Short answer: pods suit under 20 drinks a day, bean to cup suits 20 to 150 drinks a day with no trained staff, and a traditional espresso machine only makes sense when someone is behind it and drink quality is part of what you sell.
Short answer: pods suit under roughly 20 drinks a day, bean to cup suits roughly 20 to 150 drinks a day where nobody is trained to make coffee, and a traditional two group espresso machine only makes sense when a person is operating it and the quality of the drink is part of what you are selling.
Bean to cup wins on cost and consistency in an office. It grinds fresh per drink, needs no barista, and drops your cost per cup to bean level. The trade off is daily milk system cleaning and a service visit once or twice a year.
Pods win on simplicity. No grinder, no milk lines, almost nothing to clean, and no training. You pay for that in cost per cup and in packaging waste. For a small team, a waiting area or a meeting room, that trade is often the right one.
Traditional espresso wins on ceiling. A skilled operator on a good machine will beat both, every time, and it is the only sensible choice for a cafe, a hotel bar or a hospitality site. It is the wrong choice for a fifteen person office with nobody trained.
Whole bean through a bean to cup or traditional machine, by a wide margin per cup. Pods are the most expensive per drink but the cheapest to set up.
It is more consistent and less exciting. A well maintained bean to cup on fresh beans beats a badly dialled espresso machine, but a good barista beats both.
Yes. We can supply whole bean, ground and pods under your own label, so the same brand runs across every format you use.
Bean to cup machines use either a fridge and milk line or powdered milk. Fresh milk drinks better and needs daily cleaning; powdered is lower effort and noticeably weaker.
Yes, and we roast to the format. An espresso blend for a bean to cup is not dialled identically to one for a two group machine.
Home | Contact | Phone: 0333 344 1242 | Email: sales@blendly.co.uk