RDC8

Hi @stevebee Thanks for your offer. I have sent you a PM

Hi All I was wondering if anyone has coffee pouches (with valves) that I could possibly buy off you. I dont carry a large supply myself and was due to order some real soon, but with lockdown I cant seem to get any from my usual supplier. At the same time online orders are rolling in ... Any help would be appreciated. Not looking for huge quantities, probably 50 bags would be sufficient at the moment. Oh - and as for size ... 250gm. Thansk in advance

Now this is interesting. Can you provide asjny more information on the degradation of baskets over time. Is this related to age alone? or to the number of shots pulled? or to how many times the baskets has been heated/cooled? Does is depend on the manufacturer? or the size of the basket? Perhaps you could point out thhe relevant tests, papers, blogs, videos etc where this problem is discussed in more detail. Always happy to learn! Thanks

i'm intrigued by the relationship between the packed date and the expirey date; its either three days, or three years (in which case they are a decade out of date!)depending on whether the date is fromatted left-to-right (most european languages) or right-to--left (arabic language). Does the packaging show these dates using arabic numbers?

Paid an arm and a leg for some Hawaiian Kona a few years back (not in the UK). Roasted by someone else. Underwhelmed by it. It was ok - but I didnt see what justified the price.

Where abouts are you located? Do you live near shopreditch as well? There might be a coffee roaster close to you that you could drop by and see what they do with their empties.

the rigour of the inspection will probably also depend on the experience of the inspectors of your local council. I received my hygeine certification to roast from my garage around two years ago. The inspector seemed to have gotten his info about coffee roasting from the internet and I think he knew less than me about the appropriate food safety issues. There seemed to be a few areas of focus: physical condition of the premises (eg ease of cleaning surfaces, structural soundness), documented systems and process, storage of green beans and end product, and pest control. Most of it is common sense (eg having a fire extinguisher close to hand AND a documented process on what to do in case fire breaks out). My inspector was quite helpful during the visit and made some recommendations which were relatively quick and easy to implement (eg placing my plastic buckets of green beans onto a pallet to keep them off the floor). Good luck with the venture and keep us posted. Keep asking questions - it's the only way to learn!

Do you have a clear picture about your target market? From your initial post it looks like you are wnating to operate in the B2B market. What do you know about the cafes you want to target? have you had a coffe from them before? do you know who supplies them? Do you know how busy they are? Do their staff care about coffee? Maybe visit each one incognito, order your favourite coffee style, and just sit and watch for a while. If you want B2B then why not branch out beyond cafes? Local restaurants, small pubs, social clubs, gyms, railway station kiosks, hotels/conference centres.... No need to post your answers! Just pointing out that it wil help if you have a clear idea about how you want to position yourself in the market and who you see as your potential customers. Hope this helps

upvote to this - I find that the strength of this bond is directly proportional to amount of haste in which cup separation is required!

Hey Mate - this sounds really exciting! Super pleased for you. Hope it helps build your business. Just a few extra thoughts based on my experience with doing somehthing similar Power supply you need to know how close you will be to mains outlet so that you have a cable of sufficient length. Any cables running on the floor will need to comply with whatever health and safety standards are applicable. use an RCD to isolate your power line from the rest of the supply Make sure their cuircuit can cope with your power load. Your urn plus coffee machine will pull a truck load of wattage in the initial heating up phase. Waste waste bin for disposable cups, stirrers etc something to empty your knock box into, it could fill up rather quickly! Other barista supplies chocolate powder/shaker for cappucino topping spoons/stirrers shot glass for your espresso extraction if your cups are too tall to fit under the portafilter cloths for cleaning steam wand, work surface, other spills (dont underestimate how much mess you could potentially make! milk temp thermometer - I found my hand got very sore very quickly using it as a temp guage! keep cup sleeves close at hand, if you get busy there wont be time to faff around with opening the sleeves and separating the cups supply of cold water non-diary alternative sugar/sweetner (not everyone appreciates the good stuff) make an estimate of how many beans (kg) you think you might - then add 50%! Better to have too many than to run out! Other random thoughts check your current business insurance covers you for this type of event business cards, flyers, general promotional material familiarise yourself with any health and safety requirements eg do you need a food handling certificate? vehicle access - how far do you need to cart all your gear (maybe get a small trolley/dolley) An extra pair of hands might be useful. if I think of anything else I will let you know! Following your cart project with interest as I really need to do something similar!

Looks great. Nice and compact with everything close to hand! Not sure if you have a knock box already (couldnt see one in t he pic) - if not you micht want to mke that next on your list of purchases I would also suggest that you might want to keep fewer beans in the hopper as they will be getting stale. Better to keep them in the bage with the clip - there are probably other storage solutions you might want to consider in order to keep the beans fresh. Best wishes for your coffee journey!

Hi there, yes to your first question; these beans will need time to "rest" - 5 days minimum would be my recommendation. Probably no need to put them into the freezer at this point. once the bag is opened they should be stored so that the exposure to air is minimised as much as possible. Freezing them once opened is one possibility; but there others (such as investing in airscape containers). I personally do not freeze my beans but I am sure there wil be others who would be happy to provide advice on how best to feeze for optimal quality.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I have an impulse sealer which is perfect when sealing plastic bags; but it struggles somewhat with the mylar/foil type bags.

Hi All I'm looking around for a crimp-style heat sealer for coffee bags. Wondered if anyone had a spare they were wanting to offload. Thanks in advance

Just to add that some beans are more "chaffy" than others - so keep an eye on how quickly it builds up. If you change the origin and/or processing method you may need to change your cleaning routines. I assume the photo was of the chaff under the cooling tray? I vacuumed mine out this week for the first time in about 6 months - surprisingly little buil-up. But the chaff drawer under the cyclone is emptied at the end of each roasting session, sometimes even during the session if I have a large quota to fill!