5 Ways to Improve Your Office Coffee.
Delivering great quality drinks from the office coffee machine is something every Facilities Manager dreams of – happy, motivated staff who love the equipment on-site and keep coming back for another cup of joe.
Sadly, there are lots of businesses where the coffee machines aren’t doing the job, leaving staff feeling deflated and machines underutilised. Don’t worry, there are lots of different ways you can improve your coffee offering for staff.
In this article we look at five of the ways you can take your office coffee machine experience to the next level, with some suggestions of coffee machine machines for offices that need an upgrade.
1. Ditch the instant coffee for bean-to-cup
Instant coffee has been the staple of commercial coffee machines for decades, with speed and convenience being one of the main requirements for new workspace installations.
There is still a place for instant coffee in today’s world, but if you’re wanting to improve the quality of coffee in your workplace, this is one of the most impactful changes you can make.
If your office coffee machines are quite old, the chances are that your machine can only cater for instant coffee and so you’d need to buy a coffee machine with the capability to hold, grind and brew bean to cup coffee.
Thanks to the innovation of coffee machine suppliers, you can now get espresso coffee machines even at the lower price point – machines like the Coffetek Vitro X1 make bean to cup coffee accessible for businesses who want that high quality coffee but don’t have the need for a larger, higher capacity machine.
And if you’re worried that your team will be queuing for an eternity whilst your new coffee machine grinds, brews and vends each drink, you shouldn’t be. The latest automatic coffee machines will typically prepare drinks in 30 to 60 seconds, delivering freshly brewed espresso so quickly that you’ll forget you even had instant coffee.
2. Beans, beans, beans
If you’re already using a modern bean to cup coffee machine, then you’re already one step closer to the ultimate cup of office coffee. That said, we can’t stress how important it is to taste test different coffee beans with your machine. We’ve said it before – the quality of your bean can be the difference between a fantastic cup of coffee, and an average cup of coffee.
Budget beans are a great option if you’re wanting to deliver espresso at a lower price point, but this will hamper the quality of your coffee and make it harder for staff and your wider business to appreciate the investment that’s been made in a bean to cup office coffee machine. You may decide to choose Café Bonitas beans from Connect, or opt for a Change Please coffee bean, which comes with a fantastic charitable back story that your staff will be inspired by.
Not sure which bean is the right one for you? Speak to our team to hear more about the options available through Connect Vending.
3. Goodbye GSM, hello fresh milk
Like with the move from instant coffee to coffee beans, there’s a lot to be gained from ditching GSM and moving to a fresh milk coffee machine. GSM is great for high volume, good quality drinks, especially from larger floorstanding coffee machines, but if you’re really focusing on quality you needn’t look beyond fresh milk.
Reputable coffee machine manufacturers like Franke, Rhea and Coffetek all offer fresh milk coffee machines that pair refrigerated milk units with the higher quality espresso coffee machines. You simply won’t get the consistency of milk froth that you need to make an outstanding cappuccino or latte, with your existing GSM machine.
These types of coffee machine are perfect for offices where demand is below the level that a full-sized floor standing coffee machine would be required and helps balance low vend speed with high quality drink output.
Bear in mind that with fresh milk refrigeration, you’ll need to have someone keep the milk regularly topped up and cleaned to a higher standard than with GSM. At Connect, we take this work off your hands with our fully managed vending service. Our expert team of operators will visit your site to clean, maintain and restock your fresh milk coffee machine, and our team of engineers will be on hand to fix any faults.
4. Calibrate and rejuvenate
It’s very easy to overlook the need to regularly calibrate your office coffee machine, especially if you’ve changed coffee bean suppliers, started using a different brand of GSM or have had the machine for several years without giving it a check over.
We highly recommend that our customers get a yearly calibration, as regular usage of the machine can add wear to some parts of the machine and widen tolerances in the initial configuration. This helps keep the coffee quality as high as possible throughout the life of the machine.
If you’re replenishing and cleaning your own vending machine, we’d also recommend a regular deep clean to rejuvenate all components and make sure they’re not becoming clogged or working at below optimal levels when in use.
5. Out with the old, in with the new
Sometimes your options for improving quality are severely limited by the coffee machine you’ve got in situ. It may be that the machine was brought in as a cheap solution to offer something to staff, whilst having very little budget, or that your machine is now getting on for 10 years old. Either way, machines like these will have hard limits on their capabilities for producing great quality coffee, and your best bet is to enter the market once again and buy a coffee vending machine.
There have never been so many different options for coffee machines – ranging from the smallest table top coffee machines through to the highest capacity floor standing coffee machines, from GSM and instant coffee machines through to fresh milk, espresso coffee machines with syrup stations and cold brew functionality.
It can be difficult knowing where to start with all the information available to you, which is why we’d recommend reaching out to our team of experts to discuss your requirements. We’ve been delivering amazing food and drink solutions to the UK’s workers for over 25 years, and we’re proud of our excellent customer service.
Why not reach out to us on 01865 341011 or contact us to arrange a meeting or callback.