Some of the best coffee projects we know of got their start on Kickstarter. From...
We all know that office coffee is – well, let’s be kind here – not the best coffee in the world. There’s a reason that someone on your staff is missing just about anytime you check. Everyone’s chipped in to send them out for coffee from the shop downstairs – or across town. If you’re like my old boss – with your own coffee maker in your office – step down the hall and taste the grind your employees are forced to drink. Chances are good that you’ll find it’s unfit to drink, or at least, unfit to enjoy. What’s a boss to do to keep the staff in the office when good coffee is calling?
The answer is simple, of course – make great coffee available in the snack room. It’s actually not a difficult trick to pull off – and it will cost you a lot less in the long run than all those hours you’re paying people to run to the coffee shop. Here’s a handful of tips on making great coffee in the office.
1. Get a good coffee maker.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive, top of the line machine, though office coffee services that provide a machine can be a good plan for a busy office. Unless you have less than ten employees drinking coffee, though, do look for a semi-commercial machine or a higher end personal machine. Cheap kitchen coffee makers aren’t meant to stand up to the continuous all-day use that most office coffee makers get.
2. Get a water filter for the tap if you use tap water to make coffee.
One of the most important factors in making good coffee is the water. If your tap water has an objectionable taste or is highly chlorinated, your coffee will taste horrible. A Britta or Pur water filter costs very little – and you’ll make your office workers feel like you actually care about them. That has a surprising effect on their work productivity.
3. Get a thermal coffee carafe.
One of the major reasons that office coffee tastes so blech is that it sits on the burner plate for hours. Freshly brewed coffee starts changing flavor within minutes of brewing, and cooking on a hot burner turns the coffee bitter in less than an hour. A thermal pot with a vacuum cover will solve both problems, keeping the coffee fresh and hot for hours.
4. Conversely, invest in a batch of quality thermal coffee mugs for your workers.
Make your money do double work – pick them up from a promotional items company and have them printed with your company name and logo. They’ll keep the coffee nice and hot at your workers’ desks so they’ll make fewer trips to the coffee pot.
5. Get a single-serve pod coffeemaker.
The single serve coffee systems like the Keurig, the Flavia, the Senseo or the Tassimo have a number of advantages for office use. All of the companies offer flavor variety packs of coffee so that you can keep a supply of different types of coffee in the break room so each employee makes their own coffee fresh. They brew in about a minute, which is a whole lot less time than it takes to run out for coffee. Because each cup is made fresh, there’s no wasted coffee when the pot burns on the burner plate. And your staff will love the fact that you cared enough to get them good coffee. (Pssst… I recommend the Keurig, personally, because there are so many great coffees that come in K-cups. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters alone packages more than 50 different coffee varieties in K-cups.)
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