STiR coffee and tea magazine

GEA-BE-04-003 Enjoy Quality Characteristic advantages of centrifugal separation technology: • High reliability of the centrifuges • Continuous clarifi cation • Reduced energy costs for drying powder and granulate • More marketable product • Integration into automatic processes with programmable control & CIP Customized features for co• ee clarifi ers: • Heavy duty design for high density products • Hydrohermetic sealing for foaming reduction • Wear protection • Unique ejection system For contact details: gea.com/contact Maximum yield, high effi ciency and continuous clarifi cation of coffee and tea with GEA centrifuges Tim Widmer, United Home Technologies' vice president of sales, said enterprising roasters are creating new demands for small fill machinery. "We have a roaster in Vancouver, B.C., who bought a fill- ing system," Widmer said. "He has a coffee kiosk in a grocery store. He's put our filling system there and fills cups fresh every morning. He sells more cups in his kiosk than all the K- cups on the grocery shelves combined. He's selling the quality of freshness." Andy Wang, president of Hong Kong-based Eastsign In- ternational Ltd., sees similar needs in the Asian marketplace and the opportunity for his company to meet the demand. "The increasing popularity of single-capsule coffee and tea products presents vast opportunities to small and mid- size beverage product companies to market their specialized, gourmet drinking products," Wang said. "But they are also facing challenges. In the past, small- to mid-size companies usually didn't have the packaging production capability of their own. They needed large co-pack facilities to produce the final products, which often require a high minimal order quantity at a higher cost." Customers also are looking for equipment that allows them more flexibility to fill cups with products other than coffee, the manufacturers agreed. "We are seeing clients looking towards innovations that allow them to run different capsule platforms on the same system," said Dennis Winberry of IMA North America. "It's not only coffees, teas, or solubles, but also espresso. This is an ever-expanding market in Europe, and increasingly so in North America, too. Our unique ability to offer such a hybrid solution, and in a variety of capsule styles, is a real time, space, and money saver." And Widmer, whose company is headquartered in Van- couver, Wash., is starting to get requests never imagined when they began work on their machines five years ago. "We can fill any powder into a cup ―now cannabis coffee is becoming real popular," he said, noting that recreational cannabis is legal in Washington, Oregon, California and other Empty cups are stacked loading into the iFill800XP. Photo by Dan Shryock Photo by Dan Shryock

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