Recently launched to the Sydney and Melbourne café market and now making its first international appearance at MICE is ‘The Juggler’ from Six Simple Machines, a milk dispensing system comprising a fridge, dual fonts for full cream and lite, and smarts such as hands free dosing.

The Juggler sensor detects your jug size and doses accordingly

The Juggler, designed specifically for cafes, offers less mess, better workplace efficiency and a massive 80% reduction in plastic when compared to 2litre milk bottles.

Demonstrations of The Juggler will take place at our Melbourne MICE stand for all interested in test-driving the system to see how it can bring benefits to their own café space. Special guest, Mike Phillips, World Barista Champion 2010, will be working on the milk on tap system at various times throughout the MICE program.

You talkin’ to me? Mike Phillips will be pulling some
Single O shots & workin’ The Juggler.

We initiated the development of this milk on tap system back in 2011. At the time of building our very small brew bar we didn’t have enough space to store milk, or dispose of all the plastic waste. This led to us to “Why on earth is milk packaged the same way whether you’re a bachelor using a bottle of milk per week or a busy cafe dispensing one hundred litres a day?” Which led to putting milk in cafes where it belongs – on tap.

Country Valley Milk’s John Fairley was a big supporter of the concept from the get go and worked with us throughout on a bulk milk packaging solution.

Product design and manufacture is not our regular gig, so from the sidelines we test piloted and chimed in café insights while development was headed up by industrial designer Ross Nicholls and product engineer Adam Preston. They spent a solid 18 months making remarkable breakthroughs in the challenging arena of milk dispensing.

Ross left and Adam right of Six Simple Machines.

‘The Juggler’ was finally launched. Here are a couple of the key things it does that blow our minds and the minds of the dozens of baristas who currently work with it;

Milk arrives in 10L bladders, which is 80% less plastic compared to 5 x 2L bottles, and are as flat as a pancake when empty. As much as 80L or as little as 10L can get loaded into The Juggler fridge, and the bladders connect automatically without mess and without the need to wrestle with fiddly connectors. Milk suppliers for The Juggler system in NSW include Country Valley, ProCal & Sungold, while in Victoria there’s Jonsey’s Fresh, ProCal, Schulz Organic & Sungold.

Activate a dose with a simple push and release of your jug. The Jug Size Sensor detects which jug you are using and delivers a programmable dose for that jug. When the milk is in the cup, just flip the jug and rinse in seconds at the jug washer and rinse station.

The Juggler enables a faster, more streamlined barista service: Hands-free fills. No bottles to open and pour, improving workflow. It increases potential for coffee quality and consistency: Micro-foaming milk from a more constant, colder temperature can enable silkier milk & better consistency. It also offers better OH&S for baristas: More natural range of movement, no repetitive strain on wrists and shoulders.

But hey, we’re pretty bias, so why not come gauge the benefits for yourself at MICE Stand #73 next week.