Everyone knows that you need the right tool for the right job, and the right tool for nearly every job is coffee. Even if you personally don’t drink/like coffee, your coworkers do and odds are that they are much better to work with when they’ve had a good cup of coffee which means that your job gets easier.
Clean The Coffee Maker
This may seem like an obvious one and that’s because it is. But cleaning your coffee maker once in awhile makes a huge difference. We’ve actually put together an entire guide for cleaning an office kitchen area that you can check out.
Make It Right
The next stop on your office coffee quest is to make sure that the coffee is made properly.
- Use a thermal carafe. The hot plate on your cheap coffee maker not only keeps the coffee warm, but it actually cooks it until it is more edible than drinkable. A thermal carafe will keep the coffee at the right temperature for a significant amount of time without over cooking it into biodegradable sludge. A great coffee maker, if you’re willing to spend a bit is the OXO On 12 that has the thermal carafe and a detachable hot water kettle for the tea drinkers in your office.
- Use good coffee beans. There is a definite difference between quality and fresh coffee beans vs old, vacuum sealed coffee that could have been sitting on the store shelf indefinitely. Good coffee makes the world of difference and can genuinely get people excited about working with a good cup of coffee. Every stock photo ever of a productive happy office has a cup of coffee somewhere in it. But keeping up with good fresh coffee can be a challenge. Fortunately there are a couple of solutions to make this a bit easier. The easiest is way is to get a coffee subscription. Usually coffee subscriptions are higher quality, much fresher and can be tailored to your type of grind (if you don’t want to buy a coffee grinder). A great subscription company is New Geneva Roasters but there are a lot of options out there. The second way is to designate an office “barista.” For more on that see below.
- Use clean filtered water and the right amount of coffee. There are thousands of sites, videos, and guides for brewing the best coffee and if you are buying a good quality coffee, the roasters often have guidelines and recommendations for getting the most out of that particular blend.
Designate an office barista
Finding someone in your office who is willing to maintain the coffee maker and supplies is a great way to make sure that the coffee maker stays clean, the coffee stays in stock and fresh, and that the coffee is made properly. Having one person be in charge of the process makes it simplifies the responsibility and chain of command. It also means that they can learn and get better at actually making coffee. It can be a fun little work responsibility and just like any other job at work, it is a good idea to make sure that any criticism is tempered with positive feedback. That may sound overly sensitive but typically people only really comment on the coffee if they are mad about something, and if your office is the type that doesn’t give positive feedback as well, then your barista may resign before long.
Make it yourself, for yourself.
If all else fails, then you can always make it yourself, and you don’t even need a coffee maker at your desk. With only a hot water maker and either an aero-press, pour over, or french press, you can make some genuinely gourmet coffee at your office desk.
As we mentioned before, the first step is to make sure that the office kitchen area is clean. And one of the best and most affordable ways to do that is to hire Environmental Cleaning Services to handle your janitorial tasks. We are happy to serve at any schedule that is convenient for your business and to customize our services to fit your office, warehouse, or place of business. And while we aren’t baristas, we do enjoy a good cup of coffee every once in awhile!
