Choosing a coffee supplier for your café, hotel or restaurant in Morocco

What should you check before choosing a coffee supplier?

Check ten things before you sign: freshness, blend consistency, traceability, approvals, delivery, machines, maintenance, training, payment terms and invoices. A good price per kilo means little if the espresso tastes different every week or the machine stays broken for days.

Use this checklist when you meet suppliers, whether your business is in Kénitra, Rabat, Salé, Témara, Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakech, Fès, Meknès or Agadir. Ask every supplier the same questions and compare the answers in writing.

Two points deserve extra attention. Training first: some suppliers include it, others do not, so ask the question directly and do not assume. Invoices second: a business needs invoices that carry the legal identifiers of both companies, including your ICE, so your accountant can record the purchase and recover VAT where it applies. Check with your accountant what your business requires.

How Espresso Factory answers some of these points: the plant in Kénitra holds an ONSSA authorisation and ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certifications. Each green-coffee lot stays in quarantine until quality control releases it, and every lot is followed to the client delivery with QR codes on drums, cartons and pallets. The person who records a step is not the person who validates it. A workshop buys, refurbishes, sells, lends and maintains professional espresso machines. For the full roasting process, read our guide to coffee roasting in Morocco.

Forte, Intenso or Crema: which espresso blend suits your menu?

Choose by the drinks you sell most. Forte is the most intense of the three Espresso Factory blends, Crema the least intense, and Intenso sits in between.

• Forte: the most intense. Consider it if most of your cups are milk drinks, such as nous-nous, café crème, cappuccino or latte, because milk softens the coffee and a stronger base keeps the coffee taste present. It also suits customers who order a short, strong espresso.
• Intenso: the middle of the range. A practical choice when your menu is split between straight espresso and milk drinks and you want a single blend in the grinder.
• Crema: the least intense. Consider it for customers who drink espresso or a long coffee without milk and prefer a softer cup, for example at a hotel breakfast or in an office.

These are starting points, not rules. The right blend also depends on your water, your machine, your grinder setting and your recipes. Test before you commit: pull the same recipe with each blend, taste it straight and with your usual milk, and ask two or three regular customers. A hotel or restaurant with one machine and varied guests often settles on the middle option; a specialised café sometimes runs two grinders with two blends.

Once you have chosen, keep the blend stable. Changing often confuses regular customers and forces the barista to readjust the grinder each time.

1 kg beans or 250 g packs: which format should a professional order?

For an espresso machine, order 1 kg bags of whole beans and grind on demand. Keep 250 g packs for low-volume uses or for resale.

The 1 kg bag fits a professional bar: the barista fills the grinder hopper, opens a new bag when needed, and there is less packaging per kilo of coffee. Whole beans keep their aroma much longer than ground coffee, which is why most cafés grind just before extraction.

The 250 g pack fits other situations:

• an office or a meeting room with low daily consumption, where a 1 kg bag would stay open too long;
• a guest house, riad or hotel room that offers coffee in small quantities;
• retail on your counter, if you want to sell coffee to take home;
• testing a blend before switching your whole bar.

Ask your supplier which grind options exist for each format before ordering. A grind set for espresso will not suit a filter machine or a moka pot, and the reverse is also true.

How can you get an espresso machine: purchase, refurbished or consignment?

Espresso Factory offers three ways to equip your bar: buy a machine, buy a machine refurbished in its workshop, or take a machine on consignment with your coffee supply. Maintenance and repairs are available in every case.

Consignment, also called a loaned machine, is common in the café trade. The supplier keeps ownership of the machine and you buy your coffee from that supplier. Read the agreement carefully: the conditions, such as the coffee commitment, the duration, what happens at the end and who pays for which repairs, are set when the account is opened and differ from one supplier to another. Ask for them in writing.

Whatever the option, plan preventive maintenance. Scale from hard water, worn gaskets and a dirty group head spoil the taste long before they cause a breakdown. Clean the group head and the steam wand every day, backflush according to the manufacturer's instructions, and have the machine and the grinder serviced regularly.

How much coffee do you need per espresso and per month?

A single espresso typically uses about 7 to 9 g of ground coffee, and a double about 14 to 20 g. Multiply your daily shots by your dose, add a margin for adjustments, then multiply by your opening days.

The method in four steps:

1. Count the shots you pull per day, separating singles and doubles. Use your till data if you have it.
2. Fix your dose per shot and weigh it with a scale rather than guessing.
3. Add a margin for grinder adjustments at opening and for waste.
4. Multiply by the number of opening days in the month.

Worked example with hypothetical numbers, for illustration only: a café pulls 100 single shots and 40 double shots a day. It doses 8 g per single and 16 g per double, and adds a 5 % margin.

In this example, the café needs roughly 39 to 40 bags of 1 kg per month. Your numbers will differ: a hotel peaks at breakfast, a restaurant at lunch and dinner, a seaside café in summer. Review the estimate after the first month with your real consumption, then agree a regular order quantity with your supplier so that you never run out and never hold stock too long.

How should you store and grind coffee beans in a café?

Keep beans closed, dry, cool and away from light, and grind only what you are about to use. Coffee loses freshness faster once the bag is open, and much faster once it is ground.

• Keep unopened bags in a cool, dry storeroom, away from ovens, dishwashers, sunlight and strong smells.
• Once a bag is open, close it tightly or move the beans to an airtight, opaque container.
• Do not keep coffee in the fridge: moisture and odours get in.
• Fill the grinder hopper with what you will use during the service, not the whole stock.
• Order quantities you will use within a short period rather than building large stocks.
• Rotate stock: first in, first out.

Grinding changes the cup more than most owners expect. Grind fine for espresso and adjust the setting when the extraction runs too fast or too slow; humidity, a new bag or a new blend can all shift it. Clean the grinder burrs and the hopper regularly, because old coffee oils turn rancid and spoil the taste.

Can the same supplier provide chocolate powder and your own coffee brand?

Yes. Espresso Factory also makes chocolate powder, sold in 1 kg packs, and roasts coffee under the client's own brand for chains and groups.

Chocolate powder lets a café, a hotel breakfast buffet or a restaurant add hot chocolate and mocha to the menu, from the same supplier and on the same delivery as the coffee. Follow the preparation instructions on the pack and use the steam wand to heat and froth the milk.

For coffee-shop chains, hotel groups and restaurant brands, a private label coffee strengthens the brand: the bag on the counter carries your name, not the roaster's. Espresso Factory roasts, blends and packs coffee under the client's brand. The blend, roast profile, grind and pack size are defined per project after a briefing and sample rounds, with no minimum order quantity, and quotes are given on request. Learn more in our private label coffee guide and in how to create your own coffee brand.

How do you open a professional account with Espresso Factory?

Fill in the professional account form or write on WhatsApp at +212 661 863 618. The team reviews each request and validates the account.

Espresso Factory serves professionals from its plant in Kénitra with its own field sales force, and runs its own coffee shops in Kénitra, Rabat and Marrakech. The delivery zone is confirmed when your account is opened. To speed up the review, have ready:

• your company name, legal identifiers and address;
• the type of business (café, hotel, restaurant, office) and the city;
• an estimate of your monthly coffee consumption, using the method above;
• whether you need a machine, and which option interests you.

The team answers Monday to Saturday, 8:00 to 18:00 (Morocco time), by phone, on WhatsApp or at espressofactory25@gmail.com. When you are ready, request your professional account.