Hi guys,

My college is considering opening a cafe and since I am in the committee, decided to push for some proper espresso equipment. However we only have a limited budget. We project 60 cups, conservatively to 100 cups, optimistically, per day. We expect a breakfast rush, lunch rush and a tea break rush around 3 to 4pm. We will also be pushing our handbrews to the students.

We received 2 quotes, the Casadio Dieci and Casadio Enea as the grinder at approximately 3k USD. The Appia alone is 3k USD, and we still need to budget for the grinder.

As this is a college startup we expect a lot of milk drinks so I would appreciate any opinions detailing the pro and cons of each. The management is leaning towards the Casadio because it is cheaper, and I just like to be aware of its cons before, and if, we commit. Both are plumbed in with 5 liter boilers.

Thank you for reading.

I think they are almost the same machines in terms of performance. ( Both are commercial standard machines ) Price wise Casadio Dieci is much cheaper even in China. Casadio Dieci is a good choice as they are also very popular in Italy also. you can see them in almost every bar.

I would consider the ease of maintanence to be a huge factor in your decision in this circumstance. Are both of the machines available locally? If you're ordering from out of town, what will be the easiest machine to maintain without the help of a tech? NS machines are extremely common and parts and tech help galore is available - I'm not sure about the other.

No real right or wrong choice of both are locally supported and have the same general upkeep costs. I would still say that NS as a brand is more readily available/supported in North America though, I would think!

EDIT :: just realized you're in KL (can't see that easily on a phone!), so most of what I said might be completely opposite! Either way it's worth looking into/asking techs locally to see where their opinion falls!

Thanks for the feedback guys!

ps: any feedback on the Casadio Enea on-demand? The local supplier quoted a very good price with it. Apparently Super Jolly class, 64mm burrs.