Best Coffee and Tea Vending Machines
Waking up to the smell of hot coffee or tea often gives a glimpse of nirvana; it’s a hint that a good day awaits. For a lot of us, the office is incomplete without our warm cup.
It’s the best way to wake up our minds and put us in an active mood. The ‘chai’ break is one of the most anticipated times of the day, although tea is probably the best gift given to mankind, making it does require some effort.
Tea and coffee vending machines are gaining popularity mainly due to the busy and fast moving lifestyle. Earlier, making a hot tea or coffee use to consume a lot of time.
But, with the invention of vending machines, you can enjoy delicious tea and coffee within a few minutes.
Here, in this article, you will find the list of five best tea coffee machines. Along with that, you will also get the knowledge of How vending machine works and what are the different types of tea making machine.
We have also mentioned the various factors to consider before buying a coffee machine for office and a few FAQs for better understanding.
Our List of the Best Tea Coffee Vending Machines You Can Buy
How Vending Machine Works
Different types of coffee and tea vending machines work in different ways, often designed to suit the particular needs of the consumer. Before coffee-tea vending machines, it might be more effective to know how a home coffee maker works.
For instance, a French press is the most simple coffee maker. It doesn’t have any technology involved, and mostly uses the manual skill of the person.
A drip or filter coffee machine uses a large container containing a paper coffee filter and ground coffee. Water is then heated inside the machine and is allowed to drip through this container.
This is the least technologically advanced coffee maker, after the French Press.
Bean-to-cup coffee-tea makers, often known as automatic coffee makers, use different types of technology for grinding, tamping, brewing, and extracting creme from your coffee.
The coffee is grinded “on-demand,” and then hot water is forced to pass through it at a particular force.
You may often find milk frothers and milk containers in these appliances, which add a certain magic to the drink, distinguishing it from a normal cup of joe.
Now let’s talk about how a coffee-tea vending machine works. These machines essentially conduct different compartments for holding the different elements for making your perfect cup.
According to the features of the machine itself, water is boiled inside the machine. It then fuses either instant coffee or dried coffee grains or grinds the coffee instantly right then and there.
The other compartments contain additives like sugar, milk, hot chocolate, etc. So by now, you must have got some idea as to how every coffee-tea maker works.
The technology used plays an important role in the overall outcome. It affects the taste, smell, color, and intensity of the coffee.
A normal instant coffee vendor will often produce a relatively natural tasting product, then a bean-to-cup one. Another very important factor affecting how your beverage will turn out is the quality of coffee used itself, as well as the uniformity with which it is grounded.
All in all, the way your coffee-tea maker works affects the following factors –
- The taste and overall texture of your coffee/tea.
- The price of your coffee-tea maker.
- Amount of work to be put in to make your beverage.
- Amount of work to be put in to keep your coffee-tea maker clean.
- Several people can be served at a time.
Types of Coffee-Tea Vendors
Coffee and Tea Coffee Vendors are of various types, depending on their size, the complexity of the technology used, the number of cups it can dispense, etc.
We have broadly classified the different types of vending machines, according to how they might be used, and which of your purposes may be fulfilled.
1. Floor standing vending machine
These types of vending machines can be most commonly found in a big commercial place. They have a base fixed at the bottom to avoid theft or moving of the machine.
These types of machines are often versatile and can produce different beverages such as coffee (different types of coffee), tea, hot chocolate, or soup.
They have different containers installed inside, but may often lack an inbuilt grinder, and relies on the use of instant or dried coffee/tea. They dispense the beverage on the click of a button, mixing the ingredients from different containers to produce the beverage.
They have a huge capacity to dispense coffee/tea or any other beverage. These machines are capable of producing different types of coffee itself, such as espresso.
There are two types of Floor-standing machine –
Coin Operated Vending Machine
These can be seen in restaurants or public places. A sensor is triggered after a coin or token is inserted inside the machine, which then triggers the mechanism to give you a cup of coffee.
These beasts can dispense easily up to 500 drinks. They are the most expensive type of vending machines in the market.
Depending on its level of sophistication, free-standing vending machines deliver excellent quality coffee, tea, and even other beverages.
2. Tabletop Coffee-Tea Vendor
These machines are usually installed on top of a counter, and is portable to an extent. Their size is much smaller than free-standing vending machines, which inevitably reduces their performance and features.
These are more suited for small office environments, as the amount of coffee or tea they can dispense is limited.
