Coffee pods and machine set up in Food Service environment

Coffee pods as opposed to capsules are playing an increasing part in low volume outlets, they're clean, they ensure a consistent cup of coffee and require very little training to use.

What though has not been very much analysed as far as I can see is the change required to the set-up of the traditional two group espresso machine. I refer to the pump pressure, the temperature setting, the group head and the type of inserts needed in the group handles to maximize coffee extraction.

Some manufacturers are now providing special group heads for pods, two that have come to my attention are Nuova Simonelli and Fracino, both systems work well. However it isn't just a case of simply changing the group head and all your troubles are over. It's vital that the "basket" in the group head is the correct depth to take the pod, either a single or double. Too shallow and the water struggles to get through the pod, too deep and the water rushed past the pod without picking up any flavour.

On top of this if you don't change the group head to a pod version, this in turn will impact on the type of basket you can use in the group handle.

Now assuming that you've sorted out the above two points, it's vital that the pump pressure and machine water temperature are correctly calibrated. My experience is that the pump pressure can be reduced to around 8 bar, or at least a bar lower than for conventional loose group coffee. Don't ask me why, but too high a bar pressure will result in the water passing through the pod too quickly.

Finally, I believe average pressure in the water boiler needs to be set a little higher for pods. The fact that the water has to get through the paper wrapper means that there is a definite loss of water temperature when the water eventually hits the coffee. The problem I believe here is that paper is not a very good conductor of heat.

All of the above do need to be tweaked in varying degrees to optimise the quality of the drink that ends up in the cup and are vital to ensure that the consistency you are looking to achieve through the use of pods isn't wasted.