Upgrade Your Office Coffee

With a good portion of the employed population spending their working hours in an office, it’s a wonder how the office coffee setup is still the stagnant and unappealing coffee pot.

Perhaps you’re a specialty coffee lover at heart and you dedicate your morning to brewing by hand, then taking the coffee to go. Or, you really enjoy a lightly roasted (but developed) Ethiopian Harrar, yet you succumb to the dull office coffee pot due to lack of time.

According to the International Coffee Organization. global coffee consumption is 150.2 million 60 kg bags, and this number has only been increasing at an average rate of 2.5%. Chances are, you have coworkers who feel the way you do about the office coffee program.

So what’s the solution? Bring specialty coffee to the office.

If you do not want to overwhelm your coworkers with all the gadgetry of a coffee geek, start small. Begin with the source of all your pain: the coffee pot itself.

A clean coffee maker, automatic or manual, is a happy coffee maker

When was the last time your office coffee machine was cleaned? And we don’t mean only the coffee pot. Has the water reservoir been descaled? Is there the ever-present smell of stale coffee hanging around the filter basket?

According to one recent study of 10 Nespresso machines, 35 to 67 different genera of significant bacterial diversity was found on the inner trays where capsules are disposed. But don’t worry, these bacteria were found in the disposed section, so the coffee being drank was not affected.

But a different study of home coffee machines came out with a more sobering result. Ten families allowed a local news station to swab their coffee makers in the areas of the drip tray, water reservoir, and filter basket. What did they find? Gram-positive staphylococcus (staph infection), streptococcus (strep throat), and bacillus cereus. Just reading this information makes us want to clean every machine in the house!

Once you get your office coffee machine on a regular cleaning schedule, you’ll find that the coffee flowing out will taste a bit richer in flavor and less of an “old coffee” taste that reminds you of the past 100 brews. We need to note one exception here: if you start with stale coffee beans or grounds, you will end with stale-tasting coffee.

When you have the office coffee maker cleaned up, it’s time to tackle the next big obstacle: the coffee itself.

 

Invest in your coffee at the office

Sharing your love of specialty coffee starts with getting one person on board. Bring a bag of coffee to the office and make one pot of coffee to share with a few coworkers. Remember, check that everything is cleaned out before you do this!

People are generally lazy. If you make a pot of delicious coffee, chances are that they will drink your coffee! After several days or weeks of this, you’ll find that your coworkers begin to notice and prefer your coffee over the regular office coffee. Eventually, someone will ask about how to make the coffee correctly and voila, you have someone on your specialty coffee team.

 

The next step? Finding the right equipment

If you have the time and the resources, bring some equipment to the office. This includes: a grinder, coffee maker (manual or automatic), kettle, coffee, and a tip jar. We’ll get to the tip jar in a moment.

You can begin this process slowly by making a Chemex at your desk and offering it to nearby coworkers. At some point, you may find that you’re spending more time making coffee than working at your job. This means that it’s time to set up an office coffee program!

 

Set up your office coffee program

There are a few key elements here. Designate an office coffee corner where you can leave your equipment to be used by your coworkers. Be sure to offer a variety of easy brewers, like the Chemex, the Clever coffee dripper, and the Aeropress. You can show others how to make the coffee or write out instructions. If you’ve been buying the coffee for everyone, leave a tip jar out, so that those who have been drinking your coffee can help pay for future cups!

We find that office coffee programs are usually the easiest for trying out many different roasters. Subscribe yourself to one or two coffee subscriptions and you’ll never have to worry about running out of coffee at the office again.

How do you brew coffee at the office? Send us your office coffee program @KaffeBox on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.