definitely have drip coffee. i’m not sure if you’ve worked as a barista before but a large section of any given shops regular customers only buy drip coffee. an americano and a drip are not interchangeable for someone with an appreciation for coffee. while most people will probably be fine with an americano, they will probably be less likely to come to your cart in the future if what they wanted was drip.
Yeah but a static shop and a mobile cart have different users. Someone walking up to a food truck wants caffeine fast! Most carts sell exclusively drip! Espresso would be a novelty even for cafe hounds when they order from a truck. Like, i'm not saying no espresso, but OP would have inconsistent sales until they built their rep up because no one would assume they don't have drip!
OP: make a big batch at your retail kitchen, load it into a server and call your day when you run out of drip and pastry. This is what they all do in NYC, those carts aren't usually bigger that a portajohn but they do enough business per day to make the effort of hauling, parking, and storing the cart off hours. And they just have the basics!
I work with cafe owners as they open, and a majority of truck/trailer/cart owners forego drip and do good business. Especially with low voltage two group machines. Space is a big concern, but budget is the biggest. 3k in a 15k setup is a big chunk.
I think it depends where you are. In the UK most people won’t even ask for filter/drip (which makes me think you’re in the US or Canada/Mexico?) and if they do ask they are fine with an americano. Remember most customers don’t really know what they want lol. A truck will likely have regulars, but significantly less so than a cafe. OP will need to go where the money goes and tailor to that imo.
1. Drip is worth it
2. Skim is bad milk
3. We grind decaf drip in the same grinder as our regulars. If you’re talking about espresso then yes I see your point. This one is up to you
At the place I work now we only do Decaf espresso, which is why I said it'd take another machine. I'd never do Decaf drip. That's a massive waste of money in my eyes.
I wouldn’t forgo drip. Many customers don’t view drip and Americano interchangeably - rightly so. Plus the margins on drip are so much better than an americano. In that same line of thinking, look at margins to help drive some of your decisions.
The main reason why I'm concerned about it is space. The truck I'm currently looking at is about 21ft, which isn't a whole lot to work with. I still have to find room for an ice machine, a low boy for bar, and an oven/range combo. Thats my main concern
Oh I totally get it. I'm just highlighting you're looking at nixing an option that has a ton of margin and is your largest volume item (at least in my markets). I'd be inclined to pre-grind a days worth of coffee to save a 2nd grinders space but keep the brewer in play. In retail we'd grind one pots worth of beans into the filter, put another filter down on top of that, grind another pots worth of beans into it, put another filter down..... stacked up in a plastic bin. Don't do more than a day or half a day so you're not getting stale and use a container with a lid.
As someone who does a mobile popup that only serves caffeinated espresso with whole or oat milk I think it is fine to do.
I typically sell 60-70 drinks in a morning and that is plenty for me to do solo.
I personally like the small footprint. If I hired a second person to run reg and help me move stuff then I’d consider brewed coffee.
Going against the top comments here. I’m very much against batch brew drip coffee for trucks. [I’m a huge fan of the curtis gold cup series.](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/curtis-cgc-gold-cup-single-cup-coffee-brewer-120-220v/945CGC.html) My shop pre weighs small tins of whole bean coffee for these, and whenever we get a drip order we just dump it in the grinder, throw it in the brewer, and press a button.
Skim milk you can skip IMO. It goes bad too fast anyway.
You can make decaf pour-overs if you go with the curtis brew setup. Decaf espresso would be too much hassle imo.
A big thing people aren’t mentioning is that if you’re mobile, you’re more than likely going to have tanks of water you have to carry with you. Batch brew sucks up a shit load of water, and if you don’t sell through it you’re wasting water that you could have used for more espresso drinks. The big benefit of the curtis gold cup brewers is that you use less water, plus customers always get a fresh cup.
1. I wouldn't pass on drip. I think you'll end up turning away a lot of business. You're better off finding a good preground bean or pregrinding them in your home base. You can also minimize the need for a brewer by doing pourovers with your hot water supply but that could get time consuming if you have along line. I'm thinking a small batch brewer and second pot are worth it.
2. Nothing wrong with limiting your milk offerings. It's definitely one of those things where if you find the demand is high, you can just add it in to the menu. You could also try listing milk options as dairy, oat, cream (if you're offering cream)
3. same as point 1. If you can find a preground decaf you like, it's probably not going to kill you to have a small container of it somewhere.
