should be cleaned at least daily. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of establishments only clean their machines weekly or even less frequently – under these circumstances, many drinkers will never get to enjoy the proper flavour of their coffee.
Sadly, the majority of coffee drinkers are unaware that the flavour could be improved. We have all become used to the “traditional” coffee taste that is, at least in part, due to the presence of these impurities. Tasting cups of coffee made before and after a machine has been cleaned can be an enlightening experience. This suggests that cleaning the machine more often could have significant implications for anyone selling coffee; the better the taste, the better the reputation of the outlet, leading to repeat business and the good reviews and recommendations that attract new customers. Happy customers who stay longer or visit more often are likely to buy more coffee and other profitable products.
machine operators. While many pay cursory attention to the cleaning and maintenance of their machines, often in the misguided belief they are doing the right thing, most do not carry out some simple but specialist tasks often enough – by neglecting their machines, they can be compromising the quality of the coffee they serve and reducing potential profits.
The first reason to clean a coffee machine is improved quality and taste. The essential oils that help give coffee its distinctive flavour are released during roasting and brewing, but left alone they form residues inside the machine which impart bitterness to the drink.
Even very small amounts of residue can affect the taste of the coffee which is why leading professional baristas insist on cleaning their busiest machines two or three times a day – in most commercial situations, a machine
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The second major reason for cleaning a coffee machine is reliability. The same oily deposits that affect the taste of the coffee will eventually block the tubes and filters inside the machine. In hard water areas, limescale can accumulate and add to the problem, as blockages slow the machine down and affect efficiency, but the bigger problems are damage to components and malfunctions.
Machine outages always lead to lost revenues because the business cannot serve customers on demand. It can also affect an outlet’s reputation. Customers are often fickle and if they go elsewhere they may never return. This is bad enough, but an equally pressing issue for many businesses serving coffee is the cost of putting things right.
One national retailer with onsite food service outlets found that 60% of its coffee machine problems were related to poor cleaning. Daily
cleaning with the right products reduced the number of outages significantly, and saved over £80,000 a year in service and maintenance costs. All for the sake of a few minutes and a few pence spent on daily cleaning. These issues apply to all common types of coffee making equipment – even grinders can be affected by residues.
Time and cost is often given as the reason why machines are not cleaned. Of the total cost of an average cup of coffee, around 25% goes on staff wages, 30% on overheads such as rent and admin, and 15% on ingredients and packaging, while VAT and profit account for the remainder.
By comparison, products from Diversey Care’s new Suma Cafe range cost just a few pence per day for cleaning each machine. The range includes simple, effective and sustainable products suitable for every common type of coffee machine, and used regularly, they ensure that the machine delivers the fullest possible flavour and performs reliably by removing all of the residues and deposits.
In a typical outlet which sells 200 cups of coffee at £2.20 each day, the profit from selling just one extra cup would pay for these products. This small investment and a little bit of time each day makes a real difference in coffee quality and machine performance. Any business serving coffee would be well- advised to change its processes and products to help enhance the customer perceptions and behaviour that will maximise profits and reduce maintenance costs.
www.diversey.com
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