Specialty Coffee Catering

[dino67]

My wife and I have been thinking of a coffee catering business as opposed to a Café. My experience as a Barista has had me working on the 220VAC machines. We were thinking of purchasing 2-3 single head machines, but I worry that there won’t be enough power for consistently pulling shots and frothing with 110VAC machines. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you

Dean

 

[CCafe]

A one group will pull shots fine nonstop. The frothing is what will drag it down. But if you are going to have 2 - 3 machines then I think you will be fine.

Using a Nuova Simonelli Appia as an example, I like to turn the pressure stat up to 1.3 - 1.45 bars. It makes for a hot machine but it will kick the element on at 1 bar when you are steaming. It really helps when a line forms. Down side the espresso burns a lot easier.

The other thing I have toyed with is wrapping the boiler with ceramic insulation. I found that it can help increase steaming longevity by as much as 15%. There is a lot of wasted heat.

 

[morrisn]

I am not sure if they would work for your application but you may also want to look at machines heated with propane.