From Germany, the Latte Art Factory Bar Pro Automates Steam-Free Foam for Cafes

A Latte Art Factory Bar Pro unit with an SCA Best New Product Award last month in Milan, Italy. All images courtesy of Frank Buna.

German startup coffee equipment brand Frank Buna has unveiled the Latte Art Factory Bar Pro (LAFBP), a new automatic milk frothing and dispensing machine for commercial coffee bars.

The patented machine’s space-saving design involves a minimalist countertop unit that connects to an under-counter milk module that can store two different liquids.

The machine can froth 1.5 liters, hot or cold, in as little as 60 seconds, and can dispense and foam dairy and vegan milks, as well as other liquids such as tea, kombucha and cold brew.

Users can set volumes, temperatures and as many as four different textures to be executed automatically by the Latte Art Factory Bar Pro, including in combinations for complete beverage recipes.

“You can program specific ratios of different recipes for the drinks on your menu,” Frank Buna Head of International Marketing Lindsay Buescher told Daily Coffee News. “We enable you to customize and create your beverage menu with almost unlimited recipes. You can combine the textures with the temperatures, essentially building your drinks out of these building blocks.”

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Though the machine does require a direct plumbing connection, the system does not generate steam for the frothing of liquids.

Buescher told DCN that the plumbed water supply is necessary for daily cleaning cycles, as well as for flushing the system between drinks.

“Both milk and air are sucked by the milk pump and get pressurized later by flow restriction,” Vadym Saichuk, client experience and support manager for Frank Buna, told DCN. “Plumbing is needed to flush the system after each drink is dispensed, for hygiene and to avoid cross-contamination of the milk types. In addition, plumbing is used for the automated daily cleaning cycle.”

Frank Buna is a brand owned by the Cup & Cino company, which was founded in 1995 by Frank Epping. Based in Hövelhof, Germany, Cup & Cino makes the hybrid automatic coffee machine BaristaOne, a machine that grinds, tamps and extracts coffee with a single pull of a lever.

Last year the original Latte Art Factory emerged as a standalone, entirely countertop milk frothing solution based on the technology built into the BaristaOne machine.

The LAFBP builds upon that concept with its milk module under the counter. The new machine recently won an SCA Best New Product award at the World of Coffee event in Milan, Italy.

The company launched sales of the LAFBP in Europe, Asia and Australia last month. Pricing on the LAFBP for customers in the United States has not yet been disclosed, though U.S. sales are slated to launch next year.

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