Automatic bean-to-cup espresso machines that produces a wide spectrum of espresso drinks with mix-in powders.
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de Jong DUKE
de Jong DUKE is a Dutch, family-owned, business founded in 1897. With a long history of creating innovative, reliable and easy-to-use solutions for coffee, they are certainly in it for the long run. All of their machines are assembled by real people - no robots. With the company’s headquarters based in the Netherlands and with North American facilities, de Jong DUKE delivers coffee equipment to customers all over the world.
The Virtu
At 17 in. wide, this countertop machine is quite narrow, though it does not fit under cabinetry at 35 in. tall. It's designed to produce a wide spectrum of specialty espresso drinks within a customizable menu and interface.
On each drink, the office coffee machine freshly grinds whole beans through it's in-unit grinder. The menu can feature the standards (coffee, espresso, hot water, hot chocolate) as well as the specialties (double espresso, cappuccino, cafe au lait, latte, macchiato).
The Virtu concocts these delicious beverages with three in-unit dry powders (cappuccino, chocolate, and french vanilla) through automated mixers that combine hot water with the powders before dispensing alongside the fresh brewed coffee into your mug.
The Virtu has two hoppers (a fancy word for “container”) that hold 4.4 lbs of whole beans each, which is about 270 drinks each.
The Nuts and Bolts
Here's what you really need to know about this incredible machine:
- Quality: powder-based espresso drinks, while still pretty delicious, are a level below fresh milk.
- Volume: this machine is very well suited for medium sized offices. At 60/drinks per hour, it can serve offices of 50-200 people. For larger offices, we recommend the Eversys Cameo c'2m or the Eversys e'4m.
- Maintenance: the Virtu requires a regimented schedule of daily rinses, weekly deeply cleans, and monthly canister clean. The in-machine grounds container will need to be dumped once every 175 drinks, and it will count and prompt the user when that time comes. The machine then needs to be unlocked in order to dump the grounds container. With all this dumping and cleaning, it really does require daily maintenance from our Field Operations team to live its best life.
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And that’s about it! Here are some specs, so you really know EVERYTHING about the Virtu :)
Spec sheet and installation guidelines are available for download through here.
Additional information is available via the manufacturer's website.