Ciao VS5 Bean to Cup

Two drinks at once sounds like a small feature and behaves like a large one. Demand in most workplaces and venues does not arrive evenly, it arrives in clusters, and a queue of four people is where a single-spout machine starts to feel slow and where people quietly give up and go elsewhere. The VS5 pours through a twin spout, halving the time it takes to clear that cluster, which is the difference between a machine that gets used and one that gets resented. It matters most where people are collecting drinks for others, which is the norm in an office and common in a hotel lobby.

Brewing, interface and appearance

A high-pressure brewing system does the heavy lifting, extracting freshly ground beans to produce espresso with real body rather than a watery approximation. Beans are ground per drink, so the aroma released at the point of service becomes part of the sell. Selections are made on a touchscreen with LED-lit drink icons, so ordering stays obvious even in low light, and the smoked glass front means the machine does not need hiding away in a back room. It sits in the upper half of the Ciao VS range and is built for medium to high usage, delivering the coffee-shop menu customers now expect from an office, cafe counter or retail floor.

Key features

• High-pressure brewing group covering espresso, flat white, cappuccino, mocha, latte and hot chocolate
• Twin pouring spout, touchscreen with LED-lit drink button icons, and adjustable mood lighting to match the surrounding decor
• One-touch operation needing no barista training, behind a smoked glass finish for a premium front-of-house appearance
• Two-year warranty included with a new machine

Milk from the machine, and where to stand it

Fresh beans, dried milk and drinking chocolate are held on board, keeping restocking simple. That on-board approach is what allows the machine to run without a fridge, a milk line or a hygiene regime, and it is the reason a site with no catering staff can offer cappuccinos, lattes, flat whites and mochas at all. It is an operational choice rather than a compromise in most settings, but be clear-eyed about it: where coffee is the product your customers are paying a premium for and comparing against a high street chain, a fresh milk system is the right specification. As for siting, the smoked glass and mood lighting are there because this machine is meant to be seen, so put it somewhere that flatters it and where people naturally pass, whether that is a cafe counter, a hotel lobby, a showroom or a retail floor on public view. Practically, it needs a solid worktop rated for its weight, a socket, clearance above to fill the hoppers, and access around it for the waste container. Settle the power and siting details with us before the counter is built, because a machine of this class is not something you want to relocate afterwards.

Consistency comes from the routine, not the rota

Because recipes are stored and dispensing is automatic, drink quality does not depend on who is on shift, which matters in offices with medium to high demand and no dedicated barista, and anywhere staff rotate. Training amounts to showing someone where the hoppers, the waste container and the cleaning cycle are. Routine care means refilling, emptying waste and running the cleaning programme, and at this sort of daily workload the discipline around that routine is what decides whether it is still pouring well years from now. Read the full daily, weekly and annual schedule before it goes in, and plan the annual service into the calendar rather than waiting for a fault. Grinders, tampers and the rest of the bar kit sit in our coffee equipment range, and the wider automatic line-up is in the Ciao bean to cup category.