The Mannequin 8-H can seamer by Oktober Design on the current Specialty Espresso Expo in Portland, Oregon. Day by day Espresso Information picture by Howard Bryman.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based canning tools maker Oktober Design has rolled out a variation of its Mannequin 8 automated can seamer known as the Mannequin 8-H, designed particularly for canning freshly roasted entire bean espresso.
Focusing on smaller specialty espresso firms whose manufacturing ranges fall shy of what’s typically required for industrial canning, the Oktober Design Mannequin 8-H is a compact, plug-and-play resolution designed for entrance or back-of-house operations at espresso outlets and roasteries.
The 8-H machine tooling affixes a valved foil lid to metal 401 diameter cans absolutely mechanically, with no handbook intervention aside from urgent one button.
On Oktober’s web site, the corporate at the moment gives unlabeled and labeled can choices for espresso roasters, whereas additionally pointing to suitable options from different suppliers reminiscent of Roastar and Container Provide.
Day by day Espresso Information picture by Howard Bryman.
Whereas Roastar made a splash with the launch of digitally printed tin cans for the espresso trade final yr, California-based Container Provide first approached Oktober with the thought for a coffee-focused seamer resolution about 5 years in the past. Container Provide and Oktober confirmed off the machine from a shared sales space on the current 2023 SCA Expo in Portland. (See extra espresso instruments and equipment unveiled on the present).
“[The can] simply stands out greater than the bag, as a result of everyone’s in a bag, and no person’s in a can,” Container Provide Gross sales Consultant Brit Stark instructed Day by day Espresso Information in Portland. “We reached out to Oktober as a result of we’ve been making cans for 75 years, and till Oktober got here alongside, there was no means for us let a smaller roaster get into canning cans with no machine that was designed to do thousands and thousands of cans at a time.”
Day by day Espresso Information picture by Howard Bryman.
Espresso’s canning renaissance comes as quality-focused roasters search new methods to distinguish merchandise on the shelf. Cans additionally provide a naturally basic look, harking back to the cans of espresso’s earliest large-scale purveyors following the commercial revolution.
Container Provide Gross sales and Advertising Director Joe Rider instructed DCN that whereas cans, foil lids and one-way degassing valves have all been obtainable for many years, the mixture of those components has usually been out of attain of smaller roasters because of prices related to bulk manufacturing.
Oktober Design launched its first small operated by hand can seamer in 2016, focusing on house brewers, kombucha makers, chilly brew espresso makers, cafes and bars looking for to supply canned drinks to go.
Day by day Espresso Information picture by Howard Bryman.
After setting its websites on espresso roasters alongside Container Provide, the corporate then labored with early adopters — together with California-based Moon Goat Espresso, Minnesota’s Almanac Espresso and Arizona’s Provision Espresso — to work out the finer factors.
“[These roasters] helped us actually perceive how all of it goes collectively,” mentioned Rider. “The aim at all times in thoughts was to supply an choice for specialty espresso to have the ability to use a can.”
The Mannequin 8-H geared up with espresso can tooling is at the moment on the market beginning at $3,600. Tooling units for sealing normal 12-16-ounce beverage cans, 32-ounce crowlers and different kinds of cans can be found for $370 per set.
Day by day Espresso Information picture by Howard Bryman.
“We’ve accomplished a bunch of testing with taste profile longevity, and proven that it retains [coffee] more energizing for longer,” Oktober Can Seamers Founder and CEO and Dennis Grumm instructed DCN. “We’ve been promoting [seamers] to locations doing chilly brew for the reason that very starting, however that is our first espresso commerce present, and it’s been an enormous success thus far. It’s all model new for us, however we’re fairly stoked.”
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the affiliate editor of Day by day Espresso Information by Roast Journal. He’s based mostly in Portland, Oregon.
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