Bar equipment to match new products and new markets.

UNIC 

The French company UNIC is emblematic of the new diversity in product array that is revolutionizing coffee brewing equipment markets worldwide. They not only have a complete line of traditional espresso brewing machines for the professional arena, but have extended their line to include the fully automatic market for fast food, self service, office service, and even vending applications. The company has also crossed the line into the light commercial and home use espresso machine sector with compact models that can employ ground coffee or pods.

The compact model as marketed by UNIC is found under the Stella trademark. Stella has been targeted at serving up a professional espresso from a remarkably small unit, but one that features two one-liter boilers and a single group that can dose two cups at once. The boilers have separate thermal controls so that the temperature of each is programmable. Stella can serve small or large cups and has a Teflon multi-jet 'cappuccinatore.' It can run off the tap or on an optional three liter water tank. Stella is housed in stainless steel with a heated top for cups.

The concept was developed by UNIC about 18 months ago and appears as the Pony Espresso for Illycaffe in the U.S. Pony Espresso can be readily adapted to use Illycaffe espresso pods. When adapted to the pod system, it features a patented swiveling filter holder with an automatic pod ejection device.

At the other end of the coffee serving spectrum is UNIC's CT series. These are fully automatic models for heavy-duty, high volume use. The CT can serve 200 espressos per hour and extends to various model formats, adapting to a variety of service situations and market demands. It is even available as a vending or token operated system. The CT obviously lends itself to fast-food applications, and is for example already in use by some McDonalds outlets in France.

The latest development in the company's fully automatic line is the CTEV. This model integrates a refrigeration unit for fresh milk and offers thereby a fast, direct cappuccino service.

Which brings us to yet another stratum of UNIC bar equipment, one that has just now gained a McDonalds connection. This is the company's XDO and Xi series. These are its top-of-the line professional espresso machines that are both electronically automated and user-interactive - meaning that while the machine is built to control almost every variable in coffee brewing and operates with just the push of a button, it still features the classic espresso magic of the serving group and the filter holder.

The models make use of UNIC's Dosamat patented system that automatically detects which filter holder has been inserted into the serving group, indicates the corresponding number of cups, and infuses the volume desired. Each serving group (the line includes models of two, three, and four groups) can be programmed for six different volumes: one, two, or three espresso cups and one, two, or three larger cups. The Xi has separate microprocessor controls on each group. The XDO model is governed by a central control unit that allows a global management of all machine functions.

McDonalds has chosen the Xi for its McCafe in-store espresso bar concept. UNIC has expectations to source the Xi to about 60 McCafe sites in France by the end of 1997.

MAZZER

Located in a small town near Venice, the Mazzer company is one of those family owned and managed Italian firms that has grown to international stature by focusing with great attention and cleverness on a single finely tooled machine product - in this case, coffee grinders. Even more specifically, the Mazzer focus has been on the grinding attributes of espresso coffee for bar and shop.

Although the company has been manufacturing grinders since 1950, it found enduring success beginning in 1964 with its Jolly model. This professional coffee bar grinder is sold around the world and to this day, although redesigned with a new grinding adjustment, is still the core of Mazzer's sales. Under the new name Super Jolly, its popularity is apparently based on performance, simplicity, and durability.

The company expects the Super Jolly to still be running, even under heavy duty usage, 20 years after being placed in service. The blades are easy to change by even the grumpiest of barmen. For these reasons, the Super Jolly has become a grinder of choice among many leading Italian and foreign roasters. The model runs at 0.5 HP, with 64 mm diameter blade definition, a grinding capacity of 10 to 14 kilos per hour, and a coffee bean container capacity of 1.2 kilos. It comes with a doser and can be gotten as either manual or automatic, with or without time switch.

The same attributes distinguish its more powerful big brother, the Mayor, which runs at 1 HP. The Mayor can grind 20-25 kilos per hour. It is built specifically for high volume professional espresso service, such as in commuter train station bars.

On the other hand, both new and small, Mazzer has just released a new mini-grinder with doser. It was developed for grinding small-volume specialties in Italian bars such as decaffeinated espressos. However, the company thinks the Mini should also find use abroad in bars. Mini has bean capacity of 0.6 kilos, a ground coffee capacity of 200 gm.

The Mazzer bar line is capped by the M100 which is based on a different patent and is a professional model for the most demanding qualifies. It operates via a belt system that allows for separate motor and grinding speeds. This gives a strong, slow grind for those who desire it.

Complementing the bar line, the firm also makes a range of shop grinders. The main difference here is that with the Super Jolly entry, for example, a small bag holder feature replaces the doser.

CAFE LIEGEOIS

Our coffee industry is abounding again in good ideas, spelling new business possibilities for numerous companies. One of these is Cafe Liegeois of Belgium, a roasting company that has boldly introduced espresso pods.

Cafe Liegeois has presented a complete line of pods for home or office, hotel, restaurant, and cafe usage. The pods are sealed individually in gold foil sachets - 10 to a box for home, 30 to a box for catering. The catering range includes three products - a traditional Belgium roast, termed a 'moka' but labeled Bella Roma; an espresso roast under the Espresso Venezia label; and a decaffeinated pod product called Della Notte Caffe.

For upscale restaurants, or restaurants that would like to be so, Cafe Liegeois has launched a separate line of pods as a collection of single origin coffees, called Cafes des Grandes Origines. There are eight entries in the series, including Papua New Guinea, a Yirgachefe from Ethiopia, a Blue Java from Indonesia, Kenya AA, Jamaica Blue Mountain, a Colombia 'San Cristobal,' Guatemala Antigua, and a decaf blend.

