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One way for a restaurant to leave a bad taste in its patrons’ mouths is to serve them an insipid cup of coffee after a meal. Even if the preceding meal was ambrosial, last impressions are, perhaps, more important than first impressions.

Restaurants not known for a tasty “cup of joe” are catching on to the benefits of specialty coffee. And espresso makers have come a long way since the first machines resembling R2-D2 and early modern pump-driven models invented be Achille Gaggia were introduced. Today’s “super automatics” automatically grind, pack and brew the beans and froth milk at a push of a button to produce high-quality coffee beverages.

According to René Peterson, president of Supramatic Inc., a Toronto-based company that imports and distributes espresso machines, super automatics offer restaurateurs single step coffee solutions without the operator – despite his or her level of education – being a variable in the process.

“All of those variables are (removed) with super automatics,” she says. “The machine controls all the variables and makes a consistent cup of coffee.”

Obviously such machines save time. A bartender, for example, can serve alcohol while an order of coffee is brewing.

And technologically speaking, super automatics are as sophisticated as they are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Take Jura’s Impressa F9 with its patented Sensitive Touchscreen Technology. A gentle touch on the operating panel is sufficient for the sensors to detect an operator’s coffee wishes. The X3 Compact made by Italian manufacturer Faema can be connected to a Faema service centre via telephone to constantly monitor for malfunctions before the user notices.

“If you look back 15 years, so many super automatics on the market … broke down every week. They had a very bad name,” says Peterson. “The problem, I believe, was these brew units were initially made of metal. Now they are made of plastic, so they don’t break as frequently.”