It can be connected to a water source, be it a water cooler or any other connection to avoid refilling multiple times. These are often the most economical vending machines, but these can dispense only a limited type of beverage.
There are two types of tabletop coffee vendors itself, depending on the milk you like to consume – Fresh Milk or Milk Powder.
Depending on the model and features of the machine, more refined coffee such as espresso or cappuccino can be made. A tabletop coffee-tea vendor can also dispense soup or other hot non-beverage liquids.
It can serve up to 50-100 cups a day, depending on the water connection or size of the water cooler attached.
3. Bean-To-Cup Coffee/Tea Vending Machine
Here is where quality coffee or tea begins. Usual vending machines use instant coffee or dried coffee or even capsules of coffee to produce the beverage.
This is because these machines lack any inbuilt mechanism to process the ground coffee.
Bean-To-Cup machines have an inbuilt grinding and brewing mechanism to ground the coffee and brew it, give you some amazing tasting fresh coffee. Another reason for the excellent coffee taste is that instead of powder milk, most bean-to-cup vending machines use fresh milk.
The machine comes in various sizes and can often hold a variety of liquid refreshments. Most Vending machines can hold up to 200 cups, but the size of the milk container may differ.
We have covered the major types of coffee vending machines. A vending machine may also have the option of serving a cup directly with the beverage.
These are called in-cup coffee-tea vending machines and mostly follow the same mechanism as a free-standing vending machine.
Vending Machine Buyers Guide
Selection of Coffee types
The vending machines should have multiple options for selecting your types of coffee, such as Espresso, Cappuccino, and teas, such as Lemon Tea and Iced Tea. This allows users to choose drinks according to their wishes.
Economical
If these machines use less energy, it would be cheaper to use it. Other usages such as milk, powder, and water should be such that much of it does not get wasted.
Size & Dimensions
Try to buy a product that satisfies your requirements for installing it in the place you want. If you assume size before buying it, you would be in trouble to fit it during installation.
Cost
Always have an idea about your needs and requirements. Since there are a lot of different varieties of machines available, buy them according to your budget.
Fresh Milk or Powder Milk
The most important aspect while choosing your coffee or tea vending machine is to know what type of milk it uses. This makes a huge difference in the overall taste and texture of your product.
Machines using powdered milk often produce inferior tasting coffee or tea.
Powdered milk isn’t even milk, but a close substitute. Machines using powder milk will often be more economical, having a steep difference in price as compared to fresh milk vending machines.
Most Bean to Cup machines uses fresh milk while standing machines come in both varieties.
Thermoblock
Most vending machines heat the water by electrically heating it. Although this might seem like an insignificant feature, the temperature plays a huge role in your coffee!
If the water is too hot, the coffee grains might get over-diluted, giving rise to a beverage with irregular taste. If the water is too cool, then what’s the use? So do check the thermoblock settings of a vending machine before you decide to make your purchase.
In-Built Grinder
There’s a fine line between good coffee and just coffee. A vending machine with an in-built grinding and brewing unit almost instantly processes the freshest coffee or tea you can imagine.
Other machines rely on instant or dried coffee, which is not up to par.
The important thing to remember is to check the grinder carefully and the consistency with which it grinds the coffee. A bean-to-cup coffee vending machine has a grinder installed within them and also a special brewing unit to give you the best types of coffee.
Bar Pressure
If you’re interested in the various types of coffee, be it espresso or cappuccino, checking the bar pressure is essential. The bar pressure influences the ‘creme’ or ‘froth’ layer of the coffee.
A good bar pressure will give you a thick frothy layer that can instantly give your coffee the amazing texture you always desired. 14-15 Bar pump pressure is often the most suitable.
After Sales Facilities/Maintenance
If you’re deciding on keeping your vending machine for a long period, you need to find out the after-sales service provided by the vending machine brand.
This helps in maintaining the machine for a longer period, and to ensure that your cup of joe never stops! Another feature is that of auto-cleaning.
If your vending machine includes this, it makes your job a little easier. Do not confuse the auto-cleaning function for freedom from cleaning the coffee machine entirely; it merely reduces the frequency and parts you might have to clean.
This is a very handy function, though, and can make your machine work a lot longer producing fresh tea!
Cup Dispensing Capacity and Variety
This almost entirely depends on the size of the machine and is something you need to take into consideration before buying a coffee/tea dispenser. A free-standing machine can easily dispense around 600-700 cups, with around 20-30 cups per minute dispensing speed.
