Due to the high turnover at cafés, restaurants, hotels and banqueting facilities, coffee machines need to be fully automatic and user-friendly while delivering speed and uncompromising quality in every cup. Consumer expectations have driven the introduction of fresh milk systems, replacing powdered milk and ensuring an authentic taste and milk foam consistency.
Ciro Beverage Solutions has partnered with some of the world’s best companies to bring the most sought-after and superior fully automatic coffee machines to South Africa. Featured below are three of the compact offerings from the Swiss and the Italians.
Egro ONE
Egro ONE is Swiss coffee technology at its best. It is one of the most compact in its class – only 30cm wide – making it suitable for use anywhere, however its high capacity is ideal for the busiest of cafés and offices. A focus on excellent design and advanced ergonomics has resulted in this sophisticated, fully automatic coffee machine, which offers superior functionality and stylishness while remaining user-friendly. This is entrenched in the ONE’s pay-off line: “Expertise anytime and anywhere”.
The ONE simultaneously delivers coffee, hot water and steam and the patented brewing system guarantees perfect coffee every time. Due to the dual pump and frother head technologies, even quantities of milk are delivered at high speed when brewing two coffees. This allows the ONE to have the highest cup output rating in its class, delivering 250 coffees an hour. The ONE is also available with a practical 3-litre cool box for storing and dispensing milk, suitable for establishments with low to medium volume.
There are two versions of the Egro ONE – the ONE Touch with a large 5.7” touch display and the ONE Keypad with a traditional keypad. The ONE Touch has an easy-to use interface that guides the user through a choice of 48 products, each one with its own icon. Visuals indicate which drinks are being served, the serving progress and the machine’s status. The Egro ONE’s reporting system also includes text messages. The ONE can be configured for professional self-service use and can also be fitted with a variety of payment systems such as a coin acceptor, change giver, smart card reader etc.
N&W Karisma
Karisma is the Necta vending brand’s new super-automatic, compact coffee machine, made in Italy. Featuring cutting-edge technology, it offers top performance and espresso-based drinks using coffee beans, fresh milk and soluble products like chocolate. The Karisma is intended to mark a turnaround in service levels at top restaurants, hotels and bars.
The Karisma dispenses up to 200 cups an hour and a cappuccino in just 35 seconds, so peak hours of operation are no longer a problem and quality is guaranteed cup after cup. The new fresh milk system (Milk PerFoamer) ensures high quality, milk-based drinks and the machine is equipped with N&W Z4000 coffee brewer and variable chamber that can hold 7g to 14g of coffee.
There are two grinders specifically designed for high performance during peak periods. Three stainless steel boilers have been set up at different temperatures, allowing various drinks to be made at the same time, while the movable nozzles can dispense different cup sizes from a 7.5 mm espresso cup to 10mm cappuccino cup and a 15mm latte macchiato.
The Karisma features a contemporary Italian design and stylish accessories like cup warmer. The latest generation touch screen interface is intuitive and customisable via USB interface. The machine also offers an automatic cleaning and rinsing cycle at the push of a button.
Shaerer Coffee Vito
The Swiss-made, fully automatic Shaerer Coffee Vito is pure precision and reliability. It has been designed with the needs of small restaurants, bars, offices and cafés in mind, which require vending and self-service application, as well as simple operation. The focus was also on fulfilling the needs of customers who put quality before quantity. Available in two versions – fresh milk or powdered milk – the Coffee Vito features a width of only 33cm and up to 15 different coffee, chocolate and milk beverages at the touch of a button plus all the advantages one would expect from a larger, high-capacity coffee machine.
The powdered milk option is particularly recommended in unattended locations because there is no need to monitor sell-by dates. It is also suited to the vending sector and other self-service locations. The fresh milk in the Coffee Vito is sourced from a 4-litre milk fridge or the under-counter storage solution. The bean hopper has a 1.1kg capacity so owners need to refill less often and this makes operation less dependent on staff. There is an optional, under-counter, space saving coffee grinds container, while the capacity of the boilers and grinders has been carefully calculated so that water and coffee beans are always fresh.
The touch screen control panel features a barista button with clear prompts which allows the user to set the coffee strength each time to accommodate the taste of every customer. The Coffee Vito makes, amongst others, espresso, café crème, moccaccino and cappuccino and the user can program and assign names to a maximum of 15 beverages.
Owners are faced with minimal costs in terms of refilling, cleaning and servicing. Exact consumption figures can be accessed to help with stock control.
For more information on Ciro’s range of beverage solutions visit www.ciro.co.za.
