Experiencing caffe culture part A. Our Brands
30 June 2010
At Caffe culture I was lucky enough to meet with our many brands, and experience the latest they have to offer, as a little sneak preview of what we will be offering to our customers in the near future. I would like to thank everyone I met for their kind hospitality and interesting thoughts, ideas and insight on the international coffee market.
The first brand I went to visit was WMF. WMF are the leader in super automatic coffee technology and caffe culture was a big event for them with the release of their new WMF2000s series. When I arrived I was greeted by Andrea Hornischer, WMF UK’s marketing manager, who showed me the different 2000s models on display. After a refreshing latte, she went onto explain the new marketing campaign behind the 2000s. In a nutshell, the campaign slogan stated “WMF 2000s …like a barista”. This is an interesting point, as I will go into more depth in another article later, but with the new milk foam wand on the 2000s it can be utlised in any café, where the user can have a consistently great espresso extraction by the automatic machine and then create and pour their own milk using the steam arm. A great little feature for cafes when they want top-level barista quality products, but don’t necessarily have the resources and expenditure for staff training to this level.
The next stand I visited was the Mahlkonig stand, where I was introduced to the ProM coffee grinder. This new grinder, which won a coveted Red Dot Award this year, is the bridging model between the Vario home grinder and the K30ES professional grind-on-demand grinding system. I was explained that this grinder was needed for smaller businesses that might not have the volume required for the K30 but wanted the same level of quality. The grinder was developed by product designer Carsten Gollnick, who also created the K30ES (another red dot award recipient). The team at Mahlkonig were great and very insightful into the technologies and the need for grind on demand within the barista market.
The third stand I visited was the Dalla Corte UK stand, where I was greeted by the beautiful piece of engineering and design that is the DC PRO series. The official machines used in the SCAE World Latte Art championships they boast the most energy efficiency on the espresso market, while also maintaining the greatest temperature stability, as well as a myriad of features. This year was a big one for Dalla Corte and their presence at Caffe Culture was great.
When I visited the BUNN stand I was re-introduced to the BUNN Trifecta. The Trifecta is BUNN's newest contribution to the coffee market. It is an Automated single cup coffee brewer, and which consists of pre-infusion, turbulence, and press out in its brewing stages. It provides coffee shops with an easier and more effective way to tweak and adjust the brewing of different blends of coffee. It was a real treat to taste several different blends of coffee and see the difference between each blend through this innovative brewing process.
Finally, I visited the Bravillor Bonamat stand and was shown the new additions to the bolero series. The bolero series are innovative vending machines that bring consumer ease of use and reliability for vendors to a good cup of coffee. The team at Bravillor were very friendly and I think we discussed the world cup football just as much as coffee machines.
While this is a tiny glimpse at the multitude of stands and amazing things on display, it was a very positive experience to meet with and see what ABC’s exclusive brands are dong on the international coffee playing field.
Signing off with a coffee in hand. Ciao
Boris