A tabletop coffee vendor can dispense only about 100-150 cups at a time. You need to assess your requirement and make a choice accordingly.
Another element taken into consideration is the type of beverages you’d like the vendor to hold. This can range from a single beverage to as many as 6-8 beverages, including different types of coffee, tea, soups, and cool drinks.
Now that you know what to look for, while purchasing your coffee-tea vendor, we provide a hand-picked list of what we consider the top vending machines in the market. Do remember what you require before making a purchase.
6 Best Coffe and Tea Vending Machines
1. Cafe Desire Coffee and Tea Vending Machine
![Cafe Desire Coffee and Tea Vending Machine with 1kg Coffee Premix (Multicolour, CDCTVMOR) [ 2 Lane]](https://www.reviews.in/wp-content/webpc-passthru.php?src=https://www.reviews.in/wp-content/uploads/Cafe-Desire-Coffee-and-Tea-Vending-Machine-with-1kg-Coffee-Premix..jpg&nocache=1)
Trust us; this is the last cafe desire product on this list. We can’t help add so many of their products, as the company delivers in all aspects of a good coffee.
2 Lane & 3 Lane models are suitable for medium to small scale offices, as the machine prices are considerably lower than that of the four-lane Cafe Desire is vending machine. The downside is easily noticeable here; you can only dispense 2 or 3 types of beverages.
This limits the choices your employees will have and is mostly configured to coffee and tea. The upside of the 2/3 lane Cafe Desire is that the coffee quality is as excellent as the four-lane machine.
Although only two beverages can be dispensed at a time, it still offers varieties in terms of the Cafe Desire premixes available.
So instead of normal coffee and tea, you could have a healthy diet menu of low sugar coffee or cardamom tea, or ginger tea and lemon tea, or their special Cafe Desire coffee/tea ( such as the Kadak chai) and soup.
- Cafe Desire after-sale services and maintenance are commendable. Spare parts can be easily found
- Variety of cafe desire premixes available.
- Good cup dispensing rate, 4 cups per minute
- Economical, and the 230 W power usage limits your electricity bill.
- Uses milk powder and not fresh milk.
- These machines are most suitable to only Cafe Desire premixes, which should be kept well in stock.
2. Swaggers Atlantis Cafe Plus 3 Lane Coffee Vending Machine
This product is one of the newest arrivals in the market, which could be the replacement to the old coffee vending machines. Swaggers Atlantis Cafe Plus 3 Lane Coffee Vending Machine is the three-lane vending machines offering users the same taste and nutrients that the regular coffee offers.
Let us look at the features of this product.
- The material which is used to make this machine is the abs molded color: red, premix canister. The new look and stylish design add elegance to the product itself.
- The capacity of this vending machine is three nos., each having a capacity of 1.2Kg, which is sufficient enough to be used in shops and restaurants.
- The dispensing capacity of this vending machine is 4 cups per minute.
- The other features include a water level sensor, flush function, adjustable premix, user-adjustable temperature settings, and water quantities.
- This vending machine has the Hot Water tank capacity of 3 liters. It is enough to cater to the needs of a lot of customers together.
- It is effortless to operate this machine. The user-friendliness of this product makes it one of the most preferred options available for users.
- You need not worry about the health concerns related to this product. The Hot water tank is made up of stainless steel that prevents itself from getting rusted.
- Easy installation of the product due to the compact size and lightweight.
- No negative points observed so far.
3. PRASHANTHA Teomatic Tea and Coffee Vending Machine
The tea and coffee vending machine is a two-lane vending machine offering users an amazing taste of their favorite beverages.
The product comes with 250 grams of each premix tea and coffee powder. The machine is easy and safe to operate.
- The vending machine has a switched-mode power supply circuit (SMPS) control system that makes it safe and efficient. It reduces the risk of electric shock or even a short circuit in case of voltage fluctuations.
- It has an in-built electronic sensor lets the machine prepare the food at an appropriate temperature.
- The tea and coffee vending machine come with an insulated boiler that sustains the energy and minimizes energy loss.
- The vending machine auto shutdowns at high voltage.
- Prashantha teomatic tea and coffee vending machine do not dispense when the temperature is low. In short, every time you use the vending machine, you get fresh and hot beverages.
- The size of the machine is perfect for small to medium gatherings.
- It makes delicious beverages.
- No negative point was observed.
