Hotels guests are becomingly increasingly demanding about the heritage, preparation and taste of their morning coffee. Hotels guests are becomingly increasingly demanding about the heritage, preparation and taste of their morning coffee.

Q: WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE HOTELS MAKE WHEN SERVING GUESTS TEA AND COFFEE?
Billingham: A very common error with hotels is the lack of daily cleaning of the coffee machines and equipment, as this can present a significant lack of quality in the coffee.

A build up of milk and coffee residue can diminish the machine’s performance resulting in poor extractions. Another common mistake is filling coffee bean hoppers with far too much coffee, which ends up not being used and carried over for days, becoming old and stale.

Jones: Many! For example allowing untrained staff to make the coffee, or not using the right equipment such as grinders which are not grind-on-demand. Some grinders grind the coffee into a dosing chamber which allows the coffee to oxidize very quickly and will cause the coffee to deteriorate massively within several minutes.

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Other mistakes include not using fresh coffee, serving the coffee in cold cups (by the time it reaches the guest the cold cup has reduced the coffee temperature significantly) or over steaming the milk so the temperature is too high.

Often customers ask for ‘extra hot’ cappuccino but over steaming the milk can burn it and create a very bad taste. It also will lose the microfoam density which is appropriate for cappuccino and latte drinks.

Biedenkopf: One of the most common mistakes is the choice of strainer used for the loose leaf tea service. A proper strainer is essential for the development of the best tea flavour and makes it easy to remove the tea leaves, once the perfect brewing time is reached.

Strainers where you do not remove the tea leaves from the water cause the remaining tea leaves in the tea pot to carry on brewing, delivering no tea pleasure. And an extra pot of hot water on the side is not going to solve the problem, it just dilutes an already over brewed tea.

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