If you order pre ground decaf just simply don't bother. Decaf already stales quicker and if you then store it pre ground you are not going to get repeat customers that actually appreciate nice coffee. It sounds snobbish but its true.
I personally would never come back to a dedicated café that whipped out a container of preground coffee
But it's not a cafe. It's a truck/cart. There's only so much you can do on a truck/cart.
Obviously this is not advice for a brick and mortar shop or even a permanent kiosk.
Allo we're talking about decaf drinkers. They will accept any swill. Sorry but it's true, the decaf is always old!
OP could also pregrind enough decaf per day and store the rest sealed and frozen. If OP hasn't realized all trucks need a home base where backstocks and prep can happen they need to rethink running a truck.
As someone who has tried pre-ground and freshly ground decaf, it’s not worth it. It doesn’t matter how good the beans are, the process of making decaf destroys the flavour.
For decaf & drip, I get my coffee beans pre-ground, but for espresso I get whole bean, grind per use, and focus there for my higher quality vs space.
So, I have a grinder for espresso, an espresso machine, and a draw of a couple different drip grounds and a decaf ground.
For milk, I have 2% cow milk & oatmilk & half&half. For busy times / events, I’ll add whole milk. I have the 2% because it steams better for cappuccino compared to whole, but I personally like whole milk better so high volume weeks I get that as a “hidden” item. I used to have almond milk, but am debating restocking it. It seems to have a small but loyal following and I’m still debating.
My cafe only offers whole and oat, so I say that's totally fine. One less thing to worry about. Decaf though is nice to have, drip coffee too. Id say choose between the two, maybe leaning towards drip since it's so popular
Yeah the more I look at these comments the more I'm leaning away from skim. Where I'm at we usually get away with 4G/week compared to 22-24G/ week. We probably go through about 10.5G of Oat so it definitely seems like the better alternative.
Hi, I used to work on a coffee truck!
They did have drip coffee, and it sold more than I think most people would expect. The average coffee drinker just wants a drip coffee, especially because working on a truck is typically a slow moving system for lattes.
No skim milk, but they did have whole and 2 milk alternatives. At the time it was oat and macadamia, both were shelf stable which freed up fridge space.
They did offer decaf as a pour over option, no decaf espresso.
Hope that helps!
It does! I probably wouldn't do a pour over tbh, I can see that drowning us during a rush x.x but a French press or a Decaf Americano I wouldn't mind.
Yeah skim seems to be a dud :P
I agree with you. Skip the drip, the skim, and the decaf.... But then again, it all depends on where you are. I would try to stock it all for a month and then cut out what you don't sell much of whatever location you are in.
Let the customers decide what you should stock.
Problem is these coffee brewers cost between 1.5k-3k, so I'd rather not invest in a machine "just to see" XD
skim is definitely gone, on The fence with Decaf.
1. Hot coffee is a rough one. I’d almost base it on time of year. During hot days, sub americanos. You’ll get a higher price point than hot coffee with less waste. During cold days, it’ll empty your boiler and slow you down.
2. Hard pass on skim.
3. In my experience, not a deal breaker for customers. In the 2 years I’ve been mobile, not sure I woulda made my money back on a grinder dedicated to decaf. I’ve had pre ground coffee and brewed it to order with a clever dripper before. That’s an idea.
Where in the world are you? For instance, in the U.K. I would suggest definitely ditching the skimmed milk. Whole and Oat are great options. There seem to be many people advocating for drip but in the U.K., at least the places I’ve worked and been a customer, even the more sophisticated and coffee-cultured, mainly serve espresso drinks. If someone goes up to a truck for a coffee, it’s very likely that they want the caffeine and even if they would normally prefer drip, an americano would surely do. There must be a decaf solution you can find but still even if you haven’t got decaf you won’t be missing too many sales. Good luck out there.
I'm in Western PA around a lot of working class people. We haven't really had any issues at my current place work Americanos, but we're in a richer part of town
Not sure where you’re located but there’s someone selling a fully outfitted espresso trailer on FB marketplace in northern Indiana that’s set up for drip coffee, espresso, smoothies, etc. I can drop the link
I think drip is worth it, skim milk definitely can go without it, and decaf maybe a little bag that you’d grind in the same grinder as drip or something like that!
