Barista Attitude introduces a new espresso machine that takes the guesswork out of operation, designed to make any barista feel confident and empowered to make a quality espresso.
A captain steers a ship, a driver navigates the roads, and a pilot guides its passengers safety through the skies. In the case of Barista Attitude’s new Pilot espresso machine, baristas will be invited to take the reins of the first single boiler machine in the Italian manufacturer’s range.
“Barista Attitude products embrace words that encompass the sea: ‘Tempesta’ means hurricane or storm in Italian; ‘Faro’, meaning ‘lighthouse’, symbolising our coffee grinder; and Pilota, meaning pilot, symbolises the ability to lead through a storm,” says Barista Attitude Brand Manager Cinzia Pietrobon. “And that’s what our new machine Pilot represents, a machine that a barista can easily navigate to create quality and consistent coffee in all situations.
“More and more, the market is asking for professional and consistent machines, especially in locations where baristas and staff are not well trained. In some instances, if the operator of the machine doesn’t know what pressure profiling is, and how to use the machine’s technology to its best ability, then it’s not adding value. It’s a restriction that’s more likely to cause mistakes that can impact the café’s daily operation.”
Rather, the solution for operators still looking to deliver a quality product but in a simpler way, Cinzia says, is Barista Attitude’s Pilot machine, with a single boiler to produce hot water and steam to manage high productivity of milk-based drinks.
Pilot will share the best features used in Barista Attitude’s Tempesta and Storm machines, including the possibility to set and control pre-infusion for different coffee profiles and recipes. Operators can simply adjust the quantity of water and time of pre- infusion before the brewing process begins.
Just like its siblings Storm and Tempesta, Pilot will include touchscreen display screens above each group head for users to easily control and set features of the machine for best in-cup quality.
“Pilot is the machine people need when they want to simplify the coffee making process. It’s a sophisticated solution for those who have limited time for staff training, are educating people who are not familiar with coffee making, or are at the beginning of their barista journey,” Cinzia says.
“It’s designed to be highly effective with simple operations. Because Pilot is a single boiler model, it could be perceived as a mainstream machine but equally, there are features on this machine designed for the specialty market and staff who want to explore settings and functionalities a bit deeper. It gives you the best of both worlds in the one machine.”
For countries where expresso-based milk beverages reign supreme, Pilot includes a long steam arm, which produces dry steam and no additional water dispersed to create quality milk foam consistently.
Baristas can control the steam via a new lever, which can also purge after use.
“Coffee chains for example, train baristas to clean the steam wand after use, but sometimes in peak periods, the barista forgets or perhaps doesn’t do it thoroughly. That’s why this new lever, is a simple and more ergonomic device that purges water [after use]. After all, Barista Attitude is all about making the life of a barista easier, and it’s done with small details such as this,” Cinzia says.
An option in the Pilot model is the ability to have an auto-steamer that automatically heats and froths milk at the touch of button, even allowing the user to set different levels of milk temperature and froth. This allows the barista to turn their attention to the coffee brewing rather than 100 per cent focus on milk texturing.
“This function is especially important if you have multiple staff. It doesn’t matter if you or I are on the machine that day, what the customer can be guaranteed of, is perfectly textured milk each time, even during peak periods of pressure,” Cinzia says. “Another good option in the Pilot is to have one steam arm as manual operation, and the other automatic – perhaps one dedicated to dairy and the other for dairy- alternatives to avoid cross contamination. We can best customise to your needs and that of your staff.”
There is also an option to connect the Pilot machine to Wi-Fi and utilise Barista Attitude’s cloud-based telemetry platform (Beans2Cloud platform) to access information such as coffee counters, errors, faults, and service reminders.
“Telemetry is growing in importance and can make such a difference to operators who monitor multiple outlets at different locations and want to control and set recipes and quality output across multiple sites,” Cinzia says.
When people first get a look at the design of Pilot – with lights on the back and front of the machine to illuminate the working space, group heads and drip tray – Cinzia says it will be easy to identify that this machine belongs to the Barista Attitude range, embracing strong design connections between Storm, Profilo, and Tempesta.
Unique to Pilot however, is the shape of the back of the machine to fit the larger single boiler, and the design of its feet.
“There are some unique elements but strong family ties too,” Cinzia says.
“A machine should always have a nice design, but the main focus is not the machine itself, but the person using it. The coffee machine is simply the stage in which the barista performs. It is the tool that helps a barista to express their talent and creativity, and the machine in which we offer our best technology under the umbrella of CMA in Veneto, Italy, which has been manufacturing espresso machines since 1969.”
Pilot will officially launch at World of Coffee in Athens, Greece, in June, followed by a special appearance at Host Milan in Italy along with the complete product line-up of Barista Attitude machines. This includes the Profilo with its unique interface and pressure profile ability; and Tempesta and Storm in the multi-boiler and Flow Rate Control (FRC) models.
Last year was an exciting year for Barista Attitude. Its Tempesta Gara machine made its World Coffee Championship debut as the official coffee machine of the World Barista Championship, which it will carry until 2025.
This year, the Italian-based company is excited about the prospects for Pilot, expected to arrive in Australian in the second half of 2023, and for a new project it hopes to deliver in 2024.
“We are thinking about creating a single group Barista Attitude machine for coffee professionals and locations that don’t need the capability of a commercial machine but still want to indulge in a quality one-group machine such as a showroom, or home office,” Cinzia says.
What drives Barista Attitude’s future product developments and decision making, Cinzia adds, is the availability of technology and the values of the company. “The question we always ask, is: ‘How we can help the hospitality sector? How can we help express the talent of baristas?’,” she asks.
“Hospitality is about people feeling comfortable and to do that, means offering different solutions, not just at different price-points but solutions to suit different businesses and the different stages of where the barista is in their life and coffee journey. We want baristas to know that our passion for them and simplifying their work in the best way possible, are the driving values that underpin Barista Attitude’s brand philosophy.”
For more information, visit www.barista-attitude.com or contact Australian distributor Coffee Works Express at www.cwe.com.au.
This article appears in the February 2023 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
