Coffee is an enormous market -second only to oil - so which companies produce the product? The list is endless so perhaps a better question is who to buy my coffee from? Verde coffee price themselves on fresh coffee because we have a very short supply line- From green bean to customer in less than a week. Some larger companies may get the coffee beans to their distributors several months after that.

Of course coffee has a reasonable shelf life- it is drinkable up to a year after packing but the flavour does deteriorate considerably. Alternative brands to look for are Lavazza, one of the biggest brands in Italy, Seagofredo -again italian and Illy.

Illy is the master of spin and marketing - how else can you explain people paying up to three times the normal price for Brazilian coffee. I admire the company enormously -they love their beans but you can buy the same or better quality for a lot less!

Lavazza is excellent and reasonably priced whereas if you look at the Seagafredo beans they are small, broken and mainly robusta. They make a reasonable espresso but wouldn’t be my choice.

Who would you recommend?

Do you have a favourite I havn’t mentioned?

Please let us know.

Free promotion material is available for the monin syrups to help you market a growing segment of the coffee trade. This consists of pourer, stands and signs -just let us know.

These excellent coffee syrups will help you increase sales and profit.

Have you used them? Let me know your experience.

Fracino heavenly -is it heaven or hell?

So considering an espresso machine for the home and your search reveals the Fracino!

Its a hell of a price for what is a machine for the home -I see that Pennine have a special on-line price of £675 ~ in my opinion far too much for such a machine. I have no personal experience with this particular model but on previous forays into Fracino machines I know they are made down to a price - sometimes to “cheap and nasty”.

There seem to be a few comments on blogs that certain features - the steam for example - have a “mind of their own”. I think if I had paid the above price I would have made somewhat stronger and more of a blunt comment.

Alternatives to the above are many - for example the Ascaso Uno espresso machine which is sold by Verde Coffee and many other for a slightly more reasonable price of around £350. Many of the Gaggia home machines are reasonably priced and for a domestic machine good value.

I would be interested if you have any experience of the machine - please do let me know? Heaven or Hell?

Alto Espresso Machine

The Alto is the latest espresso machine to get our strip and rebuild treatment -it has clearance under the group heads for large take away cups as well as, of course, cups of normal size.

As the above coffee machine is one of many how do you choose what to buy? Do you buy new or second hand? Forgetting the fact we sell both new and second hand whoever you consider buying off the following questions need to be answered -

• If I buy second hand how long is the warranty?
• Is it an on-site warranty?
• what functions must the machine carry out? -Tea, take away cups, [ tea - need large boiler, for a two group at least 12 litres. For take away cups additional clearance ]
• How good is the back up?
• What is the engineer response time?
• What stock of spare parts are held. If your main income earner in the cafe is down you don’t want to wait while someone tries to source parts overseas.
• How many cups of coffee etc do you plan to make a day? a traditional espresso machine 2 group will make about 300 cups per hour, a bean 2 cup 400 a day for major machine like a Franke. As a comparison a Jura X7 is designed for 250 cups a day.
• Will you have a busy period ie lunch? Forget a bean 2 cup!
• What sort of finance deal is offered.

The list is not exhaustive but is really the absolute minimum you need to know -don’t allow anyone to bamboozle you, You need clear honest answers to help you set up.

<!– ckey=”6DD4CC65″ –>

This is slightly out of the normal subject matter of coffee and espresso machines. We have recently discovered open source software.

Having been around more than 10 years I had not realised the implications -what does open source mean? It means that the source code is available to download [ if you are that way inclined ] but more importantly its FREE.

Seems amazing doesn’t it - I am sceptical but we are currently using several and I believe they are better than some of the expensive alternatives.

If you go to the Verde Coffee web site that is using Zen Cart [see www.zencart.com ]- a great bit of programming, worth a look.

If you have bought microsoft office - why? The better and FREE alternative is OPEN OFFICE [ see www.openoffice.org ]. In my opinion its a superior product, provides all the functionality of the Microsoft programs and is of course free. You can also receive Microsoft word documents and spread sheets into the program or even create letters and save or email them in word or excell format -I curse the day I got stung for 2 copies of Office before I discovered this gem. Also note this is supported by Sun systems and I.B.M.

I will add some further bits of software in the next few days.

I am immensely grateful for the the shot coffee ratings blog for pointing out that the venerable Swiss - renowned for making watches, being super good at engineering have developed a machine for tasting coffee.

Also well known for their bean 2 cup coffee machines this is another interesting development - still think a human possess the ability to discern tastes more effectively than a machine but who knows! To see more info go to http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080207_espresso.htm

Just was looking at a so called informative article on espresso and just noticed throughout the article that the author had a problem in spelling the name of the product he was writing about.

It doesn’t give you much faith then about the [mis-] information it contained - just a blatant google bait and advert for some obscure web site.

Just for the record the correct spelling is espresso.

I enclose a chain of some recent correspondence which I hope has saved Wes a lot of money! I get so frustrated when people are talked into buying a new machine or parts because of the ignorance or incompetence of a so called engineers.

A Coffee Machine should last 17+ years given proper maintenance and a bit of loving care -so if you have a machine and someone says you need to replace it - watch out - its likely *a -hes trying to con you or *b- doesn’t know what he’s doing, cant be bothered, and lets face it theres more profit in a sale!

Andrew,

I’ll be damned if it didn’t eventually work. You were right, the board is at least 90% functional.

It’s late and I need to do some more testing but it seems to be working as intended.

