Root & Branch are our 3Temp distributors in Northern Ireland: they started their journey with 3Temp when they became a customer and bought their first Hipster in June 2017. We spoke with Co-Owner Simon about why they chose 3Temp and how their Hipster brewer has fit into their business:
'We first came across 3Temp at the London Coffee Festival. We were one year old as a roastery and were starting to be courted by various coffee equipment manufacturers as distributors. As a company and team of baristas and roasters, we obsess over quality in every aspect of our business, and so it was imperative that we would work with manufacturers who shared this obsession. With our second coffee shop opening in the city centre and close to the quickly developing financial district of Belfast, we knew we needed a batch brewer for fast coffee and that wouldn't mean a sacrifice in taste in return for the convenience it offered.
We began our research and entered into conversations with various market-leading manufacturers. After doing our due diligence, it became apparent that this area of coffee brewing had not moved at the same pace as specialty coffee, and the most interesting disruption was coming from a little known and recently established company in Sweden: 3Temp.
On understanding the science behind the product, tasting our coffee through it, and experiencing exceptionally high levels of customer service, our minds were quickly made up.
There is no comparison. Without question, batch brewing has evolved in recent years. Most of them can produce wonderful coffee, assuming, of course, you've started with wonderful coffee in the first place. However, few can match the control the 3Temp offers, and added to that, the intuitive interface. It seems that every aspect of it has had considerable research poured into it. We opted for the under-counter Hipster; we liked the aesthetic of the font and the fact that for the first time, a batch brewer could be out front and integrated into our Brew Bar without looking like a relic of Soviet engineering.'
'3Temp have created a brewer that has improved our bar flow, enabled batch to taste better than any hand-poured coffee consistently, and enabled litres to be brewed in the same time as a single pour-over.
We frequently have visiting baristas wanting to come behind the scenes and it's always amusing to see them process how easy the Hipster is to use and afterwards seeing them taste what they've created. Often they'll talk about how traditionally, batch has been tricky to dial in, and can produce a fair amount of waste in the trial and error until something drinkable is brewed. We have found that with a reasonable understanding of coffee extraction, it's possible to hit the recipe sweet spot on the second attempt, such is the amount of control provided by the tablet interface.
Many of our regular customers look forward to coming in and seeing what coffee we have on batch. Around 25% of coffees sold are brewed in the Hipster, and it's probably fair to say that many Long Black/Americano drinkers have transitioned over to batch as a consequence.'
'In essence, the 3Temp is a substantial investment. However, it's a very considered piece of equipment which I would imagine will become commonplace across busy city coffee bars. Now 3 months into using it, I know that if any of our baristas were to leave and start their own place, they would absolutely factor one into their bar set-up. Similarly, if we were to remove it, many of our customers would be disappointed. As a business owner you are always balancing spend with quality and efficiencies; with that in mind, it's been a very sound investment.'
For more information about 3Temp, have a look here on our website. Alternatively, if you are based in Ireland and would like to get your hands on a 3Temp, go ahead and contact Root & Branch.
