'new' azkoyen bravo compact two group!

Well... it was inevitable really - it had to happen - Foxy is just too darned busy especially on the weekends to run with a single machine!

So given the space limitations I've installed a second, compact two group, to manage the flow and to help with takeaway coffees etc, on the weekends, but also for busy service times during the week - it means that floor staff can prep their own teas / chai etc - which is one less thing for the barista to have to concentrate on, leaving the guy (or girl!) behind the machine to focus on what they do best!

Also, given the way that we craft our coffees (i.e. one at a time or 3 max pouring at once from a double ristretto base) - having the additional two groups should enable us to get the coffees out quicker when the pressure is on! In theory as well a second barista could be working this machine which will be a god send on Saturday and Sunday mornings around 10.30am - when the place fills to capacity in around half an hour!

The machine itself is probably around four years old, as it has the new volumetric touchpads and wiring and seams in reasonable condition - save for the fact that it has been garaged for awhile so the water in the tank was in need of a good purge - we've drained the tank around a dz times until the steam from the steam wand smells 'sweet'

If necessary we will descale the boiler but I'm hoping it doesn't have to come to that as that means taking the machine off site...

I've certainly used higher-speck'd machines before but the thing I love about the Azkoyen is that they are solidly built and made to last!

I really enjoyed pulling shots on my old Expobar G10 multiple boiler machine - and I loved the automated pre-infusion on the G10 but the machine itself did not seem well equipped to sustain the punishment of the 800 or more coffees that we were pulling per day at my old joint! (Although admittedly the workload was split between several machines)

Still, Joshua Bailey, my roaster and machine tech extraordinare, is a whizz at getting the most out of coffee equipment, and I'm hoping that by the time we whack some oversized Synesso baskets on the Azkoyen, combined with tweaking the boiler capacity - we should end up with pretty decent coffee from this machine!

Watch this space for further updates!