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Just dont be to Liberal with your dosing or your machine will Labor too much!! If you are truly a Democrat with your service everyone will know you are an Independent. ;D ;D ;D ;D
OMG is right Sparky - you are a very brave man!!! But would have to be even braver to say "no" I fear.....
Whilst I enjoy making coffees for large groups of guests.... that would be totally OTT!!! :
Itll be a predominantly milk-based audience vote-day, I can assure you. So IMHO, Andys blend wont cut through the milky stuff.
Espresso Wow ... fantastically changing blend in nuances over a week post-roast as pure espresso, promising as a piccolo, but lost in the unfortunate large flat white crowd youll encounter polling day ...
As some hopeful pre-electoral assistance-pointers, Id proffer the following:
1) Whats powering the Pav, & grinder?;
2) Wheres your (hopefully refrigerated) milk stored?;
3) Could be the perfect showcase for your own blend mate ... blend, roast, grind your own & you might get a yeah baby factor?
Im pretty excited about using EspressoWow and I dont expect it will disappoint. As for my performance... well see, afterall its not my day job.
Using a home roast is not an option IMO. I dont mind being a ginea pig, but Im not happy to subject others to my misadventures unless Im personally happy with the product. Besides, Im looking at 4 kg of beans, which will take some roasting at home.
Milk may be stored in a bar fridge or an esky... Im estimating about 20l. The Pav is running on 15A at the moment. I dont think Ill be able to keep up with it, so that should be fine. I plan on uping the pstat a bit for this show.
My main concern is the water. Ill run a tank, but am still considering the size Ill need. Im thinking about 25l.
Ill probably run the grinder the way it was designed on auto fill, if it gets too busy, or Im going nuts with the orders.
The menu is also a consideration. Im looking at Cappuccino, flat white, latte, espresso, long black... Anything else and they can go to a real cafe. Anything with latte art will cost $8 for the added stress on the barista.
Im looking at around 200 drinks served... I may never want to make coffee again after this.
Hey Mark, feel free to pm me with any questions re your big day out - Ive done every event/function imaginable over the past 5 yrs in my mobile op, so can probably offer a few tips to minimise any grief on the day.
Seems like your estimates are reasonable - 20l milk should be sufficient for 200 cups (depending on what size youre offering? 8oz or 12oz or both???). What pstat have you got the Pav currently running at, & what are you envisaging for the day?
25l water sounds fine.
Menu wise ... what, no caramel infused affogatos?! Yeah, keep it simple - remember in takeaway cups a latte is just a flat white with a pretty swirl on top, and a cap is just a latte dusted with choc. One suggestion - offer hot chocs for the kiddies. Thought about pricing?
Another friendly tip - remember your gender & recognise that multi-tasking will be deeply challenging. Enlist someone as a sidekick to take the orders while you concentrate on creating a magical symbiosis between Espresso Wow & The Pav. At the risk of sounding presumptuous (because you may have this one covered), have a (large) notepad for your sidekick to vertically list the orders in abbreviated form (3 columns on A4 I use), WITH THE CORRELATING CUSTOMERS NAME NEXT TO THEIR ORDER (do you kinda get the feeling I am emphasising this as important ;D) Believe me mate, if youre flat out this will prevent confusion & ensure the customer gets what they ordered - I learnt this one very early in my op :-[. Cross each order off when theyre done.
Lastly, & importantly, relax & have fun - let the adrenalin do the rest ...
Where is it Mark - I might just fork out $8 to witness your whiz-bang latte art for myself (or ... mmm ... drive by with my op & poach all your customers BWAHAHAHAH!) ;D
The last outdoor event I did I grabbed a couple of drink fountain bottles from work.
Easy to cart, you can put a hole in the cap for the hose and that keeps the dust out (although I still ran an inline filter because it was there). I was surprised just how little water I used.
For milk, Eskys with plenty of ice, kept in the shade worked well.
A couple of large plastic containers made a good sink for the milk jugs, one container for the "wash" and one for a "clean rinse" and they were swapped/refilled during the day.
Take plenty of towels/clothes/rags? for keeping your work area clean and careful with that milk (unless yogurt is getting added to the menu)!
Dont forget tea (I used CS tea in a plunger) and hot chocolate... (we sold a mile of hot chocolate to kids). Both are easy to do and adds something for those weirdos that dont like coffee.
Originally posted by Andy Freeman link=1193613213/0#9 date=1193715335
(snap on the hot choc Tony, posted this then read yours)
Ha! Great minds ...
Yes, plenty of sponges - & on that water spillage point, make sure The Pav is as level as possible - theres only one drainage point under the drip-tray & thats in the middle. If you are on a slight angle, run some water through the groups before youre in action, look under the grill, see where its accumulating & stick a few sponges under the grill on that side to soak it up.
Another thing thats a BIG seller is cookies (especially to the kiddies, because I place a tempting variety of jars purposefully at kiddy eye-level so they can bug their frazzled parents into buying them one, or several ... HEHEHE [smiley=evil.gif]). pm me if youd like to know my supplier Mark ...
oh, almost forgot - have a couple of stubbies in that iced-up esky to reward yourself on surviving the day (ahh, AFTER the events finished mate, not before!) [smiley=beer.gif]
Im also doing a poling both as a fund raiser for a local catholic primary school.
Im told they expect to get between 5 to 10 thousand people through on the day, so at least it shouldnt be too busy!
Ill also be loading up on the bulk spring water to fire up the machine, and Ive invested in a Super Jolly grinder after the last funder raiser, as my poor old Rocky didnt really cut it!
Mark, forget the post-it notes - theyll fly if its a windy day (another hard lesson I learned!)
Jot the orders down on a large pad, with a bulldog clip to stop pages flinging about.
Forget my cookies idea - rather see profit for food go to a P&C.
My NS Mac runs at 9 bar, & has no probs whatsoever during ultra-busy events - Id keep it at that, or else Ol Pav will be running a tad too hot I reckon. Personally I reckon 10 bars too high.
Good luck mate - hope you wow the crowd with the WOW!
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