Save Money on Coffee for Your Office
People can have a love/hate relationship with office coffee. It helps workers wake up in the morning, and power through with deadlines approaching. But for those of us who know the difference between craft and convenience, we know that office coffee doesnโt often compare with what we have at home. But with some simple changes, offices can reduce environmental impact, get better tasting coffee and cut costs while theyโre at it. Follow these steps and youโll fast become an office favorite.
Ditch the Disposable
If youโre looking to save money and cut waste, youโre going to have to do away with disposable pod-based machines. Switching from a pod machine to a drip brewer is the single best thing you can do to reduce environmental impact while saving money.
It has almost become part of Keurigโs brand story at this point that their inventor, John Sylvan, openly laments their massive popularity. And, with good reason. The convenience of the single-serve system can blind people to its less savory qualities. Each year enough coffee pods are thrown away to circle the globe more than 10 times and they almost always cannot be recycled.
And, theyโre not even that cheap! The New York Times found that if you were to price out the coffee within the pods youโre effectively paying $50 a pound for the coffee. And, if youโve ever had pod coffee, youโll know this is more than just a little overpriced since you can get significantly better for less than half the cost.
Go With Quality
When youโre setting up your officeโs coffee station, we recommend looking for equipment thatโs mid-range. As with most things, in coffee brewing machines you get what you pay for, but in this case, we think going for something thatโs about the middle of the road is your best bet. This way you should be able to get delicious coffee from a machine thatโll last, without overpaying for features you just wonโt use.
For this, we like options like the Breville Precision Brewer or Technivorm Moccamaster. For under $300 they represent good value for the money while being easy to clean and maintain. You can definitely spend less, and you could also go wild and spend many times more, but keep your eyes on the prize here. Youโre going down this road to save money and get better results and either of these machines is capable of doing just that without you having to hire a part-time barista just to operate it the thing. Pair your machine with a double walled carafe and you can have coffee ready all day long.
Beans
If youโre looking for the best quality option, the go-to is always buying whole beans youโll grind yourself with a burr mill grinder. You can select a automatic drip brewer that comes with a built-in grinder, but if you donโt have that on your hands weโll allow you to go preground. The convenience factor plus not having to make everyone fear the sound of you grinding beans means no one will mind the slight dip in freshness (especially since itโs already a huge step up from pods).
Water Matters
As is often said, โdonโt brew coffee with water you wouldnโt drink on its ownโ. And even if you might like the taste of your tap water, it still might contain harsh particles that can harm your coffee maker in the long run. We suggest going for in-line filtered water or semi-permanent filter options like pitchers. Either way, you will be saving money over buying bottled water and likely saving your machine from potential corrosion.
In Conclusion
While it might not make sense for everyone in the office to line up each morning to take their turn using a Hario V60, thereโs a compromise between that and pods that is worth having. With a few upfront investments (often no more than the cost of a Keurig) you can save money in the and get a tastier result.