I will be adding soon, several hundred coffee recipes to this site so all can enjoy and use. On you menu you should include smoothies, even though it’s not in any form a coffee drink it fits well with this group and will sell well as will frozen drinks from your granita machine.

On this large menu of different coffee drinks, frozen drinks, and smoothies you may be tempted to sell food. I would not recommend it. It is your drive thru coffee stand business and you sell what you want, I am just making suggestions here. You are in a gourmet coffee business and it just doesn’t mix with food.

People who come to your drive thru coffee stand business are conesiers and are not very forgiving. They want the perfect cup of coffee, espresso, cappuccino, etc and it takes all your attention satisfying your customers and making them that perfect coffee beverage and you just don’t have time worrying if you are burning someone’s fries. If you want to serve something edible you can just don’t do dinners and lunches. Serve snacks and pastries. Something simple that does not require a lot of your time and attention. You can bake cookies and pies at home and bring them in and sell by the slice or cookie. I would not go much further that that.

Well this concludes our talk on the drive thru espresso trailer coffee stand business for now. I hope you enjoyed and found it useful. I wish you all the luck in starting your own drive thru espresso stand business. If you ever have any questions or comments or ideas please let us know. We would be happy to hear them and I will answer any questions you have the best I can. Make sure you visit and join the forum and become an active participant. We and everyone else is always looking for new ideas and without you this suite would not be possible. Thanks again for visiting and come back often, as we will be adding new topics regularly. Visit all of our other informative pages on this site before you leave.

If you are not a coffee drinker then start right now. The people who will frequent your drive thru coffee stand are a picky bunch and I don’t blame them. Nothing is more frustrating than to watch someone ruin a good cup of Java or have someone hand you what he calls an espresso but turns out to be the likeness of burnt mud.

Don’t call yourself a drive thru espresso business if you know nothing about coffees. In order to appreciate the whole coffee espresso experience from roasting the beans to grinding them to handing a cup to one of your customers you must be a drinker.

Do a lot of research then do more. Get to know and appreciate every aspect of the drive thru coffee stand business. If you don’t acquire the appreciation this craft deserves your customers can tell and your business will suffer. Take a class if you can. They will show you everything there is to know about being a great barrister from the perfect grind to just how much to tamp to pour the perfect shot of espresso.

I know there are a couple of barrister training schools in the northwest and a couple more scattered around the country and the cost is between $3500 and $5000 but it is well worth it and it will pay for itself in no time.

Later on in a month or so I will put links to these schools on this site so you can find them easily. Let me end this step by saying, and I can’t stress this enough to you, research, research and more research. Learn all there is to know about the drive thru coffee business and it will reward you greatly. Ok on to step four.

• The first and most important pieces of equipment is your espresso machine. If your just starting in the drive thru espresso business I would recommend at least a two or three group espresso machine with fast recovery. You also will have to choose between automatic and semi automatic. Both are great and will do the job you need. Semi automatic is the favorite of drive thru coffee business owners and automatic being the most used in the coffee shops. In you research you can read about each one and decide for yourself. The main difference between the two being with an automatic the shot is pull for you and the extraction process is automatic, with the semi automatic you use a lever to pull your own shots and this all comes with practice until you pull just as good or better shot than an automatic can for you. In most cases though if you start with a semi automatic and get the feel for it you will stick with the semi automatic. In my opinion a good barrister can always pull a much better shot with a semi automatic than an automatic ever could.
• The next piece of equipment is your grinder. These come in many shapes and sizes and just and many grind selections. I recommend getting a grinder that has at least 7 to 13 grind selections as each different kind of coffee, espresso, and cappuccino takes a different grind. Don’t buy just one. Have at least two in your drive thru coffee business.
• The next piece of equipment is totally optional. The coffee bean roaster. If you want to go all the way in this business then by all means buy yourself a roaster. You can buy the different variety of beans fresh and roast them to you and your customers liking. If you are not interested in this part of the business that’s ok it will not hurt you in any way. You can buy just as flavorful beans already roasted in a variety of roasts.
• Don’t forget about the common everyday coffee maker. Even though you are running a gourmet coffee business there are lots of us who still like a good cup of plain coffee. It’s also good for making hot chocolate for the kids and us big kids as well. A three-station coffee maker will work just fine in the beginning. You can also ad flavor to your coffees and sell them that way. The ways to make money with just coffee is endless.
• A two or three tub granita machine will bring in some cash. Set one of these up in your drive thru coffee business and make frozen drinks to sell. You can also make gelatos with these and watch your profits sour. People love frozen coffee drinks (gelatos).
• You should also buy several blenders for your drive thru espresso business. You can use them for a variety of drinks such as smoothies and frozen coffee drinks. This is about all the basic equipment you will need for the drive thru coffee business as far as coffee beverage goes so lets continue with step three.

There are 10 very informative steps on the page and you should read every one of them. So why don’t you go ahead and go back and read those 10 steps and join me here when your finished. Take your time and enjoy. I will wait on you.

Ok lets begin. There are several differences which only apply to the drive thru coffee stand business and needs to be added to the 10 basic steps you have just read. The first step being……

Make sure you have plenty of windows in your drive thru coffee stand. Two drive thru windows and one walk up window will do but I would recommend four drive thru windows. Two on each side and a walk up window on the end.

The drive thru coffee stand business is still fairly new in the north and very rare in the south. It is growing fast though and those two extra windows will be appreciated in the near future. It’s a lot easier to get them installed during construction than to do it later and a lot cheaper.

In the beginning you will probably just work out of one window per side but as your business grows and it will all four windows will be in use. The one window on each side in the front can be used to take orders and money while someone else is preparing the coffee drink ready to hand it out one of the two back windows which will in turn open up the front two windows again so you can take another order and move your customers thru at a faster pace. Faster is always good.

Now to step two.