Vending Machine Coffee

Vending machine coffee is coffee made to order by a machine, in a few seconds, at the push of a button: in offices, factories, stations and other public places. Inside, a boiler heats water and the machine either mixes it with instant coffee and powdered milk, brews it through ground coffee, or grinds beans and presses espresso. The first one, the Kwik Kafe, was built in a Philadelphia garage and sold its first cups at an American football game in 1946. Here’s how the machines work, the three types, and where they came from.

The short version

• Three kinds of machine: instant, fresh-brew and bean-to-cup.
• Instant is fastest and cheapest; bean-to-cup tastes closest to a café.
• A vend takes about 10 to 45 seconds.
• Invented in Philadelphia by Lloyd Rudd and Cyrus Melikian: tested in 1946, launched in 1947.
• Japan has the most: hot and cold coffee machines on the street, mostly selling cans.

How does a coffee vending machine work?

Vending Times breaks a machine into four main parts: a water boiler, a brewer, the dispenser and a control system.

1. You choose. The control system reads your selection, including options such as extra milk, a stronger brew or sugar.
2. Water is heated. Many machines are plumbed into the mains, and busy ones have more than one boiler so they can keep up at peak times.
3. Ingredients are dosed. Each drink has set amounts, measured in grams, so every cup comes out the same. Powders such as instant coffee or chocolate drop into an internal mixing bowl, where they meet hot water. For an espresso drink, beans go to the brewer instead.
4. The cup fills. Some machines drop a cup; others ask you to put your own under the spout. Milk follows, either powdered or fresh from a chilled unit.
5. The waste goes away. Spills go to a drip tray, and used coffee cakes drop into a bin inside the machine.

Vending Times says the whole vend takes anywhere from 10 to 45 seconds.

What are the three types?

Type	How it makes coffee	Trade-off
Instant	Soluble coffee, powdered milk or freeze-dried ingredients mixed with hot water	Quick, cheap and low-maintenance, but flavour and texture suffer
Fresh-brew	Hot water passed through ground coffee	Better than instant, a little slower
Bean-to-cup	Grinds beans for each cup, presses a cake and forces hot water through it for espresso; often fresh milk	Closest to café coffee, but needs daily cleaning and milk care

Liquidline, a UK workplace supplier, sums up the choice: traditional vending machines keep costs down and service fast, and suit unsupervised areas and big teams on shifts; bean-to-cup machines take more upkeep but give a smoother, more café-like drink. Many buildings now mix both.

Where did coffee vending machines come from?

Lloyd K. Rudd and K. Cyrus Melikian were engineers who met in the US Army during the Second World War. According to the Hagley Museum, they founded Rudd-Melikian in Philadelphia in 1946 and built their first coffee vending machine in a garage. Melikian told the Chestnut Hill Local that they tested it in November 1946 at a Philadelphia Eagles game at Shibe Park: “We sold the coffee for 10 cents a cup, and people loved it because it was a very cold day. We could not make it fast enough to meet the demand.”

When	What happened	Source
November 1946	The Rudd-Melikian machine is tested at an Eagles game	Chestnut Hill Local
1947	It launches as the Kwik Kafe, dropping a paper cup and filling it with instant coffee and hot water in about five seconds	Wikipedia
1947	Manning & Lewis, Knapway Devices and Bert Mills also make coffee vending machines; some mix liquid concentrate with boiling water	Wikipedia
1948	Rudd says Kwik Kafe machines serve 250,000 cups a day	Wikipedia (company claim)
1955	Over 60,000 coffee vending machines in the US	Wikipedia
1967	Rudd and Melikian sell the company, which becomes RMI	Chestnut Hill Local

Vending coffee wasn’t loved by everyone: Wikipedia quotes one publication’s verdict on “vending machines spewing out tar-like fluid in white plastic cups”. Melikian kept inventing. The Chestnut Hill Local says that in 1965 he and engineer Harry Klaus perfected a machine to make sealed espresso pods, and Hagley credits his later company, ABCD, with work on the coffee pod used in single-cup machines.

Where are coffee vending machines most common?

Japan. The Takeout reports about 4 million vending machines for 122 million people, roughly one for every 30. Many sell canned coffee hot or cold, a trade that took off after Pokka’s hot-and-cold machine of 1973.

Italy. Wikipedia notes machines offering up to 18 coffee varieties.

Workplaces everywhere. Wikipedia points out that many office machines need no payment at all: the employer provides the coffee free.

General guidance only. Vended drinks come out very hot, so take care with thin cups.

Vending machine coffee vs other methods

• Japanese canned coffee: ready-to-drink coffee, the vending machine staple in Japan.
• Instant coffee sticks: the same soluble coffee, mixed yourself.
• Batch brew: large café filter brewers.
• Automatic pour-over machine: a machine that brews one cup at a time, by the pour.

Explore every machine method in the machine chapter.