Single-cup innovation: de Jong Duke offers touchscreens, energy efficiency and more
With the Virtu and Siro Touch single-cup coffee brewers, the Taylor, Mich.-based de Jong Duke introduces machines that stand out with quality drinks, touchscreen displays, dynamic advertising possibilities, sustainability and ease of use.
The coffee market is constantly changing and de Jong Duke makes sure that the equipment is suitable for the various requirements. “A strong trend towards espresso based drinks like cappuccino, latte and cafe au lait has been anticipated with the development of the CoEx® brewer, a patented brewing mechanism, which is also used in some configurations of the Virtu and Siro Touch,” said Maurits J.C. de Jong, commercial director.
The CoEx® brewer is unique as it can make a regular coffee with a low pressure and a real espresso using the required nine to 15 bars of pressure. The design and engineering of both the brewer as well as the brewing mechanism ensures that the equipment is easy to clean and maintain. With an eye on the developments on the filter coffee, de Jong Duke continues to manufacture filter coffee machines.
Point of sale communication
With information and communication becoming more important throughout the world, coffee and espresso machines will not be excluded from the trend to inform consumers and other users about a wide variety of things. The Virtu and Siro Touch are tailored to this need with full-color displays. Both machines can be set to show pictures in standby mode as well as during the preparation of the drink. This feature allows customers to inform the users of the machines about their drink, its origin, the used ingredients as well as other things like company news, advertisements, new offerings and more.
The software enables customers to upload information and images through USB, making it easy to customize the machine to the user's whishes. When possible, the machine will be able to be connected to the Internet in the near future. This will not only allow RSS feeds but also increased flexibility and possibilities.
Energy efficiency
Energy efficiency marks another key trend. "Our current equipment is energy efficient and can be set to lower the use of energy if the circumstances allow. We also look at the production of the machines. If we can lower the impact on the environment by changing the way we do things, we’ll look for a way to achieve this. We are also very proud to be the first manufacturer who has complete data on the use of materials and the recyclebility of our machines. We even have information on what percentage of the materials used is already made from recycled material as our customers increasingly are being asked these things. We are constantly working on this to make sure our customers stay ahead of these developments.”
When working close together with their customers, de Jong Duke makes sure that the machines are matching the consumers' needs. Time is spent with experts, research institutes, coffee roasters and ingredient specialists to create the most optimal conditions and recipes to create a quality drink from both the fresh filter single-cup brewers as well as from the bean-to-cup equipment.