Many years ago, the founder and president of
Heritage Coffee, Stuart Daw, penned a concise set of principles that systematically outlined
what it takes to make a great cup of coffee. The “Continuum to Contentment”™ became
the coffee man’s guide to excellence in coffee and as a diagnostic tool for when coffee
tasted less than perfect (this guide is available on the Heritage website at (click here for Continuum to Contentment).
Initially, The Continuum was subtitled “The Nine Rules to a Hassle Free Coffee Break” as
there were, not surprisingly, 9 rules.
In conversation with Stu one day, I argued that
there seemed something asymmetrical with 9 rules and suggested 10 would be more appropriate.
Pressing my case, I noted that it had been some time since Canada was on the metric system
(base 10) and that being in a predominantly Judeo-Christian environment, 10 coffee
commandments seemed more appropriate. Amused, he asked me what I had in mind when it came to
expanding the Continuum. “Stu, I’ve had great coffee brewed through really filthy
equipment, with the expected results of a disappointing product. Now the people doing the
brewing should have known better, but they still commit this sin to coffeedom.” The
suggested addition to the Continuum was “The cleaner the machine the better the brew, the
dirtier the machine, the poorer the brew.” Thus was born the 10th Rule. The
acid test for a rule to stick was that it had to transcend all methods of coffee
preparation, roasting or brewing. This rule fit the bill, especially when it comes to
vending coffee.
Coffee has always been one of those special cases
for the vending industry. For the most part, vending operators put an item into a machine
and what goes in comes right out in the same shape and form… but not coffee. Coffee is
manufactured in the equipment and, as any good operator will tell you, coffee vending
machines can get quite messy if not properly maintained. When this happens, the quality in
the cup suffers greatly, making all the hard work to get the other factors right all for
naught.
Good operators put into practice a routine, one
which incorporates a thorough cleaning of the machine. This includes, but is not limited to,
cleaning the brew chamber, the mixing bowls, drip trays, trash cans, and spillage that may
have occurred when filling the machine. All of this is no doubt time-consuming, but it pays
big dividends when it comes to product quality and, by extension, sales. The reason why
these procedures do not always get the attention they deserve is that time gets tight when
drivers run behind. The temptation to cut corners becomes irresistible when trying to
service all equipment on the route after being stuck in traffic for half the morning.
So what would it mean to a vending operator to be
able to reduce by half the amount of time his or her drivers spend at a coffee machine?
Imagine if it were possible to automatically have the machine cleaned at the most critical
points without operator or driver intervention. Since this is not yet an option on any
coffee vending machine, drivers have to be vigilant in making sure all aspects of the
machine sparkle. But why not have an automatic option that cleans coffee vending machines?
The technology currently exists where a dedicated hopper could carry non-toxic detergent
with a whipper motor and tubes to channel a cleaning solution to all mixing bowls and the
brewer. The mixing bowls, in turn, would activate to clean out residue and the brewer could
hold a pause extra long to clean out the coffee oils accumulating in the chamber. A
two-stage rinse would then follow the same course as the cleaning solution to remove any “soapy”
flavours that could be left over.
A further aspect to the auto-cleaning vending
machine would be to determine how often the cycle would engage, which could be based on the
number of beverages being vended. Operators would also want to protect against the machine
invoking the cleaning cycle at the most inopportune time, like break-time at a busy factory.
The e-prom could be set to have the cleaning cycle engage when the number of vends has been
attained and when a certain pre-set time of day for cleaning occurs.
In the sixties, National Vendors came out with a
system called Brew San that had a semi-automatic cleaning procedure on HDM 610, 611 and 627
Models. The operator or route driver would actuate the system onsite, which would send a
liquid detergent (pre-mixed by the operator) through the brewer and then rinse the brewer
several times with fresh hot water. The system was complicated and relatively expensive and,
therefore, was not widely adopted by the industry. What was surprising about the Brew San
equipped machines was that they were certified as being capable of achieving the “Gold Cup
Standard” by the then Coffee Brewing Institute. In essence, the idea of “brew a better
cup and the world will beat a path to your machine” has been around for a long time. That
the Brew San “nova-ed” in the mid-seventies is more a statement of the system being
ahead of its time than the operators’ penchant for dirty machines.
Getting back to the question two paragraphs ago,
what would operators do with such a vending machine? For starters, they would have more time
to visit more machines on any given coffee route. Whereas the total number of coffee vending
machines that would be serviced in a day was X, this kind of technology could increase that
number to 1.5X. Greater efficiency means more productivity, which translates to reduced
fixed costs. The cost savings would, over time, pay for the added capital cost in vendors
equipped with the “Automatic Clean Out” option. Even more importantly, by having a
cleaner machine, operators would see an increase in sales from the machines. Cleanliness is
not only close to godliness; it’s close to greater profitability.
Until such time that this becomes a reality,
operators will have to heed the 10th Rule of Coffee with elbow grease… “Thou
shalt keep thy equipment clean.”
Copyright 2003 Brian Martell
