Pourover Dosing Procedures

[cst67]

Hi Everyone,

I manage a cafe with very limited space. We offer 5 pourover options daily, as well as a decaf and half-caf pourover. I'm wondering what kind of system everyone else uses to streamline pourovers while also making sure oldest coffees get used first.

Currently we use stackable containers that lock into each other. We lock four pre-weighed containers of coffee into each other like a tower so that we always take the portion on top first. The containers are labeled with each kind of coffee it contains. The problem is with the colder weather coming in, we are going through more than four of each kind of coffee and need to weigh out coffees sometimes as they are ordered (which slows down the process). Also, the towers have a tendency to be easily knocked over.

Has anyone come up with a way to offer multiple pourovers in a more efficiently?

I appreciate any suggestions!

 

[peterjschmidt]

I'm assuming that if you don't want to take the time to weigh out coffee as the orders happen, you're also pre-grinding, yes?

 

[cst67]

We only grind once someone has ordered to ensure freshness. Just trying to figure out options for storing pre-weighed coffees. Since we have up seven coffees dosed, we have to store the coffee bags in a spot that is not readily available if it needed to be reached on a per-order basis.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Not having a good mental picture of your work space, I don't see how a bag of coffee - even a 1 or 2 lb. bag - would take that much more room than your current 4 stackable containers. I'm sorry for not having a more constructive answer... hopefully someone will chime in.

 

[PinkRose]

You said you are offering 7 coffee options for pour over coffee daily. I can see how having 7 bags of coffee sitting on a counter could be a problem.

It sounds like you may need to build some sort of stand/holder for your stack-able containers of pre-weighed coffee.

Or, you could just get more of the containers that you're already using, and prep them in the morning and store some of them in the back, or in a drawer or shelf that's away from the counter. Then, you could bring them out as you need them to replenish what you have in your work area. The coffee will get rotated, and you'll free up some work space.

Rose

 

[Redswing]

I’m curious if you could give us more about your particular situation, ie your location, your equipment, your volume of business. A picture would be helpful.
Sightglass is a nicely run coffeehouse in San Francisco that I enjoy visiting. A busy shop pumping out, among other things, pour overs. They only had a handful of pour over options, if I remember right. (I’ve heard in all things, generally, a customer is happy with three choices. One or two is too few, four or more is too much) You can see in the picture below (or perhaps you can’t…), the pour over bar consists of the brewers facing the customer at the counter, the grinder and water tower and a sink to the side, beans stored in jars behind the barista, with extra beans in nice looking glass canisters on the shelf above and behind. The barista weighs out the proper dosage in about 5 seconds by dropping beans into a tin cup on a scale, then turns and drops them into the hopper of the grinder. All this to say, I don’t see how pre weighing can save you much time. Unless you are just crazy slammed, in which case, hire another barista perhaps.
Here’s my suggestion: if at all possible, visit some top notch shops and learn from their systems. Good luck!

 

[cst67]

I see how it's hard to recommend a solution without knowing the space. I will take a photo tomorrow and post it here.

Redswing, thanks for the picture of Sightglass! I haven't been to any of their locations, but I do love their coffee. We have 650 square feet total for the cafe/bathroom/kitchen and on weekends we'll do $300-$500/hr in sales. Given the small amount of space, it's important to keep the line moving so even the few seconds taken to measure out the dose of coffee slows the whole operation down. It may be that people who ordered a coffee brewed by hand will just have to accept that it will take longer, but I'm always looking for new ways to improve! So I'll get back to you with the photo soon. Thanks everyone!