The Baby Hardtank is our award-winning countertop cold brew coffee maker. It is perfect for cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants looking to offer a wide range of cold brew beverages in a smaller format without compromising on quality or service speed.
With a 30×30 cm footprint and a capacity of up to 300 portions of fresh cold brew coffee per day, Baby Hardtank offers operators flexibility and dependability. It mitigates the everyday challenges of capacity and counter space limitations for hospitality businesses.
However, in recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that consumers have appetites for a whole world of chilled drinks beyond cold brew coffee. In addition to growing interest in iced tea and kombucha, mocktails are more popular than ever.
We kept this in mind when designing the Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker, which allows you to expand your menu effortlessly with just one piece of equipment.
We spoke with Chris Gaag, Director at OTT, to learn more about how diversifying your menu offering appeals to consumers.
How does the Baby Hardtank work?
The Baby Hardtank is our compact countertop fast cold brew coffee maker. It has a much smaller footprint than our larger commercial machines like Hardtank 1T, Hardtank 2T, and Hardtank 20. (If you’re looking for large-capacity, commercial cold brew coffee makers, click here to learn more.)
Not only is the Baby Hardtank perfectly sized for a café, bar, or restaurant setting where space is at a premium, but it also employs patented recirculation technology to allow you to extract four litres of cold brew in less than 45 minutes, including its automated cleaning cycle. This is in stark contrast to traditional methods, which can take between 8 and 24 hours to make a single batch.
This allows businesses to brew batches of cold coffee, tea, and more throughout the day as consumer demand naturally fluctuates, reducing waste while freeing up precious storage space.
The Baby Hardtank is controlled from a user-friendly digital touchscreen or a mobile-friendly app, meaning extensive staff training is unnecessary. Plus, recipes can be designed, saved, and restored for accurate replication and improved product consistency.
So what can I brew in my Baby Hardtank?
With Baby Hardtank on your counter, you can offer cold brew coffee, nitro coffee, cascara, cold brew tea, cocktails, and mocktails with ease and confidence – you just change what goes in the stainless steel basket, and Baby Hardtank does the rest.
Why is this important? Younger consumers (Gen Z and Millenials) are more demanding than ever in terms of beverage options from their favourite coffee shops and restaurants.
In the USA, Gen Z consumes 20% less alcohol than millennials and actively seeks out beverages with more functional benefits and less sugar or additives – the kind of drinks easily brewed with a Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker.
Additionally, cascara beverages, made from the dried husks of coffee cherries and brewed similarly to tea, are a relatively new phenomenon exhibiting tremendous growth. The global market is expected to exceed $1.2bn by 2030 via a 10.2% CAGR, and with a Baby Hardtank, you can grab a piece.
The global iced tea market is forecasted to exceed $74bn by 2029. Baby Hardtank offers operators the ability to produce a modern, innovative take on this consumer staple by producing cold brew tea, a product naturally lower in caffeine and higher in antioxidants, and thus more appealing to the younger audience.
Functional beverages, diverse palates, sustainability, and mindful indulgence are the four pillars of young people’s food and beverage consumption habits, and successful operators must expand and innovate to meet expectations. Adding a Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker to your countertop lets you experiment, innovate, and deliver beverages across these pillars.
“If you have a broader set of options, that’s how you appeal to a younger crowd. You need multiple brew methods and drink options – that’s how you get people through the door,” says Chris.
“It is absolutely imperative if you want your business to survive, to appeal to a younger crowd. Unless you are building a following, you are not growing.
“If you look at what older consumers are willing to spend vs younger consumers, it’s clear you want to appeal to the younger ones. You won’t get a 65-year-old with the same appreciation for a specific coffee product that you will from a 25-year-old.”
Recipes for you to try with your Baby Hardtank
We’ve worked with Anna Serova, the first female World Coffee in Good Spirits champion and consulting mixologist, to develop a vast array of restaurant and cafe-friendly recipes for you to brew with your Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker.
Some examples of how you can expand your offering are below:
Cold Brew Mate
A cold brew mate beverage – intense, nitro-friendly and holds foam well.
Step 1: Add 350 g mate tea to the stainless steel basket
Step 2: Add 4 litres of water to the outer chamber
Step 3: Set the program to 4 litres and infuse for 30 minutes
For best results, serve via a nitro draught system.
Ginger & Passion Fruit Mocktail
A nitro lemonade non-alcoholic mocktail with a bright, botanical flavour and vanilla aftertaste.
Step 1: Blend the following ingredients:
- 400 g fresh ginger, peeled
- 120 g lemongrass
- 30 g orange zest
Step 2: Add the combined ingredients to the stainless steel basket
Step 3: Add 4 litres of water to the outer chamber, set program and infuse for 50 minutes
Step 4: Decant and add 1000 g sugar and 10 g vanilla extract, stirring until dissolved
Step 5: Add 1 litre of passion fruit juice, stirring until well combined
Step 6: Transfer to a keg
For best results, serve via a nitro draught system.
Sparkling Cascara
A sustainable, innovative and delicious alternative to cold brew coffee, light and aromatic.
Step 1: Add 75 g cascara to the stainless steel basket
Step 2: Add 4 litres of water to the outer chamber
Step 3: Set the program to 4 litres and brew for 25 minutes
For best results, serve via a CO2 draught system or a syphon with CO2 bullets.
Cold Brew Martini
A twist on the classic espresso martini, using cold brew coffee for a smoother experience.
Step 1: Add 300 g ground coffee to the stainless steel basket
Step 2: Add 2 litres of water and 2.5 litres of vodka to the outer chamber
Step 3: Set the program to 60 minutes
Step 4: Add a simple, 1:1 dark muscovado sugar syrup (250 ml syrup per 1 litre of beverage)
For best results, serve via a nitro draught system.
Adding a Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker to your countertop will level up your menu offerings, help you offer your customers a more memorable experience, and speed up your service.
As consumer preferences change and become more demanding in their variation and complexity, our equipment can support your business and keep you focused on what’s most important – your customers.
Visit our website or contact us directly to learn more about how a Baby Hardtank cold brew coffee maker can help your business.
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