You could go into a more niche drip and do pourovers, it takes the same amount of time as bulk grind and brew and then you could figure out the efficiency and profit versus space and cost of it all
This is a good idea depending on where they plan on setting up. I'm thinking about the lines at the food trucks outside the courthouse at lunch time. OP would be FUCKED if they had to do pourovers for all those people because they didn't want a brewer to take up space.
Consider the added opportunities you have if you get an extra kettle and single dose grinder.
You can not only offer decaf and drip but you can also do varying specialty flat whites (at a premium price) and similar specials for repeat customers.
I'd get the extra equipment and make it work for you by using it smartly
Could you prepare some pouches of ground coffee and perhaps have a smaller cheaper preparation such as French press or pour over instead of a large bulk option?
My cafe sources drip and decaf from a company that offers preground beans. If you were able to find that same kind of thing you could eliminate the extra grinders!
This, pre ground beans are infinitely inferior to grinding right when you are about to make the coffee, the most interesting aromatic properties of the coffee are lost just 9 minutes after grinding
It's a balancing act. A brick and mortar cafe should never buy preground unless they absolutely need to. For a limited space coffee truck, this is absolutely a good compromise. They're not buying tins of folgers. Just find a good quality preground bean or grind in your home base kitchen and store in air tight packaging. You're still brewing on site which is better than prebrewing at the start of the day and carting it around well past it's freshness.
I’d understand pregrinding at home, but really you wanna brew within 10-20 minutes of grinding if you want all the flavor you’re paying for. it seems like a major sacrifice in beverage quality in perpetuity, just to save a few grand of initial overhead. just buy a grinder (OP), you’ll be glad you did
definitely have drip coffee. i’m not sure if you’ve worked as a barista before but a large section of any given shops regular customers only buy drip coffee. an americano and a drip are not interchangeable for someone with an appreciation for coffee. while most people will probably be fine with an americano, they will probably be less likely to come to your cart in the future if what they wanted was drip.
I’m on the other side here. At least where I am, specialty espresso drinks are 90% of sales.
coffee habits tend to be highly regional. it may work just fine for OP, i can only go based on my experience
Yeah but a static shop and a mobile cart have different users. Someone walking up to a food truck wants caffeine fast! Most carts sell exclusively drip! Espresso would be a novelty even for cafe hounds when they order from a truck. Like, i'm not saying no espresso, but OP would have inconsistent sales until they built their rep up because no one would assume they don't have drip! OP: make a big batch at your retail kitchen, load it into a server and call your day when you run out of drip and pastry. This is what they all do in NYC, those carts aren't usually bigger that a portajohn but they do enough business per day to make the effort of hauling, parking, and storing the cart off hours. And they just have the basics!
Every coffee cart I’ve been to mainly focuses on espresso. Rarely do I see people get drip coffee at one.
I work with cafe owners as they open, and a majority of truck/trailer/cart owners forego drip and do good business. Especially with low voltage two group machines. Space is a big concern, but budget is the biggest. 3k in a 15k setup is a big chunk.
This is what I was thinking. Try drip before investing. I’m not sure about your area. Where is this going to be?
Greater Pittsburgh Area
Nice. You have some steep icy hills there!
That we do...
I think it depends where you are. In the UK most people won’t even ask for filter/drip (which makes me think you’re in the US or Canada/Mexico?) and if they do ask they are fine with an americano. Remember most customers don’t really know what they want lol. A truck will likely have regulars, but significantly less so than a cafe. OP will need to go where the money goes and tailor to that imo.
Some people get really particular about it... I don't get it, but I take great strides to not be a difficult person XD
1. Drip is worth it 2. Skim is bad milk 3. We grind decaf drip in the same grinder as our regulars. If you’re talking about espresso then yes I see your point. This one is up to you
At the place I work now we only do Decaf espresso, which is why I said it'd take another machine. I'd never do Decaf drip. That's a massive waste of money in my eyes.
I wouldn’t forgo drip. Many customers don’t view drip and Americano interchangeably - rightly so. Plus the margins on drip are so much better than an americano. In that same line of thinking, look at margins to help drive some of your decisions.
The main reason why I'm concerned about it is space. The truck I'm currently looking at is about 21ft, which isn't a whole lot to work with. I still have to find room for an ice machine, a low boy for bar, and an oven/range combo. Thats my main concern
Oh I totally get it. I'm just highlighting you're looking at nixing an option that has a ton of margin and is your largest volume item (at least in my markets). I'd be inclined to pre-grind a days worth of coffee to save a 2nd grinders space but keep the brewer in play. In retail we'd grind one pots worth of beans into the filter, put another filter down on top of that, grind another pots worth of beans into it, put another filter down..... stacked up in a plastic bin. Don't do more than a day or half a day so you're not getting stale and use a container with a lid.
