I would like to offer espresso (and possibly cappuccino) at an outdoor event with hundreds of people. What is the most cost and capital effective way to do this?
I have power connections, but not unlimited ones, and I have plenty of counter space.
Is there some way to produce a lot of espresso and then pour it out?
Curious how this generally gets done at events.
Will the crowd arrive all at once? If so, this will require commercial grade equipment and I think at least one other person. I know this may not be popular, but batch prepping as much as you can to overcome operational limitations may help. That would mean having iced lattes made in high quantities and stored in the fridge to be poured over ice, also having the grinder's doser full for faster puck prep.
The most difficult part will be frothed milk based drinks. The foam can not be stored as the bubbles will collapse with a handful of minutes, so these must be made to order. If you have one person pulling shots while the other person focuses on milk it may be possible.
I would recommend firstly, estimate amount of people who would drink coffee. Everyone? If yes, I suppose, you'll need a lot of machines and baristas for espresso and cappuccino. Another way, prepare coffee in advance, and keep it warm. Google "coffee break station", to see how it looks like. In my opinion, espresso is not an option for a such big gathering, unless the number of coffee drinkers is limited.
This depends on how many people you are planning to make coffee for. I ran an event similar to this but on a smaller scale (around 60 people) and multiple machines were used. For a bigger setting, it would be important to get a headcount ahead of time.
