There are an enormous variety of office coffee machines
available these days. They come in all shapes and sizes,
serving a wide variety of hot and cold beverages at many
different budget levels.
Management really need to consider their options and it can
be a difficult decision how to best serve their staff and
visitors with a decent cup of tea or coffee.
This article is about the humble pour and serve coffee
brewer, a simple, cheap and often overlooked way of solving
corporate beverage needs.
The pour and serve coffee brewer, or sometimes called a
pour over coffee machine have been around for as long as
offices have. Put a filter paper in the basket, add fresh
coffee and pour a jug of fresh cold water in the machine
and away you go. Five minutes later you have a jug of
delicious fresh brewed coffee available to thirsty staff.
Although you can pick up one of these types of machines for
as little as £20, the best choice is to go for a
‘proper’ commercial quality machine typically
in the region of £200 or more. These machines are
usually made of stainless steel, have two jugs, two
hotplates and a more powerful boiler. They usually stand
alone and do not require any plumbing.
The good news is that most coffee companies provide
commercial coffee brewers to companies and organisations on
a FREE LOAN basis so there is usually no capital outlay
whatsoever.
In addition technical service is provided free of charge
together with free delivery of coffee and ancillary
supplies. The only commitment in these types of offers is
to purchase the coffee used in the machine from the
supplier. Sometimes the company will insist of a minimum
purchase of coffee supplies per month to make it worth
their while, but even this small commitment is not always
the case.
Coffee is usually supplied in cases of 40, 50 or even 80
sachets of portion controlled coffee with the filter papers
included in the box. Just open the sachet and empty the
whole contents into the filter basket - it couldn’t
be simpler.
Most coffee companies will also offer to supply ancillary
items such as cream pots, sugar sticks, plastic cups,
stirrers, biscuits and other items as well as a large
choice of different coffees to choose from including
decaffeinated.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of such a system is that you
can only serve coffee. Staff or visitors that prefer tea or
chocolate will go disappointed or have to revert to the
kettle. However it is possible to brew a jug of hot water
through the machine and keep hot on the hotplate for tea
drinkers to use, but practically this can prove difficult
as the filter basket has to be washed thoroughly between
brews which can prove prohibitive in a busy office.
For the open plan office the traditional pour over coffee
brewer can be an excellent and surprisingly low cost
option. With perhaps one machine for every 10-15 staff in
their own little area of the office the humble coffee
brewer is often an important and cherished addition to the
working environment.
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For more information about coffee and coffee making
equipment visit http://www.cafebar.co.uk
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