Coffee Beans

beya2009

Hi Everyone,

I would be grateful if someone could answer my question.

How much coffee beans is required for a small espresso machine for an Internet Cafe that caters for 10 computers and what would roughly be the cost of purchasing coffee beans per month to keep demand going?


Cheers

Doodee

depends on the quality of coffee you are wishing to serve and the type of machine (Bean to cup with internal grinder, Espresso machine + grinder).

How many coffee's do you intend to sell?

Take 1 cup = 7g of coffee.
From there you can possibly figure it out.
B2C machines will probably use less beans as there is no human doing the tamping etc
However, the coffee is not as nice from a B2C and you will have to clean it regularly if you don't want foul tasting coffee.

If you are going down the seperate grinder and espresso machine route then you will need to factor in extra grind per shot to allow for your barista to tamp correctly.
so take it then as 9g per cup to be safe.

I'd be more concerned about the type of coffee you will be serving. If it will be good quality coffee then you have to consider storage and use by times.
If it is just the Kenco or Senseo stuff then a single bag (2kg) would probably do you for a month.

beya2009

Hi Doodee,

Thank you so much for your quick reply.

I would be looking for good quality coffee as I feel too many Internet cafe's run on poor coffee, cramped spaces and crappy machines. I was looking to get a 1 Group Envova Espresso Machine & Bean Grinder for €3, 995. Purchasing a new machine is better than renting out a machine in my opinion as it will enable me to have to have the freedom of choose where I purchase the coffee beans. I intend to sell roughly around 30 cups a day. i know this is a relatively low figure but I down figured most of my income revenue for the business plan to stay realistic. Like if all our services offered were full and say they all bought a cup of coffee, then there would be 50 people.

Im still on the finance side of my business plan and just need to calculate monthly expenses for the coffee beans and any other costs associated with providing good coffee.

d4v1d

serving good coffee isn't just a case of getting a good machine and the best beans. you need to get a barista that knows what to do.

you can pick up fairly quickly how to get the basics of making coffee, but i'd advise on getting some basic training to begin with if you're making it yourself. if you do end up getting an espresso machine there are some steps you need to take to ensure you keep it clean and don't wear down the rubber seals on the group head.

from my own experience, i'd recommend java republic coffee beans. i buy them for use on my home machine and are as good as, or even better, than anything i've had in any other country.

if you can make and serve good coffee consistently you will get a lot of loyal customers. i hope wherever you're getting set up you do well. best of luck.

beya2009

Hi d4v1d,

Thank you very much for your reply. I will take note of your advice and make sure I get training. I just feel offering an espresso machine is a good way of getting another stream of steady income. Would you know roughly the weight of beans that would have to be purchased weekly or even monthly to keep an espresso machine going to cater to up to 30 people in our facility and pricing for it?

Doodee

beya2009 wrote: »

Hi d4v1d,

Thank you very much for your reply. I will take note of your advice and make sure I get training. I just feel offering an espresso machine is a good way of getting another stream of steady income. Would you know roughly the weight of beans that would have to be purchased weekly or even monthly to keep an espresso machine going to cater to up to 30 people in our facility and pricing for it?

30 * 7 = 210grams * 7 days = 1470g

So going by that you'd want to get between 1.5 - 2kg per week.
I'd go with 2kg just to test the water, it will allow for messing up your shots etc.
an Idea would be to consult Karl from www.coffeeangel.ie regarding training.
He would also be able to advise you on the finer points to running a coffee business.

Personally, my folks decided to update their coffee offerings over a year ago and found that renting the espresso machine and grinder was a better option as they didn't have to worry about servicing it when it broke down. They ended up getting the machine + grinder for free providing they bought their beans from the same supplier (Tchibo beans I'll add). Seeing as they were new to the whole coffee thing this was a monumental advantage for them as they were free to learn what not to do from trial and error.

I remember some time ago someone posted a link to a British company that restored old commercial machines and resole them with a short term guarantee. If you are considering buying instead of renting maybe try something like that before investing in your out of the box machine.

The best thing I can advise is getting into coffee yourself in a non commercial way. When there aren't €€ figures on each cup you will experiment more and really start to learn about the massive unseen aspects and rewards of the culture.