Beverage Service

The perfect coffee is characterised by many different components, depending on your individual taste. From buying beautifully rich and whole coffee beans, the correct brewing time, the milk-to-espresso-shot ratio, to even making sure that it is tampered correctly; the perfect coffee is often quite an elusive thing to achieve. However, with the right equipment to aid your quest, it is never further than one brew away.

Creating the perfect beverage service is a matter of putting together a variety of different components, in order to provide a comfortable and professional experience for customers. This not only requires putting together a team of wonderful employees with fabulous customer service skills, it also means sourcing strong, durable and reliable pieces of equipment too.

There are a wide variety of different beverage accessories which are both necessary as well as required for your business to thrive. These include, but are definitely not limited to, coffee tampers, airpots and milk frothing jugs. These three components combine to create not only wonderful drinks - which will leave your customers feeling satisfied and happy with their product - but also will help your staff to do their jobs correctly and efficiently too.

Below is a quick summary of just some of the pros and cons of these three beverage accessories, with a short description of what they will potentially provide for your business:

Coffee Tampers

These unique-looking little gadgets are an absolute must when it comes to creating your perfect coffee. It can be argued that they are essential pieces of equipment for almost all baristas across the world.

What is a coffee tamper?

A coffee tamper essentially compresses your beautifully blended fresh coffee grind into an equally spaced grind within the basket of an espresso shot machine. This means that the loose grinds are kept tightly packed together, working to evenly filter through the water, creating a smooth and evenly filtered espresso shot for whichever coffee you intend to make next.

What do coffee tampers do in the process of making a perfect cup of coffee?

Coffee tampers are one of the most important pieces of equipment for any barista, regardless of whether they are new to the job or working at a professional level. Along with the quality of the coffee itself, these tampers are one of the fundamental components of the perfect espresso shot.

This is because the science behind tampering your loose coffee grind dictates that when the pressurised water is sent through the espresso basket in the espresso machine, the water will merely filter through a grind which is not tampered. This will inevitably create a very weak and incredibly watery espresso shot.

However, when a coffee grind is tempered correctly, the pressurised water is forced to filter through a tightly compressed and tempered coffee grind. As a direct result of this, the water is forced to interact with the coffee grind for a longer period of time, resulting in a stronger, richer flavour.

Tampering coffee grinds also serves to keep your grinds in a semi-solid piece after every filter process, enabling the ground head to be cleaned thoroughly, and easily, between uses.

Airpots

After you have created your perfect coffee, by following the tampering technique detailed above, there must be a way for you to keep your coffee hot as you commute or go about your daily routines. It has been argued that many individuals use insulated drinks bottles to keep their coffees warm throughout the day, however, airpots are also a wonderful alternative to these types of containers.

Although insulated drinks bottles can be very versatile pieces of equipment - as they are able to be used for soups, stews and various other hot liquids - airpots are considered to be a better alternative in some respects.

What are some advantages of using airpots?

Airpots are a ‘pump-style’ dispenser found in many shops which serve coffee. These airpots come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, depending on your individual business requirements.

One of the wonderful advantages airpots offer, over other widely available insulated drinks containers, is that they are much less likely to spill than other vessels. This makes them ideal for use in cafes and other environments where beverages are sold and consumed.

Airpots are usually available to purchase in are either a robust stainless-steel, or a heat resistant plastic design. This means that many airpots are not only durable and strong, but they are also not easily scratched or worn.

Milk Frothing Jugs

Of course, many people prefer the smooth taste of a cappuccino, latte, cortado, flat white, or other type of coffee that requires hot milk to be added to an espresso shot. When serving these customers their perfect coffee, a milk frothing jug is an absolute essential.

Why should I use a milk frothing jug?

In comparison to other jug designs, which are commonly purchased from almost any high street store, milk frothing jugs are specifically made for heating up milk. Built and shaped to accommodate the frothing techniques required to make specialist milky coffees, a milk frothing jug is another trusted tool of the professional barista.

However, much like the airpots detailed above, milk frothing jugs are typically made from stainless-steel. This super-strong design allows the milk to be heated to extreme temperatures without the jug being damaged or warped. Making them ideal for the variety of temperatures they will face in the day-to-day activities of a café, the shape of the jug also means that the milk inside is unlikely to burn before being poured.

Milk frothing jugs are also available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, meaning there will always be an ideally-sized jug for your espresso machine, or to suit the types of hot drinks you frequently sell to your customers.

All three of the above pieces of equipment are absolutely essential for all your beverage service needs, and must be individually chosen for what your specific business requires.

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