Cheaper and More Wonderful Coffee Corner
The coffee corner is a very important part of a business property's break area. It is a place where coffee preparation brings together people from different parts of the office and takes their time away for at least a couple of minutes. These moments, meetings and conversations give momentum and inspiration for the next work sessions.
Here you will find tips to keep in mind when planning a coffee corner sustainably.
Choosing a coffee machine
When choosing a coffee machine, you should take into account the number of employees and coffee preferences.
For a small office with few visitors, it is worth getting a capsule coffee machine. A capsule coffee machine is very affordable and almost maintenance-free. It is preferable to choose machines that use more popular capsule types such as Dolce Gusto capsules or Nespresso capsules. This way you guarantee a wide selection of capsules, easy availability and also an affordable price. Each employee can prepare their favorite coffee drink from their favorite capsule. Each capsule is like a freshly opened package of coffee at the moment of preparing the coffee, whose contents are exactly as fresh.
For black coffee and espresso drinkers, Nespresso capsules are ideal, from which you can prepare just these two drinks. The selection of different beans, origins and roast profiles is infinitely wide, so even the most demanding coffee connoisseur will find their favorite. A simpler Nespresso capsule coffee machine can be purchased for €90. Nespresso capsules are available from €0.30/piece
Dolce Gusto capsules offer a wider variety of different drink options. In addition to espressos and black coffees, you can prepare milk coffees with all kinds of flavors, teas, cocoas and other hot drinks. It's like a small coffee bar in your office. A simpler Dolce Gusto capsule coffee machine can be obtained for just €45. Capsule prices start from €0.25/piece.
If there are more coffee drinkers, it is worth considering purchasing an automatic coffee machine that makes different coffee drinks from coffee beans. Such coffee machines are more expensive but with higher consumption it is a more economical solution than making coffee from capsules. From 1kg of coffee beans you can estimate approximately 100 cups of coffee. The most popular coffee beans cost €10-15/kg, which makes the cost of beans for one coffee €0.10-0.15.
Choosing an automatic coffee machine
An automatic coffee machine is the most popular coffee preparation device in offices. The range of machines is wide, so to find the one that suits your office best, you should keep the following in mind.
Coffee machine capacity
When choosing an automatic coffee machine, it is important that the recommended daily coffee preparation number of the device is not less than the average number of coffees prepared daily in your office. Each coffee machine model is designed with its own capacity, which when exceeded, the device will sooner or later break down or start preparing coffees with worse taste, regardless of the beans used.
Rent or buy?
With a more expensive coffee machine, it is generally considered whether to rent it or buy it. Renting usually comes with an obligation to buy coffee from the machine rental company. In this case, the price of coffee will certainly be higher than the promotional prices offered in retail. By renting, you get the assurance that you don't have to deal with technical problems yourself. This is absolutely a reasonable solution if your coffee corner needs a very large and capable machine that is also connected to the building's water and sewage network. An advantage is also that you don't have to pay the expensive price of the coffee machine right away. In addition, there is always the option to buy out the coffee machine at the end of the rental period at a reasonable price.
If you prepare no more than 200 cups of coffee per day in your coffee corner, you don't plan to connect the coffee machine to the building's water supply, and you have the financial resources for it, you should consider buying an automatic coffee machine. The selection of machines with water tanks is very wide. Machines without water connection are generally just as easy to maintain as household coffee machines. Owning a coffee machine gives you the freedom to choose your preferred coffee from the best supplier and change it if you wish. From a 3-4 year perspective, such a solution is already more economical for you than renting the machine during the same period.
Used coffee machines
If it is not important to you that the coffee corner has the newest coffee machine model, it is worth looking for a machine on the secondary market. Most well-known quality coffee machines, with proper maintenance, make excellent coffee drinks even at 15 years of age. You should note that an automatic machine occasionally needs to replace the grinder (approx. 10,000 drinks later) and the coffee pressing module (approx. 20,000 drinks later). These works are performed by official representatives of the device in Estonia. You can find a powerful used coffee machine on Facebook Marketplace or by asking companies that deal with coffee machine rentals. The price advantage compared to a new machine of the same capacity can be up to 4 times.
Coffee machine maintenance
With an automatic coffee machine, daily maintenance of the device is very important. This does not require technical knowledge but is related to simply cleaning the machine. For this purpose, it is worth assigning a responsible person in the company to ensure that the device gets cleaned at the end of each working day before being turned off.