Each entry is offered in a box of 15. To help restaurants market the line to their customers, Cafe Liegeois also provides a coffee menu for Cafes des Grandes Origines. This is a glossy presentation giving brief but eloquent descriptions of each coffee. The passages evoke the coffee's specific place of origin and taste attributes.

As a further touch of class, the collection can be acquired in a beautifully finished wooden display case, much like a cigar case, that can be refilled as needed. Although large - the case displays 80 pods, 10 for each coffee - it is still manageable and can be shown to the tables at the end of the meal so that each diner can select his own foil wrapped espresso pod from the most exotic corners of the earth.

CAMURRI

Few manufacturers of coffee and tea brewing equipment can boast of a wider product range than Camurri. The company's show room glitters with an amazing field of stainless steel urns - some for coffee only, some for tea, some for tea and coffee, some for hot drinks, some for cold, some even for making authentic hot chocolate in the sublime Italian way.

Camurri not only has an urn for every conceivable service use, but of a size to match. The coffee brewers all feature the company's Termorapid brewing system with a patented slow filter process that, defying logic, is said to enable rapid brewing as well as a full-bodied cup. The urns are available in three, five, nine, twenty, thirty and fifty liters, in banks of double urns in volumes of five, nine, and twenty-five liters, in groups of triple and quadruple urns. The biggest of all is a 200 liter model that squats on its own feet on the floor like a Sumo wrestler - it can serve up to 2,000 cups of coffee in a single batch.

For hot water, milk, and chocolate dispensing, the company offers urns in basically the same ranges as for coffee, and these can also be used as stand alones or in varying combinations with each other or with the coffee urns. The tea infusion urn features a container for holding the teabags or loose tea that is easily hooked inside. For iced-tea, Camurri has a thermal urn with a separate ice unit, so that it can double for hot or cold service.

The urns stand alone for counter service and can also be ordered built onto stainless steel carts that also feature shelves, drawers, and serving areas. Sleekly elegant in design, the entire Camurri range is cast in 18/10 class stainless steel. Some models are available in 24 kt. gold-plated steel.

To balance this extensive line in traditional brewing urns, Camurri has also launched electronic models designed for fully automatic breakfast service. The most elaborate of these models is the hotel unit, which is actually four separate machines in a single integrated package. The hotel unit includes a Termorapid Camurri filter coffee machine, equipped with what the company calls a "special device for obtaining espresso type coffee," a milk warmer, a continuous cycle hot water production unit for tea and infusions, and a steam production unit for cappuccino.

SANTOS

For several years, the Santos company has been a leader in particular bar equipment technologies. This currently involves coffee bean grinding, with the introduction of the company's new quiet grinder.

The model is a deceivingly simple take-apart professional machine that incorporates many interchangeable parts from the widely popular models 6A, which has sold more than 150,000 units. The attributes of the new grinder - the 40A - are a 1/2 CV motor, tempered steel grinding blades with a 63.5 mm diameter, and a bean hopper capacity of 2.2 kilos. The 40A can grind an average of 8 kilos of coffee per hour.

And it can do so in relative silence. The new grinder operates at an average level of 63 decibels, or three times more quietly than the standard bar coffee grinder, meaning that the French who do not always have the best espresso to drink in their cafes can now at least enjoy their drink peacefully.

The 40A includes a new hopper design, in clear or smoked plastic, and a colorful choice in body paint - brown, gray, or black in standard array, or by order as green, blue, yellow, or red.

Santos is offering owners of their number 6A to bring the grinder in to a service center where - with a simple exchange of a few parts - one comes out with a new and far more silent 40A. (I wish someone could do the same with my old Citroen.)

ASTORIA

CMA ranks among the world's largest manufacturers of espresso machines. Each year its factory in northern Italy crates up many thousands of new professional machines, destined for service in some 70 nations. Marketed principally under the Astoria label, these are sold and serviced by an international network of 200 importers and distributors. As part of this, the company also operates a U.S. subsidiary - General Espresso Equipment Corp. in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The company is often in coffee business news, not only because of its size, but because it has built a partnership role as a private label supplier of espresso bar equipment to several major international corporations. In recent months, some of the more important news from Susegnana, the hometown of CMA, has had to do with the successful launch of the company's Argenta line of fully automatic espresso machines.

The basic model for the series is the SE1M. It features a menu of 10 different drink selections, a hot water spout with steam wand, a funnel for decaffeinated coffee, and separate heat exchanger for coffee and tea. The last attribute is of special importance because as any tea drinker will affirm, the water temperature for espresso is not all suitable for tea service. The SE1M comes with a single built-in adjustable grinder, a water softener, and automatic wash cycle. A more elaborate model is the SE2M; it features two grinders and a drink menu that runs to 18 selections.

Accompanying the new fully automatics is the SEMC, CMA's stand-alone cappuccino maker. It incorporates a refrigeration compartment that can hold up to 8 liters of milk. SEMC units can work with either the SE1M or 2M models.

The Argenta series culminates in the SEE combining the fully automatic espresso machine and the cappuccino maker in a single frame. The SEF can ideally serve 240 espressos, 180 cappuccinos, or 180 lattes per hour.

One interesting attribute of this fully automatic series: Its designers departed from what has become the usual dispenser-like appearance of the fully automatic espresso machine. For Argenta, not only did they downsize in bulk, they also maintained the look of a traditional semi-automatic machine - at first glance all that is missing is the filter holder.