cleaning

Nothing drives a customer away faster than doubts about your hygiene and cleanliness. And the problem may be invisible – the cup that looks clean can still be tainted by the taste of unrinsed washing-up liquid, and the customer that gets it will be gone for good.

“The problem for a coffee house is that British customers still vote with their feet,” says John Nelson sympathetically. “You can spend hours practising your latte, but spoil it with a dirty cup, and you won’t see the customer again. In the States, they will complain, be given a free replacement drink, and be satisfied enough to come in again tomorrow – but in Britain, you’ve lost them.”

John Nelson is the head of one of Britain’s biggest ‘ware-washing’ companies. His products and services are the best-known across the pub industry, and he both supplies and advises restaurant chains of every class. And he does enough work in the café sector to offer proprietors one very important piece of advice – when planning your washing regime, deal only with machine or detergent suppliers who know the café business.

“Coffee is unusual in that it has tannins and gives a lot of staining – which is desirable in colouring the drink. But the other problem is that crockery in coffee houses is predominantly white – so this is a heavily-stylised industry which invests in façade and product, and in the worst cases, relies on very stylish white crockery being washed by ‘her at the back’!

“Anyone who wants their crockery washed properly must have a dedicated washing regime. Then, if your washing is under-performing, you can look at all the possible causes.

“Get your basics right, and good washing will follow.”

There are several reasons for under-performing washes in the café trade, says John Nelson. A major one is the wrong choice of machine.

In the pub trade, there legendary stories of managers who hope that cheap domestic fridges will do a commercial job behind the bar – the café equivalent is to choose a glass-washer machine and hope it will clean crockery.

“We see a lot of people putting in glass-washers and complaining they get poor results. One major reason can be found in the washing cavity.

“We have established that coffee cups and glasses must be treated by wash-arms at both the top and the bottom – these distribute the water and detergent, and there should be rinsing jets at the top and bottom, as well. Cheaper glass-washers only have one jet – that isn’t enough for crockery in a cafe.”

In both manual and machine washing, a big problem is detergent. Many cleansing experts shake their heads at the problem of badly-trained staff who don’t know how much cleanser to use, and dispense too much, ‘to be on the safe side’ - the result is not always a better wash, possible residue on the crockery, and a quite unbelievable amount of wasted money for the management.

“The dispensing is important, and if you are using a machine, this must be set up by the manufacturer of the machine. There is going to be a great problem if you think it’s cheaper to buy your detergent somewhere else and set it up yourself!

“You must also have very good advice on the detergent. You can get detergent which incorporates a de-tanning agent, and detergent which incorporates water-softening agents.

“Your detergent should incorporate a cleanser and a sanitising agent, and then there is another second agent which assists drying, by breaking down the surface tension of the water. To high a concentrate of either the detergent or the rinsing agent can affect the taste of what goes in the cup.

“For a properly-used detergent to leave a residue should be rare - but where it happens, it will be down to either the quality and quantity of the detergent, the quality of the rinse, and in some cases, the water-pressure.”

This may not be the equipment maker’s fault.

“The majority of problems in ware-washing come from a poor choice of machine or detergent, or poor maintenance, or poor staff training – and what we always hear is ‘well, nobody told me about that!’

“So, whatever size of business you run, you must have that regime of cleaning and maintenance. And you must have a coherent service agreement for your machine – that is, buy from someone who really understands cleaning, and will grasp the nettle if you have a problem.”

This, says John Nelson, is more complex than it sounds. To ‘understand cleaning’ means understanding why a machine or detergent which works superbly in a pub may not be right for a café - the real answer might be that the pub has very few dairy products to contend with, and so the machine should have been selected and set up differently.

The buyer also has the right to expect to knowledgeable advice on the items are being washed – as plastics perform differently from glass and china in heat-retention and water-dispersion, a high number of cafetieres in use might affect the choice of machine.

The cost of a café-sized ware-washer is probably between £1,000 and £2,000. So how does a café owner assess whether to invest in one?

“Don’t think of volume of cups and glasses. Think of your man-hours, and whether you are paying your staff £5 an hour for something which could cost you £10 a week to lease. You can probably assume that a machine will probably cost you in a month what a person will cost you per day.

“The machine will also free up that person for different jobs, and will give a guarantee of consistency which a human cannot – and a well-maintained machine is a guarantee of commitment which will serve you well in health and safety matters.”

Tel: 0800 592833