4. Atlantis Tea and Coffee Vending Machine
The cheapest machine on this list, this two-lane baby of a vending machine, is surely VERY economical. If you look at its size, you would not believe it can even dispense two types of beverages, but it does.
It also has an option of the half cup and hot water dispensing.
It has only a 1 Litre Water reservoir capacity, meaning a LOT less number of cups, up to 20-30. This has to be filled repeatedly if you want your cup of coffee.
There are no adjustable settings, and the coffee can get too hot sometimes. This vending machine will only be suggested for mini-working environments or as a personal vending machine in an office.
- Light Weight
- Small Size
- Energy Efficient
- VERY economical
- Dispensing Capacity – 5 cups in a minute
- No adjustable settings
- Premix used only
5. MAZORIA Tea Coffee Soup Vending Machine
Now place the vending machine in your offices, shops, restaurants, and canteen. It makes it easy for users as they do not have to be dependent on making tea and coffee manually.
MAZORIA Metal Tea Coffee Soup Vending Machine with 3 Flavour (Black) is one of the additions in the market that serves customers with a whole new option. Let us look at the features.
- It is a three-lane vending machine that gives you the option of choosing three drinks at a time without waiting much.
- It is a heavy-duty vending machine. The energy consumption of this product is less as compared to the other products, thus, saving you some money on your electricity bills.
- One of the biggest advantages of this product that makes it the favorite is its ability to use any branded premix powder in this vending machine. This means you never run out of stock since you have a lot of options to choose from.
- This product is user-friendly. Now easily select your choice of drink and dispense it in no time.
- No negative points observed so far.
6. California Premium Vending Machine
California coffee/tea vending machines might be one of the closest competitors of the Cafe Desire Line of machines. Offering a wide variety of machines, California can be trusted for its quality and build.
This is a relatively lightweight machine.
This four lanes automatic vending machine comes with an option of separate water supply. You won’t have to refill the machine that often a day.
The dispensing rate is also very good, which is 5-6 cups per minute, meaning more number of cups dispensed per minute.
They offer installation services and spare part replacement services too. They provide door stop services, so it’s a complete package when you’re looking for good maintenance.
The beverage quality of California is quite decent and within a good range.
You have the options of cappuccino, black-tea, low sugar tea, lemon tea, cardamom tea, tomato soup, etc. It does not use fresh milk and uses premixes to produce the “instant” coffee or tea.
The bar pressure is decent, but you cannot get exquisite coffee from this machine. This is most suitable for medium to small office environments, as the machine is quite economical itself.
It also conserves electricity, meaning you won’t have to pay a huge electricity bill. It is very attractive and will certainly give a graceful look in your office.
The beverage itself is always served very hot, meaning the thermostat is very effective.
There are no custom steam settings in this machine, though, and the lack of latte and espresso can be the downsides of this otherwise great machine.
Let’s have a quick look at the pros and cons of the California Coffee vending machine.
- Economical
- After-sales and maintenance are available.
- 4 Lane, meaning the variety
- Separate water reservoir available
- A limited number of types of beverages
- Uses only California premixes
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Do all vending machines have the option for Tea?
There are many different varieties of products available, and all of them do not have the option of vending tea from that machine. These options are available; those who wish to buy a Coffee/Tea vending machine can do so.
2. Is machine coffee bad for health?
It is one of the myths that machine coffee is bad for health. This instant coffee contains the same antioxidants and nutrients as the regular coffees.
3. How to maintain a vending machine?
You can make the product economically profitable only if you maintain them well. There is much more than collecting the money and replacing the premix in the vending machines.
You should clean the outside of this machine with a soft cloth. Use a soft cloth and a glass cleaner spray to remove the dirt and fingerprints on the surface. Keeping your machines clean will also prevent any health issues that arise due to dirty surfaces.
4. How long do vending machines last?
Vending machines, if appropriately maintained, can last up to 12-24 years.
Conclusion
If you have a good budget, and you’re interested in good coffee, the Swaggers Atlantis Cafe Plus 3 vending machine is the perfect choice for you, which is a complete all-rounder. If you are willing to go even further and spend that extra buck, the MAZORIA Metal Tea Coffee Soup is the best coffee machine you will ever have.
You can be assured that the coffee produced from the Delonghi is probably way better than what you produce yourself at home. This can certainly become an addiction.
If you want quality with your machine, the Cafe Desire 2 lane machine is also a very good pick.
With this, we conclude our list of the best coffee and tea vending machines. We hope we helped you make the right purchase.