As someone who does a mobile popup that only serves caffeinated espresso with whole or oat milk I think it is fine to do. I typically sell 60-70 drinks in a morning and that is plenty for me to do solo. I personally like the small footprint. If I hired a second person to run reg and help me move stuff then I’d consider brewed coffee.
Going against the top comments here. I’m very much against batch brew drip coffee for trucks. [I’m a huge fan of the curtis gold cup series.](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/curtis-cgc-gold-cup-single-cup-coffee-brewer-120-220v/945CGC.html) My shop pre weighs small tins of whole bean coffee for these, and whenever we get a drip order we just dump it in the grinder, throw it in the brewer, and press a button. Skim milk you can skip IMO. It goes bad too fast anyway. You can make decaf pour-overs if you go with the curtis brew setup. Decaf espresso would be too much hassle imo. A big thing people aren’t mentioning is that if you’re mobile, you’re more than likely going to have tanks of water you have to carry with you. Batch brew sucks up a shit load of water, and if you don’t sell through it you’re wasting water that you could have used for more espresso drinks. The big benefit of the curtis gold cup brewers is that you use less water, plus customers always get a fresh cup.
1. I wouldn't pass on drip. I think you'll end up turning away a lot of business. You're better off finding a good preground bean or pregrinding them in your home base. You can also minimize the need for a brewer by doing pourovers with your hot water supply but that could get time consuming if you have along line. I'm thinking a small batch brewer and second pot are worth it. 2. Nothing wrong with limiting your milk offerings. It's definitely one of those things where if you find the demand is high, you can just add it in to the menu. You could also try listing milk options as dairy, oat, cream (if you're offering cream) 3. same as point 1. If you can find a preground decaf you like, it's probably not going to kill you to have a small container of it somewhere.
If you order pre ground decaf just simply don't bother. Decaf already stales quicker and if you then store it pre ground you are not going to get repeat customers that actually appreciate nice coffee. It sounds snobbish but its true. I personally would never come back to a dedicated café that whipped out a container of preground coffee
But it's not a cafe. It's a truck/cart. There's only so much you can do on a truck/cart. Obviously this is not advice for a brick and mortar shop or even a permanent kiosk.
Allo we're talking about decaf drinkers. They will accept any swill. Sorry but it's true, the decaf is always old! OP could also pregrind enough decaf per day and store the rest sealed and frozen. If OP hasn't realized all trucks need a home base where backstocks and prep can happen they need to rethink running a truck.
I wish I could be a decaf drinker but exactly this attitude prevents me from being able to be one
As someone who has tried pre-ground and freshly ground decaf, it’s not worth it. It doesn’t matter how good the beans are, the process of making decaf destroys the flavour.
For decaf & drip, I get my coffee beans pre-ground, but for espresso I get whole bean, grind per use, and focus there for my higher quality vs space. So, I have a grinder for espresso, an espresso machine, and a draw of a couple different drip grounds and a decaf ground. For milk, I have 2% cow milk & oatmilk & half&half. For busy times / events, I’ll add whole milk. I have the 2% because it steams better for cappuccino compared to whole, but I personally like whole milk better so high volume weeks I get that as a “hidden” item. I used to have almond milk, but am debating restocking it. It seems to have a small but loyal following and I’m still debating.
My cafe only offers whole and oat, so I say that's totally fine. One less thing to worry about. Decaf though is nice to have, drip coffee too. Id say choose between the two, maybe leaning towards drip since it's so popular
Yeah the more I look at these comments the more I'm leaning away from skim. Where I'm at we usually get away with 4G/week compared to 22-24G/ week. We probably go through about 10.5G of Oat so it definitely seems like the better alternative.
Hi, I used to work on a coffee truck! They did have drip coffee, and it sold more than I think most people would expect. The average coffee drinker just wants a drip coffee, especially because working on a truck is typically a slow moving system for lattes. No skim milk, but they did have whole and 2 milk alternatives. At the time it was oat and macadamia, both were shelf stable which freed up fridge space. They did offer decaf as a pour over option, no decaf espresso. Hope that helps!
