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Well, yeah, as a (what I thought was obvious) really common, general feeling is that Ditting makes arguably the best bulk grinders for shops. The Mahlkonig Guatemala is a fine grinder as well.
That being said, the only grinders I have ever put into shops are Bunn "G" series grinders. Not because I prefer them over the other two, but because when push comes to shove, there generally isn't money in the budget for the higher class bulk grinders. I would rather put the money towards a higher grade espresso grinder than a high grade bulk grinder.
-bry
Barbara, what sort of arrangement do you envision here? There are two main possibilities that immediately come to mind:
1. You get a standard (large) bulk grinder, like the ubiquitous Bunn, and either pre-portion or measure coffee as it is ordered, and toss it into the grinder hopper every time you get an order. This is the way the (admittedly few) drip bars I've seen do it.
2. You buy a couple of smaller "espresso style" grinders, only in doserless version, like a modded Mazzer Mini or SJ, Rancilio Rocky doserless, etc. This would limit how many coffees you could offer at-the-ready, since they have bean hoppers.
Method in ATL had a bunch of little plastic containers that contained pre-measured whole-bean portions of the coffees that were on tap for the day that they would chuck in the bulk grinder as they were ordered (option 1 above). Since there was no hopper and no flavored coffees used (which in my opinion, don't belong on a drip station anyway) they used the same grinder for all coffees. There would be no limit to the number of coffees you could offer. This is what I plan to do in our bar when i figure out how to fit a drip bar into the space...
If you went with option 2, and used the hoppers on the grinders to store your whole bean coffee (like you do on the espresso bar) you would be limit your number of coffees offered. I suppose you could use them with re-portioned coffees and just not use the hopper but they don't operate quite as well with just a handful of coffee in them. Your proposed layout would lead you in one direction or the other.
So then the next question is: how many coffees do you offer? If I would have a house, a decaf, a single origin and a flavored - does it mean I have to get 4 grinders?
Are you already open and offering flavored coffee or not yet open and thinking you want to? The reason I ask is just that if you want to really focus on quality, offering flavored coffee kind of defeats the purpose. Also it adds to your start-up costs, because as mike said, you'll need additional equipment (in this case an additional bulk grinder just for flavored). Also, you will have to have just one filter dedicated to flavored coffee. You will not be able to "just rinse" the cone and have it be okay, the cone will absorb flavors. So if you get a 4 cup station, you might do two cones for flavored and 2 for non, but if you get 3 orders for flavored, you have somebody waiting, same thing with the variables switched. You don't not want flavored coffee traveling where non-flavored coffee does and the other way around.
Just a heads up...
-bry
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