Traditional Vs. Bean to Cup Commercial Coffee Machines: What is The Difference?

A burning question many coffee connoisseurs are always asked is the difference between traditional and bean to cup machines.

Depending on your working environment, you will be encouraged to know the difference between the two machines, so you can make a conscious decision about the best machine to invest in for your business.

Always consider your customer or client base when it comes to choosing a coffee machine. Are they expecting barista made coffee? Are they leisurely, social visitors or purposeful customers? Perhaps they enjoy drinking coffee that has been made by a professionally trained barista, or they just want a quick fix of good quality coffee to hand.

Bean to Cup Machines

This type of coffee machine is self-operational and built for providing low to medium quantity of coffee beverages per day in office environments. To operate a bean to cup machine very little experience or skill is needed, just a simple how-to demonstration from the installation team or supplier and some basic information on how the machine works.

A bean to cup machine offers a quick, efficient solution for small to medium sized workplaces looking to serve their employees good quality coffee. These machines have up to 14 speciality coffee selections, touch screen functionality and the ability to adjust controls, like the strength of your espresso or how much milk you want in your latte.

Bean to cup machines are fully automated and does the work of a grinder, coffee machine and a barista all in one. Grinding coffee beans on demand for ultimate freshness, tamping the grounds, extracting coffee, steaming the milk and pouring the drink is all done for you at the push of a button. You will often have to set the machine off on an automated cleaning cycle at the end of each day, especially if it is exceeding the maximum volume of drinks. There will be easy, step by step instructions to follow on a touchscreen to help clean your machine without hassle.

Traditional Machines

Also known as an espresso machine, these types of machine are semi-functional for coffee shops and can provide over 150 beverages a day, for fast-paced environments where consistency is key. A traditional, manual machine requires some training on both the coffee machine and the coffee grinder that will be used in conjunction with one another. This means, to operate an espresso machine, you would need to seek help from a qualified barista, unless you are highly experienced and comfortable with using the machine already.

Espresso machines are beneficial to those looking to improve on their latte art, roast their own specialty coffee blends, and controlling levels of milk froth, coffee temperature and strength profiles of coffee beans during the roasting and grinding process. It has the ability to
make coffee all day long with little maintenance needed, except to ensure the steam wands are clean and free of residue with each use. At the end of each day, however, you will need to detach all components to leave to soak in an appropriate cleaner overnight, and flush the group heads out with cleaning solution, ready for reassembling the next day.

A traditional machine is therefore, an espresso machine that a trained barista uses to extract coffee from the coffee grounds, that they have prepared in the coffee grinder, by tamping them into a portafilter and fixing into the group head for the water to pass through and filter out into a receptacle.

So, What Should You Choose?

If you are looking for flexibility in the production of your coffee, and interested in the process of creating your own specialty coffee blends for your coffee shop, then a traditional machine is one to consider. If you are keen to be hands on with the coffee production process and hire baristas, to help support your business, then a traditional machine can help make various tweaks and alterations throughout the day to improve the quality of your coffee. Traditional machines require a level of coffee training to get your baristas knowledgeable with the process of making specialty coffee, so it is important to keep consider enrolling your staff on a barista course, to get the best out of their performance.

If consistency is your focus and you want the option to provide quality coffee at the touch of a button, then a bean to cup machine is the right solution for you. Bean to cup machines can be set up to measure your own preferences and are perfect for places with a high turnover of staff or locations where coffee is a focus for employee development and managing productivity levels.

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