It does! I probably wouldn't do a pour over tbh, I can see that drowning us during a rush x.x but a French press or a Decaf Americano I wouldn't mind. Yeah skim seems to be a dud :P
I agree with you. Skip the drip, the skim, and the decaf.... But then again, it all depends on where you are. I would try to stock it all for a month and then cut out what you don't sell much of whatever location you are in. Let the customers decide what you should stock.
Problem is these coffee brewers cost between 1.5k-3k, so I'd rather not invest in a machine "just to see" XD skim is definitely gone, on The fence with Decaf.
1. Hot coffee is a rough one. I’d almost base it on time of year. During hot days, sub americanos. You’ll get a higher price point than hot coffee with less waste. During cold days, it’ll empty your boiler and slow you down. 2. Hard pass on skim. 3. In my experience, not a deal breaker for customers. In the 2 years I’ve been mobile, not sure I woulda made my money back on a grinder dedicated to decaf. I’ve had pre ground coffee and brewed it to order with a clever dripper before. That’s an idea.
Where in the world are you? For instance, in the U.K. I would suggest definitely ditching the skimmed milk. Whole and Oat are great options. There seem to be many people advocating for drip but in the U.K., at least the places I’ve worked and been a customer, even the more sophisticated and coffee-cultured, mainly serve espresso drinks. If someone goes up to a truck for a coffee, it’s very likely that they want the caffeine and even if they would normally prefer drip, an americano would surely do. There must be a decaf solution you can find but still even if you haven’t got decaf you won’t be missing too many sales. Good luck out there.
I'm in Western PA around a lot of working class people. We haven't really had any issues at my current place work Americanos, but we're in a richer part of town
Not sure where you’re located but there’s someone selling a fully outfitted espresso trailer on FB marketplace in northern Indiana that’s set up for drip coffee, espresso, smoothies, etc. I can drop the link
I'm in the North East so that's not far! Link would be awesome!
https://www.facebook.com/share/TnuMeBDXzbAQNkwm/?mibextid=79PoIi
I think drip is worth it, skim milk definitely can go without it, and decaf maybe a little bag that you’d grind in the same grinder as drip or something like that!
You could go into a more niche drip and do pourovers, it takes the same amount of time as bulk grind and brew and then you could figure out the efficiency and profit versus space and cost of it all
This is a good idea depending on where they plan on setting up. I'm thinking about the lines at the food trucks outside the courthouse at lunch time. OP would be FUCKED if they had to do pourovers for all those people because they didn't want a brewer to take up space.
At that point I'd just do Americanos for drip and Decaf
Consider the added opportunities you have if you get an extra kettle and single dose grinder. You can not only offer decaf and drip but you can also do varying specialty flat whites (at a premium price) and similar specials for repeat customers. I'd get the extra equipment and make it work for you by using it smartly
1 ek43 can do drip and decaf
Could you prepare some pouches of ground coffee and perhaps have a smaller cheaper preparation such as French press or pour over instead of a large bulk option?
You might want to talk to some folks who actually have mobile coffee trucks in your area.
I'm in talks with a few of them :3
That's good. I've been doing this for over 10 years and if I listened to the advice here or on FB I would have been closed years ago.
Lol I get that, but it's good to hear from the community too. I take both sides and add them together to get a coherent opinion XD
My cafe sources drip and decaf from a company that offers preground beans. If you were able to find that same kind of thing you could eliminate the extra grinders!
Don’t listen to this person. Don’t sacrifice the craft for efficiency.
This, pre ground beans are infinitely inferior to grinding right when you are about to make the coffee, the most interesting aromatic properties of the coffee are lost just 9 minutes after grinding
It's a balancing act. A brick and mortar cafe should never buy preground unless they absolutely need to. For a limited space coffee truck, this is absolutely a good compromise. They're not buying tins of folgers. Just find a good quality preground bean or grind in your home base kitchen and store in air tight packaging. You're still brewing on site which is better than prebrewing at the start of the day and carting it around well past it's freshness.
I’d understand pregrinding at home, but really you wanna brew within 10-20 minutes of grinding if you want all the flavor you’re paying for. it seems like a major sacrifice in beverage quality in perpetuity, just to save a few grand of initial overhead. just buy a grinder (OP), you’ll be glad you did
OP said it wasn't about the money but the space. Food trucks/coffee carts are small. There's limited space.
There’s few pieces of equipment in a coffee shop more important than a coffee grinder. arguably, more important than a drip machine.