Engineering Meets
Extraction
Commercial extraction equipment designed by a production engineer and developed alongside a craft coffee roaster.
The Origin Story
Palmetto Extract Systems started with a phone call. Joe at Bittermilk — a Charleston cocktail mixer company — needed high-strength coffee concentrate for his espresso martini mix. He'd been asked to help a local coffee roaster figure out an extraction solution and needed one himself. Off-the-shelf equipment couldn't deliver the volume, the concentration, or the consistency either of them needed.
I'd spent over a decade designing and building production equipment for craft beverage producers. The extraction problem was an engineering problem — and engineering problems are what I do.
The first system worked. Then we partnered with that local roaster to dial in the process — the coffee-to-water ratios, the pre-soak methods, the extraction protocols that consistently produce 10-12% TDS concentrate. The equipment and the process were developed together, not separately.
How We Approach Design
We bring a production manufacturing background to coffee extraction. That means every design decision starts with the same question: what does the operator actually need?
The quick-release mechanism exists because lifting 30+ pounds of hot, wet grounds overhead multiple times a day isn't sustainable. The automated water dosing exists because tying an operator to the equipment for 50 minutes per cycle limits your throughput. The hybrid hot + cold workflow exists because equipment that sits idle overnight is equipment that's not earning its keep.
But the equipment is only half the story. The extraction protocols — the ratios, the timing, the pre-soak process — were developed in partnership with a working roaster who understands what makes great concentrate. We sell complete systems, not just hardware.
14 Years
Engineering Experience
10+ Years
Machine Design
Charleston, SC
Designed & Manufactured