Coffee on Tap for Fuel Stations and Stores: A Tap, Not a Machine

At a fuel station a driver has a few minutes. If the coffee takes too long, they drive off without it. Coffee on tap solves this simply: only a tap and an order screen stay on the counter, and all the equipment goes under the countertop. The customer picks a drink, and in 30 seconds the cup is full.

How fuel stations sell coffee today

Large fuel station chains run on bean-to-cup machines — WMF, Unicum and similar. They are reliable, but they come with their own demands:

someone has to refill the beans, knock out the spent grounds and clean the machine during the day;

the taste depends on the beans, the grind and the settings at each location;

the machine takes up counter space next to the till;

at peak times the queue grows: while one drink is being made, everyone else waits.

What coffee on tap is

Coffee on tap is a format in which the drink is poured from a tap, like water or beer, rather than made by a coffee machine on the counter. Inside is a coffee base, that is, extract: coffee brewed in advance and packed in a sealed box. The equipment under the counter doses the base, brings the water to the right temperature, froths the milk and delivers the finished drink to the tap.

This is not instant coffee. Extract is liquid brewed coffee; it is not dried into a powder. How extract differs from instant coffee →

What a fuel station gets

Speed at peak times. 30 seconds per drink, up to 100 drinks an hour.

Round-the-clock service without a barista. The customer or the cashier selects the drink on the screen.

A clear counter. Only the tap and the screen are on top; everything else is under the countertop.

One taste across the whole chain. The recipe is set centrally and is the same at every station.

The whole network online. The DrinkX Cloud platform shows coffee base and milk levels, module status and output for every location. Recipes can be changed without a site visit.

Less manual work. No spent grounds, and cleaning is automatic.

Which drinks the tap pours

Hot espresso, americano, cappuccino and latte, plus iced latte and cold coffee. Milk is frothed by the AEROMILK module: 330 ml of foam in 25 seconds, with any milk. Syrups are dispensed by the SMARTDISPENSER module — up to ten flavours, so a seasonal menu needs no new machines.

What the site needs

Power: a dedicated 400 V three-phase line, 8.5 kW peak; 230 V on request.

Water: a ½″ mains supply at 2–6 bar or a 20-litre bottle; water treatment is built in.

Drainage: a Ø32 hose; a sewer connection is not required — it can drain into a container.

Space: a 1156 × 645 × 963 mm unit under the countertop or in a separate cabinet, with a cut-out in the countertop for the tap.

Not just fuel stations

The same format works in convenience stores, at the checkout or between the aisles, in offices and in fast food. DrinkX equipment is installed in the VkusVill, Pyaterochka, Day2Day and Yandex Lavka chains.

DrinkX for fuel stations → · DrinkX for retail → · Coffee extract for business →

How this works on the under-counter station — on the home page; short answers on installation, water and service are in the Short answers section.

For business

What a station would earn for you

We’ll run the payback on your numbers: traffic, cup price, rent.

Calculate payback DrinkX modules