An unmaintained coffee machine will not make good coffee drinks for long. It is necessary to carry out regular cleaning cycles with appropriate cleaning products, which depending on the model are liquids or tablets. Most machines request these cleaning operations themselves. For machines with filters, you need to replace the filters, for machines without filters, you need to perform limescale removal. If you don't do these things, sediment will accumulate in the coffee machine's piping, which affects the temperature of coffee preparation and the purity of the coffee, thus directly ruining the taste of the coffee.
Milk frothing system
Most coffee drinkers enjoy a Cappuccino or Caffè Latte made with well-frothed milk. The milk frothing system is generally the most temperamental part of an automatic coffee machine, because milk tends to accumulate and dry, and even a small deviation is enough so that instead of foam, hot milk simply flows into the cup and a Caffè Au Lait is made, i.e., a regular coffee without foam.
There are special cleaning products for cleaning the milk system and each model has its own cleaning mode, which should be used occasionally. In offices with higher consumption, this should be done at the end of each working day. During this process, in addition to the machine's washing mode, the milk frother should also be disassembled as far as possible with your fingers and all parts rinsed under running water. Special attention is required to the rubber milk frothing tube, which should be worked through under water.
To ensure that unexpected milk system failures occur less often, you can count on every office milk coffee maker. It is enough to go through the milk system's quick rinse mode, which is one or two button presses away on most machines and takes 10-20 seconds. This could be done after each milk coffee is prepared. The motivation for employees is an ideal Cappuccino.
Choosing coffee
Coffee preferences differ, so there is no one ideal coffee for everyone – especially in a larger group. However, there are a couple of tips on how to reduce the number of people complaining about coffee taste.
With capsule coffees it is simple. They are sold in boxes of 10, 16 and 32 so you can buy different coffees or hot drinks to try and each employee can figure out their favorites by tasting.
With coffee beans, you generally need to find a bean that suits most people. If your coffee corner doesn't have multiple coffee machines – one for each type of bean.
Arabica, Robusta and their blends
Coffee is usually made from 2 types of coffee beans: Arabica and Robusta. Simplified, Arabica is more aromatic and has softer and more satisfying taste characteristics. Robusta is more bitter and contains twice as much caffeine as Arabica. Arabica beans are more expensive than Robusta and their share in coffee blends where both are represented also affects the price of the coffee accordingly.
If the office has a considerable number of black coffee drinkers (for example, the CEO is one of them), prefer 100% Arabica. Black coffee drinkers tend to prefer just Arabica and you can also make quite good milk coffees from it – everyone is happy.
If almost everyone drinks milk coffees, find a suitable coffee from among Arabica and Robusta blends. Quite often these coffees have the word "Crema" in their name. The Arabica content of the more popular Crema-named coffees is 40-60%. The Robusta content makes these beans usually cheaper than 100% Arabica. The bitterness of Robusta helps the coffee taste stand out in milk coffees and therefore these coffees are better suited for making Cappuccino and Caffè Latte.
Milk
Since various milk coffees are mostly drunk in Estonia, this is a very important topic to think about when planning your coffee corner. In many milk coffees, milk makes up a large part of the drink, so it plays a very important role in the taste of the coffee drink.
With milk, in addition to taste, an important property is also its frothing ability, because no one will enjoy a bad foam Cappuccino. With cow's milk, fat content helps foam, which should be equal to or greater than 2.5%. With plant-based milks, you need to choose versions specially designed for making milk coffees – several manufacturers have such a version called "Barista". Their composition differs from traditional ones and is designed to work specifically with an automatic coffee machine. Regular plant-based milk generally clogs the milk frothing system within a couple of drinks.
It is difficult to argue about the taste of cow's milk when it comes to different 2.5% store milks. However, there is a strong taste difference to be noticed with highly pasteurized long-life milks. These are convenient products that you can store at room temperature for several months and only need to put in the refrigerator once the package is opened. Of traditional cow's milks, a 2.5% version suits most people's taste in coffee drinks. If milk consumption is large enough and there is space in the refrigerator, it is worth ordering it directly from the manufacturer by the box. For example, a box of milk for Monday morning.
Wrong milk ruins good coffee.
4 tips for your company's coffee corner:
- Choose a coffee machine with sufficient capacity for your company – don't overpay!
- Take care of your coffee machine and it will take care of your coffee taste!
- Choose the coffee or coffees according to the drinkers' preferences.
- The choice of milk is just as important as the choice of coffee.
A well-planned coffee corner is the glue between your company's employees and a business card for visitors. Hopefully you found food for thought in this article on how to improve your company's coffee corner or solve it more affordably.
Sunny coffee breaks!
