Coffee for the bar that wants to serve more than beer

New Gaggia Concetto automatic espresso machine serves perfect coffee for pubs and bars, at the touch of a button

With the rising popularity of coffee and specialist coffee outlets, pubs and bars are finding that they need to compete in the coffee stakes in order to keep business. By offering quality coffee they can appeal to customers who are looking for an alternative to an alcoholic drink.

Gaggia’s new Concetto machine is ideal for pubs and bars where good coffee is required but staff are under great pressure to pull pints, mix cocktails and take food orders as well as making hot drinks. Marketed in the UK by Watermark, and available through dealers nationwide, the Concetto is an automatic bean-to-cup machine that is extremely simple to use and has the ability to make 150 cups per day.

The Concetto has a built-in coffee grinder that serves real freshly ground coffee at the push of a button. It also has a separate steam wand if bar staff want to froth up milk and add fancy finishes. For further flexibility the Concetto is able to use ground coffee as well as coffee beans.

A new electronic dosing system makes it possible for the Concetto to memorise preferred espresso settings while the digital LCD control panel enables all settings to be adjusted as the coffee is being made.

To boost taste a pre-infusion option allows for an even and full extraction of flavour from the coffee. Real coffee aficionados will also appreciate the active cup warming option that pre-heats the cups via an electrical element.

An adjustable-height coffee dispensing head allows choice of cup size, depending on the type of coffee to be served.

The Concetto is also fitted with a power management system which reduces power consumption during off-peak periods.

To keep the machine in tip top condition and every cup of coffee tasting good, regular cleaning is recommended.  For simplicity there is a removable brewing unit and Gaggia has produced a short video (youtube.com/watch?v=KgKTkcd_whk) to show how easy and quick the cleaning process is to carry out.

The overall size of the Concetto is 68cm (h) x 48cm (w) x 55cm (d) with a weight of 38kg. The water boiler has a capacity of 1.7litre and the coffee boiler of 0.5litre.