Best Commercial Coffee Machines in the Philippines
Choosing the best commercial coffee machine is never the easiest decision when starting or running your cafe. On top of ensuring your operations go smoothly once you purchase it, you’ll have to consider that it will be worth your money for every espresso it produces.
In this guide, we’re going through the options for the best commercial coffee machines. If you’ve never bought a coffee machine before, you might need some help understanding exactly what a coffee machine is and why there are group heads. The choices can get even more confusing if you’ve been running a coffee shop and looking for alternative espresso machines.
Don’t worry. Our guide is here to help. Let's dive into some key considerations when finding a suitable industrial coffee machine.
How Commercial Coffee Machines Work?
Water is pumped from a connected water source or water tank into the coffee machine.
Photo: Clive Coffee
The water will hit the boilers. Most commercial coffee machines will have two boilers, which they call “dual boiler”. One is for espresso, and the other is for the steam wand.
Water is heated at a controlled rate by a proportional integrative derivative (PID). It is Something to consider when purchasing a coffee machine if it has PID. This ensures that the water is always at the optimal temperature.
You lock the portafilter in place with the tamped puck of espresso.
Water is heated to the optimal temperature (around 91C-95C) and then pumped through the showerhead at 9 bars of pressure (right perfect bar) onto the bed of coffee on your portafilter. Then, it extracts the perfect espresso.
5 Things to Consider When Buying Commercial Coffee Machines
We may have different considerations when looking for commercial coffee machines, but these should be your top priorities when picking one. After all, purchasing a coffee machine would cost ⅓ of your capital. So, make sure you’re choosing the perfect one that suits you.
1. Volume
Volume is the amount of cups you need to produce daily.
Depending on your cafe's location, choosing a commercial coffee machine must be your top consideration.
If you’re in a high foot traffic area and your espresso machine can only produce a maximum of 100 cups per day, you’re missing sales opportunities for your store.
Based on volumes, you can categorize coffee machines from low to high levels:
- Low-volume machines – produce 50 cups per day
- Medium volume machines – 150-200 cups per day
- High-volume machines – 200-500 cups per day
I recommend only going after medium to high-volume coffee machines if you’re using them purposefully for commercial. The reason is that you want to give allowances to the number of cups you produce daily. If it goes high, you’re confident you can serve more customers.
Conversely, if you’re only producing less than your expected cup volume, it would help your coffee machine get the proper rest and applicable maintenance you need.
Some considerations to take when thinking of volumes:
- Foot traffic - quickly research your market and how surrounding cafes get their orders daily.
- Store size - the bigger your store is, the more customers it can cater to. Thus, you need a higher volume machine to use.
- Number of baristas - You can’t operate a low-volume machine with 3 to 4 baristas. This would consume a lot of their brewing time and increase the waiting time for your customers.
2. Budget or Resources
Commercial coffee machines are part of major purchases in a cafe. It might composed ⅓ of your capital.
Consider first your budget. How much are you willing to invest in a coffee machine?
In line with this, your current budget and how much can you stretch enough to purchase a higher quality commercial coffee machine.
You’re not only investing for short-term but for long-term gains. Consider a much higher-quality espresso machine with proper maintenance that lasts a few years.
Talk to your investors or business partners and set aside an amount for a commercial coffee machine.
Some forums and Facebook groups will tell you to rent or buy a second-hand coffee machine. While that may be a more cost-effective option, think of the maintenance issues of it and how long this can sustain your operations.
Again, you’re not brewing espresso at home, but ultimately for your customers to earn sales and profit from your coffee shop business.
3. Machine Quality
The quality of coffee machines varies depending on their manufacturer. Italian brands are typically the ones with the best-quality of espresso machines. Also, some are hand-crafted, almost made with perfect precision for each feature. You’ll see how they are well thought out.
For instance, Conti espresso machines have their unique ‘flow control system’, which allows you to make small adjustments to the temperature of the coffee group.
If you’re a very technical barista, the features of every coffee machine and how they will impact your brewing process should be your top consideration regarding machine quality.
