With the weather heating up for the summer months, hot lattes are so three months ago. Today’s caffeine delivery method of choice for many, most likely including your employees, is cold brew.
Think iced coffee but a lot smoother and without the bitter taste of a home iced coffee brew. The popularity of cold brew beverages can be attributed to the fact they’re prepared by being steeped at a cold temperature over a 12-hour period before they’re filtered and served with ice.
As Peter Giuliano, senior director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, describes cold brew, it’s “iced coffee taken seriously.”
Cold Brew is Currently a Really Big Deal
Cold brew is part of the “third wave coffee movement.” Today’s millennials are really into caffeine, but they’re eschewing energy drinks and sodas in favor of good, old-fashioned coffee like their grandparents drank.
However, their preferences are nothing like yesterday’s generations — they prefer high-quality roasts and innovative preparation methods like cold brew. Experts estimate that millennials are drinking over 20 percent more gourmet coffee than eight years ago.
Cold brew may be a major part of how millennials consume their caffeine in the summer months, but it’s also beloved among caffeine-drinkers of all ages. The Washington Post recently declared it “the drink of summer,” pointing to the fact that Twitter users erupt with rage about how their “day is ruined” when their local Starbucks runs out of the drink.
To help your organization tap into the hottest coffee trend of 2017 and boost your employee morale in the process, learn why cold brew at work is a bigger deal than you may have previously thought.
The Latest Breakroom Trend: Cold Brew on Tap
For today’s hippest employers, regular old drip coffee may not be enough to satisfy the tastes of coffee-loving employees. Austin-based Signpost, a software company that makes customer relationship management (CRM) tools, is one of many who’ve adopted cold brew as an employee perk.
The 300-employee and growing startup recently moved into a much cooler office space and added a cold brew coffee tap and gaming tables to their new-and-improved break room. Several years ago, it would have been virtually unheard of for offices to invest in a dedicated tap and kegerators for on-demand cold brew beverages.
While the drink is undoubtedly trendy, it’s also part of a larger corporate trend towards providing much better refreshments for staff. Not every company can afford three-meals-a-day worth of on-site, local and organic catering like some Silicon Valley tech giants offer their engineers.
However, higher-quality coffee and healthier options than typical vending machine fare are definitely within reach for most organizations and it’s taking off rapidly.
Could Cold Brew Beverages Equal Creative, Productive People?
While high-quality snacks and cold brew beverages can be an attractive perk to include in your recruitment materials, research reveals that these offerings also have a measurable impact on your existing staff.
One recent study revealed that employees with access to free food at work are, on average, 11 percent happier than their peers. An additional 48 percent of today’s professionals admitted they’d consider snacks and other perks when deciding whether to take a job.
Employees who go hours without eating or feed themselves with deep-fried vending machine options may not perform at the same level as healthier-fueled staffers. Forbes cites healthy snacks and higher-quality caffeinated fare as an important performance tool for creative and focused performance at work.
When combined with a break room that encourages employees to break regularly and relax, cold brew beverages could be a highly valuable tool for retention and employee engagement.
Providing Cold Brew Beverages & More
Providing office coffee that’s every bit as high-quality and delicious as gourmet coffee shop cold brew beverages is likely cheaper and easier than you may think. With the help of Corporate Essentials, you can start serving up the hippest caffeinated drink of 2017 on tap.
Corporate Essentials brews its Essential Coffee Co. Cold Brew using Gotham Dark Roast Coffee, available from local roaster Irving Farm. The cold brew is steeped overnight for a mellow, robust flavor and delivered to clients in nitrogen-powered kegerators.
The result is the highest-quality cold brew beverages on tap. The delivery method allows your staff to enjoy the gourmet treat black, or with cream and flavored syrups. While cold brew coffee is may be the drink of the moment, it’s not the only drink available out of a keg.
Corporate Essentials has a variety of on tap beverages, including flavors of cold brew tea and kombucha. Other healthy and hip chilled offerings, including:
- Coconut water: A popular healthy beverage that acts as a low-sugar, electrolyte-rich alternative to recharge beverages.
- Cold-pressed juices: With richer flavors than traditional juicing methods yield, these are packed with healthy enzymes and micronutrients.
- Energy drinks: With a variety of brands available, you can provide caffeine-loving staff with fizzy, chilled options from well-known healthier brands.
- Probiotic beverages: With options that include kombucha, kefir and yogurt drinks, probiotic beverages encourage healthy digestion.
Better Perks are a Key to Happier Office Culture
Researchers consistently find that high-quality perks have a massive impact on culture, productivity and employee happiness. Entrepreneurship expert Jeff Reid writes “perks… reinforce the culture you want your company to embrace,” allowing you to demonstrate that you value your people and their contributions.
Fielding a well-equipped employee haven that includes an attractive, welcoming break room design and high-quality cold brew beverages and healthy refreshments sends a strong message that you value your people’s experience at work.
Making the switch from the old-school coffee pot to a dedicated cold brew tap and other high-quality chilled beverages could help you promote a happy corporate culture in the summer months to come.
