It is usual for a coffee shop to have an espresso machine. An espresso is a coffee drink that is the base for many other drinks like cappuccino, latte, and macchiato.
An espresso machine produces an espresso drink by passing hot water under pressure through a metal filter during 20 to 30 seconds. Because the time for the brewing is so short you need a very finely ground coffee. This is where the grinder comes in.
For an espresso machine, you need a grinder that can produce very finely ground coffee. Also, the grinder must be able to withstand constant grinding all day long. Finally, you need to be dispensing the same amount of coffee so that you can have a standardized espresso coffee drink.
For our coffee shop, we bought a Cunill coffee grinder. It is a Spanish brand with a good reputation and affordable prices.
The hopper can hold 1.5 kg of coffee beans. It is made of ABS plastic and therefore is very resistant. The motor has a power of 500 watts, which is a little bit bigger than average.
The dispenser capacity is 600 grams of ground coffee. So this means that the barista can grind 600 grams of coffee if he or she believes there may be a busy rush of customers asking for coffee.
It has a sensor to automatically grind coffee.
Also, something that is very important for a coffee shop, is to have a compartment that allows the machine to dispense each time you pull the lever the same amount of coffee. For our coffee shop, this amount is 16 grams which is what we use for each shot of espresso. You can adjust this manually by moving up or down the dispenser adjustment.
There are pricier versions of the grinder that dispense the right amount of coffee every time with just the push of a button. This is done electronically which makes it quicker and easier to use, and also allows less waste of coffee because you do not have to take away excess coffee.
This is something that we would consider when upgrading our coffee grinder in the future.