At most, you should be getting a commercial espresso machine with PID. Earlier, I shared that PID helps constantly monitor the water temperature and make small adjustments to keep it at the set temperature. This is critically important when brewing the perfect espresso.
4. Maintenance and Servicing Costs
Related to machine quality, consider repair, maintenance, and servicing costs.
Like any machine, espresso machines require maintenance. If you’re getting a coffee machine, ask your supplier about the current warranty of the coffee machine and how frequently their technical personnel can visit your store for basic checkups of your coffee machine.
Quick additions to essential checkups may include pressure safety, electrical safety, and boiler tests.
In the Philippines, most machine technicians visit multiple stores in one area to minimize transportation costs. They assign one technical personnel for one area to supervise, fix any maintenance issues, or simply have a basic makeup of their serviced coffee machine.
Pro tip: Brands from Italy have shorter warranties, given they confidently attest to the quality of coffee machines that will last for years, even with minimum maintenance.
5. Accessibility For Training
Apart from coffee machine quality, maintenance, budget, and volume of cups it can provide, see how accessible it is to train your baristas.
It means that as a newbie barista of your cafe touches your coffee machine and starts operating it, can they be at ease in working on it? Or do the basic setup to brew an espresso using the machine?
If it takes you weeks or months to train a barista because of how complex a coffee machine is, it will affect your operations and how fast they can produce cups at your store.
The best way to know this is by checking the machine buyer's guide and some reviews about the coffee machine before purchasing it.
You can also ask questions on Reddit and barista social media groups to know more about how accessible the coffee machine is for a new barista.
Remember, you’re not the only one who should be learning how to operate the coffee machine. But ultimately, your baristas must have a basic understanding of it.
Best Commercial Coffee Machines in the Philippines For 2023
Conti CC202
Brewing Capacity: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
User Friendliness: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Milk Frothing: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Build Quality: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Cleaning and Maintenance: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
One of our top picks is Conti CC202.
Best for commercial areas such as high streets, hotel lobbies, village pubs, or modern offices.
Conti CC202’s best features are their added individual group shot timers so you can monitor and control espresso extraction while maintaining its consistency and flavor.
You’ll find its Eco mode interesting, which reduces your power consumption by up to 40% overnight or when closed. This is an advantage for cafe owners to reduce their utility costs (electricity), saving them money.
Using their dose-controlled hot water feature, you can also set the perfect amount of hot water every time. With a soft touch button, your baristas would love to enjoy using this coffee machine.
Last but not least, its PID, like any other commercial machine, allows you to stabilize the consistency of results for your espressos perfectly.
Breville Dual Boiler
Brewing Capacity: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
User Friendliness: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Milk Frothing: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Build Quality: ★★★★☆ (4 stars)
Cleaning and Maintenance: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Breville dual boiler is a medium-volume coffee machine that’s best for small to medium-sized stores (15-40sqm).
The reason is the space it consumes in your store that you can place it anywhere on your workstation. Compared to larger coffee machines like Conti, the Breville Dual Boiler doesn’t consume much of your space in your store.
From the name itself, dual boiler, it allows you to brew your coffee (espresso extraction) while steaming your milk with their steaming wand. This is an excellent way to lessen the time to prepare a cup of coffee.
If you’ve got four beverages to craft in one transaction, having a dual-boiler coffee machine allows you to produce 4 cups in less than 10 minutes.
On top of it, like any other coffee machine, it has PID (again) that brings water to precisely the right temperature, helping you produce the perfect espresso.
Breville dual boiler is a semi-automatic coffee machine that has flexible shot control.
You can choose between one shot, two shots, or manual control over how much espresso is in your cup. Doing so allows you to automate espresso extraction without thinking of grams when grinding coffee to at least ideally get one or two shots. The flexible shot control does it well for you.
Summary
Blend N Sips only presents the best commercial coffee machines that suit your preferences, context, and needs. Reach out to us and get a free quotation based on your requirements.
We have plenty of options, but you only need two to save money and brew the perfect espresso for your customers.