Serve quality coffee to your customers: do not neglect cleaning your machine!
If you own a coffeehouse, you know that even if you have a good espresso machine, quality coffee blends and skilled staff, your customers will not really enjoy good espresso if you neglect a basic task: cleaning and maintaining your espresso machine!
The espresso machine is no doubt the most important piece of equipment in a cafeteria. Even the best coffee blend in the hands of the most experienced barista will not be able to make the most of its potential if the machine we use in our cafeteria is not cleaned regularly and meticulously and is not maintained in the right way. Before your customers start complaining about the bitter taste of their coffee and before you see the traffic of our store shrinking, take care that the coffee youserve is always quality and enjoyable by faithfully following some simple tips for cleaning and servicing your equipment.
Procedures can be divide to the ones that should be done every day, but also those that must be taken at regular intervals, such as quarterly or semester. It goes without saying that once a year, a general inspection of the machine followed by a general service is deemed imperative.
Daily routine: cleaning with a "blind" filter
One of the biggest enemies of coffee quality is the coffee remains that remain in both the portafilter and the machine's shower. Coffee residues, along with burned coffee oils that accumulate after several espresso shots, are able to impart a bitter taste to the espresso, to reduce its quality or even to spoil its appearance.
Daily cleaning with the use of a "bilnd" filter (that is, a filter that has no holes) is an enforced routine for all coffee pros. All you need is a spoonful of professional cleaning dust, the blind basket and five to ten minutes. For machines that have a significant volume of work, producing many cups of coffee throughout the day, it helps a lot and cleaning with plain water, after a certain number of extractions. This habit does not, of course, replace normal cleaning, but as the oils and residues will be significantly less, it will make it easier, without ignoring the fact that it will improve the quality of the coffee produced between the two daily cleanings.
Three-month and six-month inspection: the importance of keeping the espresso machine in good condition
Espresso makers are extremely sophisticated machines, consisting of many smaller components, each of which has a different life span. Even with daily cleaning, proper use and regular desalination (always taking into account the hardness of the water in our area) we should not forget that many of our espresso machine parts have a finite lifetime and should be checked, repaired and replaced, if necessary, regularly. In order to maintain our machine's functionality at high levels, the quality of our coffee stable and our satisfied customers, it is necessary every quarter to go ahead with replacing the flanges and the shower and also to make a thorough control as to the flow rate, the temperature, the correct operation of the engine switches and the water quality. Correspondingly, every six months the regular inspection of our espresso machine must include control of the boiler, steam nozzles, valves, at the same time with a thorough and thorough cleaning of all the moving and stationary parts of our engine. It is certain that what is found not to work properly, whether it is repaired or replaced - the result will be seen in the espresso cup and it will compensate us.
Annual inspection and overhaul: guarantee that our espresso machine will work forever as it should.
If we follow both the daily cleaning routine and the regular checks of our espresso machine, the annual general inspection will be a piece of cake. However, even in this case, there are components whose natural wear will begin to negatively affect the quality of the produced coffee, if not replaced, such as closure filters, non-return valve, capacitors or various tubes. At the same time, annual service is a good opportunity to check that everything works properly, without leaks, delays and unwanted results.
The process of proper control, cleaning and maintenance of the espresso machine may seem painful, time consuming and expensive, but in fact, if it is properly followed, it will not only improve the quality of the coffee served to our customers, but it will eventually save us unnecessary expenses, since this greatly reduces the serious damage that an espresso machine may have, the repair of which is quite expensive.
A successful coffee shop is one that has satisfied customers - even in the digital age, the best advertising for a restaurant business is the good words of our happy customers. Quality coffee, produced by a clean and functional espresso machine, is the necessary step to win those positive impressions.