I owe you one,

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 2:27 AM
To: wesley@*********
Subject: FW: motherboard

Dear Wesley,

Direct from the manufacturer -
“In older machines, it is necessary to go into programming mode, and
then cancel the alarm. The only difference in this respect is that to
go into programming mode and cancel the alarm, you need to do in on the
right hand key pad, and not the left hand keypad.

As a reminder, once in programming on the older machines, you need to
cancel the alarm by pressing at the same time and holding a couple of
seconds the buttons for 1 short and 2 short coffees. Then come out of
programming by switching the machine off and on again.”

To get into programming - switch off machine, hold down continuous
button on left hand pad, keeping held down switch machine back on and
continue to hold down button for about 10 seconds - you should then see
a difference in the light on the machine then move to right hand panel
and do above. If you need any further help please do email -best of
luck!

Regards
Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: 04 February 2008 09:14
To: ‘wesley@***************
Subject: RE: motherboard

Wesley,

I think I can safely say this is NOTHING wrong with the board! The water
alarm has been triggered and that is why only the continuous works.This
is when the machine has not been able to fill up in the time
allotted- about 90seconds.

I will have to get the instructions as how to switch it off because it
is slightly different with new boards -you just have to switch off then
just switch on! And that turns off the water alarm.

Regards
Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley [mailto:wesley@****************]
Sent: 02 February 2008 03:07
To: ‘Andrew Porter’
Subject: RE: motherboard

Yeah, I hear you on the expense part.

I’ve tried to diagnose it and checked the fuses for continuity - they
seem to be OK. Over here, the Futurmat/Gaggia Espana machines have a
bad reputation for fragile electronics and I bought it used - condition
unknown.

My problem is that the autofill circuit does not work. This triggers
some sort of protective state that disables all of the other buttons on
the control panel except for continuous brew and cappacinatore clean.
I’ve jumped some wires around and all of the other solenoids work as
does the motor, I just can’t get the whole thing to come together.

I’ve contacted Quality Espresso a couple times and to their credit, they
have actually returned some emails. I didn’t get the sense that they
were super concerned about helping me though. There is zero support
here for Futurmat on any scale here in the USA, so I haven’t set myself
up for success.

The machine is built well and the quality of fabrication is great. It’s
just getting the electrics sorted that’s killing me. A diagram of the
motherboard would be really helpful but I’m not sure that they exist.

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 12:56 AM
To: wesley@furnacegroup.com
Subject: RE: motherboard

Hi,
Yes we import from Quality Espresso who are the manufacturers. You are
correct - it’s the most expensive item on an espresso machine -except
perhaps for the boiler! Are you sure the board has gone [normally they
are very reliable] I know this is obvious but have you checked the fuses
on the board? Regards Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley [mailto:wesley@*************]
Sent: 01 February 2008 06:44
To: ‘Andrew Porter’
Subject: RE: motherboard

Andrew,

Thanks for the effort. $477 is a chunk of change for this machine.

Are you a distributor for Futurmat in the UK??

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 5:25 AM
To: wesley@furnacegroup.com
Subject: RE: motherboard

Wes,

Noticed I had put the incorrect symbol for currency price - should have
been £ not $! Price is £224 or 320euros approx or $477 -sorry about the
error. In stock and can be shipped whereever! [ Cant locate any refurb
boards!]

Regards
Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley [mailto:wesley@***********]
Sent: 26 January 2008 19:47
To: ‘Andrew Porter’
Subject: RE: motherboard

Andrew,

I re-read your email and here’s some more detail:

http://www.home-barista.com/forums/reviving-futurmat-ariete-t5413.html

If you scroll down about half-way there is a photo of the mfg plate.

Thanks for the help,

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 4:04 AM
To: wesley@furnacegroup.com
Subject: RE: motherboard

Wes,
There were a variety of boards used on machines shipped to the USA.
Please take a picture of your machine and ratings plate and I can get
the exact board and price but we are talking ‘very very ‘roughly about
$250 for new, less for a refurbished. Regards Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley [mailto:wesley@**********]
Sent: 24 January 2008 16:28
To: ‘Andrew Porter’
Subject: RE: motherboard

Andrew,

I’m curious. What would a motherboard cost? I can take any currency
with shipping to Belgium or USA.

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 2:32 AM
To: wesley@furnacegroup.com
Subject: motherboard

Hi Wes,
No problem re the board!
If you want one I can email you the price.
REgARDS
Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley [mailto:wesley@*********]
Sent: 23 January 2008 18:16
To: ‘Andrew Porter’
Subject: RE: futurmat

Do you have a lot of experience dealing with these guys?? Repairing the
Futurmat/Quality Espresso machines?

I’m afraid that I need a motherboard, and 110v ones are super hard to
find.

WES

—–Original Message—–
From: Andrew Porter [mailto:andrew@verdecoffee.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 1:32 AM
To: wesley@furnacegroup.com
Subject: RE: futurmat

Dear Wesley,
Shipping to Belgium or USA is no prob - just that costs on low value
items make them stupidly expensive. If you need any help please email
me.I will send you the diagrams if you need them? Regards Andrew

—–Original Message—–
From: wesley@furnacegroup.com [mailto:wesley@*********]
Sent: 23 January 2008 06:24
To: ANDREW@VERDECOFFEE.COM
Subject: futurmat

Hello andrewporter123, The following is an email sent to you by
djmonkeyhater via your account on Home-Barista.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hey, This is Wesley (Djmonkeyhater) in the
USA with the Futurmat Ariete. I’d love to talk with you about parts for
it. I have a shipping address in Belgium if that would make
transactions easier. wesley@********* WES