, you could try the FHCL vending machines... I've been using it for while now. The machine comes free, only installation charges are payable. They have different capacities, i think the 1000lb one would be suitable for you - that delivers approx 50 cups a day. hope this helps!

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Hey... for small businesses, or for that matter any business (or even in some cases home and mobile uses!) FHCL's coffee vending machines are quite good... the coffee is just like the one you'll have at any coffee shop!!

 

[Venky G]

Thank you both... could you also give me a few more details of the maintenance and other costs etc?

 

[shadow745]

Hey... for small businesses, or for that matter any business (or even in some cases home and mobile uses!) FHCL's coffee vending machines are quite good... the coffee is just like the one you'll have at any coffee shop!!

The coffee will be that bad then? What I've had from most coffeeshops was barely drinkable. I simply can't imagine any automated machine being capable of really good coffee. Well, unless you hire a monkey to be there feeding this machine truly fresh beans throughout the day because that is where truly good coffee begins. IMO anything less is basically sludge.

I will say that we are using less and less syrups, sauce, sugar, etc. because our customers say what we are cranking out is so good they don't need to mask it with anything. Not being arrogant, just confident because I spend lots of time and energy making sure we have the freshest product available, maing sure the equipment is as clean as possible and functioning 100% at all times. It is a labor of love and passion and to say a machine is capable of anything good is just beyond anything I've witnessed yet. Wait, I forgot to acknowledge how awesome McDonald's is doing with their automated McCaffe setups... yeah I guess that's why we're getting more and more of their customers daily because when the human connection is taken out of the equation all is lost. Later!

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Well, a machine can never truly replace human effort and I will not argue with you on that one. But as far as a small set-up goes, this is by far the best machine that I have come across. It’s been installed in my office for a while now, after they replaced the previous that basically gave us flavoured water! So, I can tell, having endured bad coffee, that this is far better than most vending machines you get.
The coffee beans are ground instantly and the milk too is not the powdered variety. When the luxury of having someone physically prepare the coffee isn’t present, this is the closest you can come to having good coffee.

 

[shadow745]

Do you buy this machine outright? Or do you contract with a company that sets it up, refills everything and takes care of all maintenance? Later!

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Do you buy this machine outright? Or do you contract with a company that sets it up, refills everything and takes care of all maintenance? Later!

Well, you don't buy the machine... the machine comes for free! you only pay the installation charges and later on the basis of amt of coffee beans consumed...

 

[SumitG]

The coffee will be that bad then? What I've had from most coffeeshops was barely drinkable. I simply can't imagine any automated machine being capable of really good coffee. Well, unless you hire a monkey to be there feeding this machine truly fresh beans throughout the day because that is where truly good coffee begins. IMO anything less is basically sludge.

Hi, Just wanted to let you know that the quality that this machine delivers is far superior than most other machines. Like Vishal mentioned, the beans are freshly ground and it uses temperature controlled fresh milk too. Lavazza has bough over the company...

As for your other query, the machine is free of cost. Installation charges need to be paid.

 

[shadow745]

You mean superior quality over what other fully automatic machines are capable of right? Beans might be freshly ground, but how old are those beans? How fresh are they when delivered? How long do they stay in the machine?

Once you mention Lavazza that explains everything. Like Illy, what they produce might be superior when fresh, but once their beans make it to the US they're junk and no better than what you find in most supermarkets.

Thanks for the info, but for me nothing replaces a good semi-auto/proper grinder. Not even a monkey pushing buttons on a fully automatic....Later!

 

[SumitG]

You mean superior quality over what other fully automatic machines are capable of right? Beans might be freshly ground, but how old are those beans? How fresh are they when delivered? How long do they stay in the machine?

Once you mention Lavazza that explains everything. Like Illy, what they produce might be superior when fresh, but once their beans make it to the US they're junk and no better than what you find in most supermarkets.

Thanks for the info, but for me nothing replaces a good semi-auto/proper grinder. Not even a monkey pushing buttons on a fully automatic....Later!

Yes, superior quality over other machines... nothing replaces the flavour that comes from making the coffee personally but unfortunately, in some businesses, it's not the most feasible option

Well, these beans are said to have a shelf life of arnd 18 mths thanks to some fancy packaging! And, so far we haven't faced a problem with stale beans...

 

[Venky G]

wow! this discussion has provided me with pretty much everything that i needed to know and i didn't even have to ask another question! thank you for the great discussion and cooperation... i just have one concern... this machine seems very sophisticated - Lavazza and all that - will a small business be able to accomodate it... in terms of size, investment and maintenance...

 

[SumitG]

see.. like i said... i've been using it for a while now and mine is a small set up also. investment again is ONLY installation and the coffee beans... so i think it is less than purchasing other equipment... maintenance they usually are prompt.. i haven't personally had too many problems... and besides, consider it this way... since the machine is not sold to you it still belongs to them so they'll naturally maintain it well...