Where Can I buy Ingredients for My Coffee Vending Machine?
You’ve bought a vending machine and now you need to find an ingredient supplier. There are essentially two options when it comes to where you source your ingredients from. You can either buy direct from a retail outlet like Makro or Checkers, where you can buy off the shelf brands, like Ricoffy, Nescafe and Cremora or you can go direct to a vending machine supplier who most likely will carry a selection of vending machine grade consumables. Both have their pros and cons and in this post I will detail the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Can I use any instant coffee in a Coffee Vending Machine?
We have tested pretty much every instant coffee from the very cheapest to the very best and we have found that there is not an instant coffee out there which will cause a machine to break however there is one caveat:
Chicory based instant coffees like Frisco, Koffiehuis and Ricoffy tend to form a syrupy like substance when the steam of the coffee machine travels back upwards into the coffee container which does cause the coffee mixing bowl to stick in most machines.
One other point to note that you need to use double the amount of a Chicory based coffee compared to any spray or freeze dried coffee. The correct portioning is 4 grams of Chicory based coffee compared to 1.8g or 2g of any spray dried coffee like Nescafe or Jacobs.
Can I use any sugar in a Coffee Vending Machine?
Whereas using other incorrect vending ingredients (like incorrect milk, coffee and hot chocolate) causes more frustration then damage, using the wrong sugar can actually break the gears on a vending machine. There are three options of sugar, which people use in vending machines:
- Ordinary Sugar – This is the worst option to use as it is too coarse for vending machines to dissolve. This causes two problems; Firstly, the sugar won’t dissolve properly in the mixing bowl which can cause clogging and too little sugar finding its way into the beverage. Secondly, the more serious problem is, ordinary sugar is often too coarse for the gears of the vending machine to process, which can lead to the gear actually breaking.
- Vending Sugar – Vending sugar is made by a number of sugar processing companies like Hullets and is essentially sugar with a consistency somewhere in between caster sugar and regular sugar. Vending sugar is, as the name suggests, the best option for vending machines as it dissolves quickly and causes no damage to the gears of the vending machine
- Castor Sugar – Castor sugar is definitely a better choice than regular sugar but being very fine can often lead to clogging issues if it isn’t cleaned regularly.
Can I use any hot chocolate in a Coffee Vending Machine?
Hot Chocolate is one standout product in this list as you can pretty much use any hot chocolate in any vending machine with no problem. Most hot chocolates are fine enough to ensure no gear issues and because of the high cocoa content almost never result in clogging.
Can You Use Cremora In A Coffee Vending Machine?
There are three options when choosing one’s milk option on a vending machine. One thing with vending machines, is that you do have to use a powdered form of milk instead of a liquid milk which does provide its pros and cons. The three options of powdered milk to choose from are creamers, pure milk powder and a combination of the two.
Creamers, like Cremora, are a combination of Palm Oil, Glucose and an array of other ingredients. Most creamers contain zero milk solids. There are three positives to using creamers.
- Creamers almost never cause clogging
- Creamers are ideal for lactose intolerant people
- Creamers are really cheap
Creamers however are rarely used for the following reasons:
- Creamers for the most part don’t taste good. Creamers are milk substitutes and therefore don’t really taste like milk
- Creamers have very high fat content.
- Creamers don’t froth well
Because of the above creamers are great solutions for use in factories and call centres where one typically is more concerned with price rather than quality. In showrooms and offices, milk powders are usually more popular choices especially from the point of view that it is almost impossible to make any frothed milk coffee speciality like cappuccino or café latte from a creamer.
Where’s the Best Place To Buy Your Coffee Vending Ingredients From?
Prices on vending machine ingredients from coffee vending companies and retail stores are often very similar. You can however score some really low prices if you are constantly on the watch for specials given by the retailers which often isn’t given by coffee companies.
Both retail stores and coffee companies offer free delivery if you are ordering large enough volumes.
If you are after the popular brands like Nescafe and Ricoffy then the retail stores are probably your best bet but if you want something a little more specialised then a coffee company might be a better fit for you.
It can be tricky to find milk powders and vending sugars (specialised vending products), from generic outlets however and therefore for these ingredients your best bet will probably be a specialist coffee vending company.
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