1x La Marzocco Linea Mini, 2x Baristas | 50 shots per hour!

Some informal footage showing the workflow at a recent pop up event using the Linea Mini with two baristas operating. Please drop any questions about the equipment or our workflow down below in the comments!
Equipment used:
​⁠La Marzocco Linea Mini
Mahlkonig X54
2x 18g VST baskets
Felicita Incline scales
Rhino scales
Water source: on board tank
‪@lamarzocco‬ ‪@MahlkoenigGrinders‬
For collabs and reviews, please reach out to me.
Instagram: jmo944_

[@nomadcreative1382]

Thanks so much for posting this! I’ve been looking all over the internet for someone really using this in a commercial environment before I went out and bought one for our shop. It looks like it can pretty much keep up with any workload yeah? Do the boilers ever cool down from too many shots? Cheers!!

[@jackowens_]

@@nomadcreative1382 yes, it can withstand quite a hard time. Really, I have never noticed much let up in steam pressure ever, it will steam an 8oz drink in about 10-12 seconds - provided you aren’t pulling turbos, there’s always a little buffer time. The brew boiler is quite small at around 190ml so it can heat brew water fairly fast to temp - naturally, I have never been able to check if the temp has been stable 40 shots in for example, but shots pull consistent and of course taste checks along the way check out. Have you considered a GS/3? How busy an environment is a machine planned to go into?

[@nomadcreative1382]

@@jackowens_ thanks for the insights! It’s a drive through shop on the main road of a small town that is about to literally 8X in population in the next year or so. They’re building multiple schools on the road, but for now don’t expect insane rushes in the morning. I’m looking to keep my costs low on the front end and buy a nice big machine as the volume grows. Thanks for the machine suggestion I’ll look in that! We are either gonna go with this one or a used La Mar. 2-3 group machine.

[@jackowens_]

@@nomadcreative1382 sure, that’s cool! The Linea Mini can certainly churn a good volume, but things you may want to consider are that you will have to manually stop each shot, unless you grab the new Acaia/LM scale for volumetrics which could be useful depending what else is going on in operations for the user. The GS/3 AV has volumetrics onboard- it’s a bit more of a commercial tank and can keep up with as high a workload and you can really feed it- bugger steam boiler, bigger brew boiler and saturated group over the Linea Mini. I think while the Linea Mini can do a good volume, it might be a case of the speed of workflow potential for you - in an event such as in the video, people are there in that location for a few hours so if we’ve got a 20-30 long coffee tab in front of us, it doesn’t massively matter to the person if they need to wait 20 minutes for us to get to drink 30. On your drive through, that might be something to consider if you have a big rush. Have you considered your grinder?

[@darnoth772]

Good stuff dude

[@jackowens_]

thanks! 🙌🏻

[@Caffeine_Supernova]

How does it sound if someone plans to use 2 LM mini instead of Linea classic 2group. Do u think it will work at a real commercial coffee house??

[@jackowens_]

@@Caffeine_Supernova you totally could. But I’d be inclined to go with a Linea 2 group, like a PB. You’d have 2x plumb lines, 2x wastes, 2x water filter with two Mini’s. I think because of the steam wand location on the Mini, you’d need to space them to provide access. Also, I think there could be a little more workspace.

[@asadasdasdasda2668]

nice man, just curious why not use larger milkjug and transfer it into smaller one instead use two small milkjug? and i think it's better use timer only is enough rather than move the scale aside everytime flush the grouphead.

[@jackowens_]

@@asadasdasdasda2668 hey, thanks for the comment. On the milk jugs, this is how Oliver likes to steam and pour, but aside that, with the single group the shot supply rate will never exceed the rate in which the Linea Mini can steam milk so there is no need to be steaming double quantities. Regarding the scale, we need weight for the shot volume as this is my tracker to stop the shot. Time is then a check that we are running on recipe which we dialled in for this volume to pull. If I run time only, I could be getting varying shot volumes and I’ll never know - I could be running off the recipe…. I need both to track and keep the recipe consistent.

[@ponchIRL]

👍🏽

[@jackowens_]

Thanks! 😎

[@gregporter7109]

Mr. Owen’s. How many of the 50 shots are steamed milk drinks. Your video seems to show more espresso action than steamed milk. My experience is the steam is a far limiting factor on these home units, including the larger Gs3.

[@jackowens_]

Hey Greg. Essentially all were steamed milk. I’d say 45 milk, 5 americano. I have to say my experience in owning both of the mentioned machines is that there really is no let up in steam pressure and supply- the steam boilers are especially big. On the shift in the video, no issues with steaming at all. I would suggest both machines are commercially able, especially the GS/3. I think the only thing making them ‘home’ is the perhaps their single group footprint. LM supply Linea Mini’s to all roaster vendors at London Coffee festival and they are churning out hundreds of coffees per day on the show. Thanks for the comment 👍🏻

[@mannyr8795]

@@jackowens_London coffee festival?? I need to go to this

[@jackowens_]

@@mannyr8795 it’s a good festival!

[@mtpastor4546]

To grind into a dosing cup would be way more efficient. I am using an e61 double boiler machine to pour 40 cups in around an hour. The most challenging issue is never about grinding and pouring, but steaming. It takes me 10 to 15 seconds to steam 8oz. And It takes some minutes to recover back to 1.5 bar or above to have enough steam power for next jar of milk.

[@jackowens_]

I have done dosing to cup, but I have found this to be slower and less efficient due to the extra steps involved of transfering to PF, and most of the time the distrubution isn’t as good and takes more time knocking the PF to get things even. The grinder presents the grinds in a good way to the PF that gives me a step up if you like. The Mini really doesn’t run out of steam pressure - we can steam constantly and it just keeps going! Thanks for the comment🙏🏻