Is your office coffee the highlight of your employees’ day or the bane of their existence? If it’s the latter, we can help. And, for your employees’ sake, please let us help!
There are a lot of factors that go into why your office brew tastes more like poison than coffee. Maybe it’s your coffee brewing equipment. Or maybe it’s that the coffee has been sitting in the pot for 2 days.
It could be that the beans have gone stale. Or it could be that they’re low-quality beans that wouldn’t taste good even if they were fresh!
Whatever the reason, you’ll find the solution below. Read this guide to change your office coffee station for the better.
Get a Keurig
There are so many advantages to having a Keurig in your office. For one, they’re the most popular personal coffee maker of today, a fan favorite. Your employees already love Keurigs and know how to use them.
For two, they’re personal. Stock your breakroom with a variety of K-cup coffees, teas, and other beverages that will make everyone happy.
Instead of making one pot of coffee only half of your office likes, every employee can choose their favorite K-cup beverage. They can even bring their own from home.
Lastly, there will be no more stale coffee dumped down the drain. Every single-serve K-cup beverage is made fresh every time.
Get a Coffee Grinder
There’s a reason why whole bean coffee that’s ground fresh tastes fresh. It’s because it actually is way closer to fresh than pre-ground coffee beans.
Oxidization
Coffee starts oxidizing as soon as it’s done roasting, losing the precious gasses and oils that make it taste so delicious. That’s why whole bean coffee is sold in vacuum-sealed bags. Vacuum-sealing the whole beans keeps oxygen away from them and greatly slows down the oxidization process.
Conversely, grinding the beans into tiny pieces instantly exposes every bit of it to oxygen. The coffee oxidizes very rapidly after this. It’s just like how the inside of an apple starts turning brown after you slice it open.
Thus, it’s best to grind coffee fresh every time and use the grounds within 24 hours. Otherwise, you’re brewing stale grounds. Even worse, this means that pre-ground coffee is basically stale before you even open it.
Grinding Fresh
If you want your employees to actually enjoy their coffee, stop using stale grounds. Get an easy-to-use grinder and whole beans for your office coffee. Get one with preprogrammed settings so it automatically provides the appropriate grind every time.
Use Reusable Filters
Another way coffee loses flavor is when you brew through a paper filter. Paper filters trap and filter out most of the flavorful oils from the coffee grounds during brewing.
Reusable filters, on the other hand, let most of these oils pass through into the brewed coffee. The result is a rich, full-flavored cup of joe.
You can get reusable metal filters not just for standard coffee machines but Keurigs as well. This way, you can enjoy your freshly ground coffee in your Keurig machine, too.
Even better, using reusable filters instead of disposable ones makes yours an environmentally-friendly office. You’ll reduce plastic waste in your office by about 100 plastic K-cups a day.
Bean-to-Cup Machines
A bean-to-cup coffee machine is significantly more expensive, yet much more convenient, than the above options. These all-in-one machines both grind fresh and brew your coffee at the same time. This saves a step, and therefore, time, each time you brew.
If grinding and brewing with two separate devices seems too complicated, and money isn’t an issue, get a bean-to-cup machine.
Brew Smaller Batches More Often
Coffee that’s been sitting for an hour is just plain gross. This is a very sad surprise for all your hard workers desperately expecting that hot, fresh caffeine fix. Seriously: this is a discouraging slap in the face to employee morale.
There are a few ways to avoid this. First, always have a timer by the coffee pot.
Set the timer for an hour whenever you start brewing. When it beeps, pour the remaining brew down the drain.
Second, avoid wasting coffee by brewing in smaller batches. Third, if your office needs a constant stream of coffee, get more than one coffee pot. Start the second pot when the first is almost expired.
Choosing the Right Whole Beans
The best way to choose quality whole beans for your office coffee is to get a coffee education and become a true connoisseur. There are plenty of resources online to learn this from, like this guide. But we’ll give you the basics below.
The 4 Types of Coffee Beans
There are 4 types of coffee beans: arabica, robusta, liberica, and excelsa. Arabica is the good stuff, the kind every coffee shop in America uses.
As for the rest, none of them matter. Always buy arabica.
Know Your Regions
There are three major regions coffee beans come from: Central and South America, Africa/the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Central and South America
The coffee that comes from Central and South America is characterized by plenty of acidity. This means that it has a lighter flavor that tends to disappear as soon as you’ve swallowed it. They sometimes have flavor notes of nuts or caramel.
Africa/The Middle East
This region produces coffees with deep flavors with complex bouquets of flavor notes. These notes include wine, fruit, even flowers.
Southeast Asia
The coffees of Southeast Asia tend to have a very “earthy” flavor. These coffees include some very distinct and very different flavor notes including mushrooms and dirt (seriously). It usually takes a very specific type of coffee connoisseur to prefer the coffees of this region.
Kona
Also worth mentioning is the tiny Kona coffee growing region in Hawaii. Like everything else that comes from the state’s fertile, volcanic soil, this coffee tastes full, rich, sweet, exquisite.
Naturally, it’s also very expensive. Most so-called “Kona” coffee you’ll see in your local grocery store contains 10% or less of actual Kona coffee.
Office Coffee That Won’t Disappoint
Your office coffee should make them say, “Mmm,” not, “Ew!” Follow these tips and it will!
For more ways to better your business, check our Money and Finance blog.
