Great office coffee provides fuel and inspiration for productive workplaces, whereas lackluster office coffee is legendary for literally leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths.
The notion that the quality of your office coffee might make or break your business is not as baseless as it seems – and today, our team of coffee gurus is here to help you ensure your business has the best office coffee available with five expert tips for ultimate coffee satisfaction.
5. Shop local
One of the best ways to ensure your teams are enjoying the best office coffee is to work with an office coffee service that has great ties to local roasters. There are a number of reasons for this, including:
- Popular appeal: successful local roasters are successful for a reason – they cater to the palate of people in the area. Bringing their specialty roasts into your break room is almost a guarantee that people on site will love the office coffee.
- Freshness matters: the best office coffee products are served fresh – this applies both to brewing and the production of coffee beans. By working with an office coffee service that can provide beans from local suppliers, your coffee is spending less time in transit or storage and more time being enjoyed by your staff.
- Neighborhood ties: contributing to your company’s neighborhood economy is one thing, but knowing the names and faces of people your business is actively supporting by choosing coffee from a local roaster can provide a tremendous point of pride and interest for people you work with as well as those outside your firm.
- Green credibility: coffee can be dangerous territory for businesses looking at LEED certification and other eco-friendly credentials, because regardless of who roasts it, the odds are it has been hauled thousands of miles before it arrived at your office. Choosing a local coffee roaster minimizes the footprint of your office coffee products, sometimes significantly.
4. Keep it fresh
Freshness is such an important component to enjoyable coffee, we want to be sure you understand all it means. Fresh coffee tastes better because the longer coffee beans are exposed to the elements, the less unique their flavor becomes; over-exposure can encourage an unpleasant bitter flavor to develop in even perfectly roasted beans.
Another, equally important aspect of freshness to consider about office coffee is how long brewed coffee sits around before being consumed. Choosing the right office coffee equipment, so that appropriate amounts of coffee can be brewed for specific people or groups promptly on demand, is as important as having fresh coffee products available.
“Stewed” coffee is commonplace in break rooms across the nation, but by providing a variety of office coffee machines, people are able to brew the coffee they need without wasting half a pot or more.
3. Offer seasonal selections
The notion of “freshness” should also apply to your in-house coffee menu – keeping it fresh by providing a variety of selections that change with the seasons or as new beverages trend is a great way to keep people coming back for more office coffee.
By keeping the menu fresh, there is always something available that might tickle the imagination of your colleagues – which can be the difference between spending all afternoon with wicked writer’s block and putting together a presentation that wins a big contract.
2. Encourage friendly competition
An often-overlooked ingredient to the best office coffee is staff involvement. Take the time to establish a series of events – tastings for new products, monthly brewing or mixology competitions or beverage-based trivia games can be a big draw to your break room.
Encouraging people to be involved in your break room breeds not only a friendly rivalry between workplace colleagues, but encourages cross-departmental working in ways that can truly benefit project work. What you are doing is providing more than the best office coffee – you’re building an unbeatable office culture.
1. Feed your culture
The last pro tip we have to offer you in your quest for the best office coffee around is that you feed and sustain your office culture with a steady diet of good things.
This means providing a variety of great office coffee products, well-maintained equipment and a rolling assortment of ways people can interact with your office coffee system.
Encourage comments, invite people for tastings when a new flavor drops, involve teams in activities and be sure to take a moment now and then to savor the aroma of success.
We hope these five top tips will help you embrace the opportunity to provide your workplace with the best office coffee in town. If you are looking for guidance, support or advice in providing a better office coffee experience, feel free to contact office coffee specialists here at Corporate Essentials.
