Running a buffet means anticipating demand instead of reacting to it. Hot drinks need to be waiting when the room fills, not brewing while it does. The Bravilor RLX 31 is designed with exactly that in mind, combining bulk fresh filter coffee brewing with an independent boiling water supply for tea in one professional-looking table-top machine.
Two jobs, one counter unit
Batch brewing means coffee is already made when guests arrive, so pouring is instant and the queue keeps moving. The dedicated hot water outlet handles tea, herbal infusions and anything else requiring boiling water, working independently of the coffee side. It sits alongside the coffee-only brewers in our filter coffee machine range, differing chiefly in that second outlet, and consolidating two appliances into one frees counter space a buffet rarely has to spare.
Built to be looked at
Construction is properly commercial, which matters in a machine expected to brew several times a morning, every morning, and to look presentable while doing it. The finish is appropriate for a guest-facing counter rather than a back kitchen, and the machine underneath it carries a two-year warranty. Because the unit sits on a counter and needs no floor space, positioning stays flexible in a room that gets reconfigured.
The margin argument
A self-service hot drinks point does two things for a venue. It takes a job away from the floor team, and where drinks are charged for it turns a low-cost brew into one of the better margins on the premises. Filter coffee is among the cheapest cups a commercial kitchen can produce and one of the easiest to serve well, which is why breakfast and conference packages lean on it so heavily. If you are pricing a delegate rate or a breakfast add-on, our guide to what a cup of coffee actually earns once cups and lids are counted is a useful sense check before you set the number.
Placing it on the counter
Put it where the queue flows past rather than stops in front of it. Keep the boiling water outlet away from where children reach. Leave the loading side accessible from behind. Confirm what your chosen position needs in terms of water supply and power before the delivery date, since moving a commercial unit after a counter has been built around it is nobody’s favourite morning. Guests need cups, milk, sugar and a bin within arm’s reach or they will drift into the service area looking for them, and that is what turns a smooth breakfast into a scrum.
What it will and will not serve
The machine handles coffee and boiling water. Milk goes out in a jug on the counter, tea is a bag and a cup, and no barista skills are asked of anybody. That gives you a complete traditional hot drinks offer with no milk system to clean and no fridge to plumb. What it does not give you is a cappuccino, so venues wanting milk-based espresso drinks generally run a bean to cup machine at a separate point and leave the buffet to this.
Keeping it clean through a sitting
Day-to-day maintenance is limited to cleaning the brewing components and containers, with descaling frequency dictated by your water supply. Build the clean-down into the end of breakfast rather than the start of lunch prep. Keep spare paper filters where the person on shift can find them. In hard water regions, treat water filtration as part of the installation rather than a later fix. Because guests largely serve themselves, the team is left to restock and clear rather than to pour, which is where the saving in floor cover actually shows up.
Where a different machine is the honest answer
Hotels covering breakfast with light floor cover, conference suites where delegates help themselves between sessions, and care settings or staff restaurants feeding a mixed crowd are all well served by a machine that has to look presentable and run itself through a whole sitting. Where the site is unstaffed altogether, or drinks are wanted at odd hours with no team present, one of our instant hot drinks vending machines is the more honest solution. And if you are currently running a filter brewer beside a separate water boiler, the question is simply whether you would rather have the counter space back.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.