Why a coffee bar should care about soft serve
A coffee bar has a captive audience and a quiet afternoon. The espresso machine does the morning rush well enough, but between meals the counter is asking a different question: what else can we sell to the people already standing here?
Gelmatic’s answer in this film is a compact soft serve machine and a few simple builds. A scoop of soft serve under a pour of coffee. A warm waffle with a swirl and a ribbon of chocolate. A tall glass layered with syrup, marshmallow and a wafer. None of it calls for a pastry kitchen.
A machine that makes the recipe, not just the base
The pitch is versatility. One machine produces the base, and the menu decides what it becomes. Coffee over soft serve is a drink and a dessert at once. Soft serve beside a waffle suits the afternoon break. A sundae glass suits the evening or a function. Same machine, same mix, three different price points.
That is the argument Gelmatic is making for the Giotto 11, and it is a sound one for any venue short on space and long on foot traffic.
Pump or gravity: choosing the feed
The Giotto 11 comes with a choice of feed. The pump system delivers a smoother product and lifts the overrun to as much as 80 per cent, which stretches each batch of mix further. Gravity feed is simpler, and it can handle bases that contain small pieces.
Gravity suits a kitchen with a rotating roster and not much time for training. The pump suits a counter that wants a lighter, more voluminous serve. Either way, the machine is the one fixture on the wall.
Shape the serve with a click
The dispensing door holds three nozzles in different shapes, and changing between them takes a click. That sounds like a small thing until you are plating thirty desserts in an hour and each one needs a different finish.
Add the portion counter and the production data, and the picture is complete. You can see what sells, when it sells, and how much mix it is using, without standing at the machine.
