Top 4 Tips for Creating An Exceptional Coffee Program In Your Office

Hi OrgOrg Community,

Coffee is an indispensable part of your office’s kitchen. 64% of adults in America drink coffee every day (source), yet many offices miss the opportunity to transform their coffee program into an exciting perk. 

We hope you can use these tips to up your coffee game! 

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Tip #1: Build A Good Foundation With Your Coffee Equipment
A high-quality coffee machine will consistently brew tasty coffee without hassle. Surprisingly, most of the equipment we see in offices have all the bells and whistles but comes up short on reliability. You’ll be a hero if you nail the basics by investing in a high-quality drip machine. Depending on the water hardness in your area, you may also need to filter your water to prevent scale buildup that damages your machine and imparts funky flavors. After all, 98% of your coffee is water!
Here is some insight into Bloom Ready trusted coffee machines:

Technivorm Machines For Small to Medium-Sized Offices
We love using Technivorm coffee brewers with thermal carafes. Most countertop coffee machines either heat water too hot or not hot enough, resulting in flat or bitter coffee. The Technivorm heats water to just the right temperature (195-205 degrees), and they are well made and easy to maintain because they only have mechanical parts (no fancy touch screens). 

Curtis and FETCO Machines for Larger Offices
For larger offices, we install a low profile Curtis or FETCO coffee machine that plumbs directly into a water line in your kitchen. These are workhorses designed for high volume brewing so you can brew a bigger pot at once. They heat water to the right temperature and disperse water from multiple points for an even extraction.

Tip #2: You’re Already Investing in Coffee, Hype It Up!
If you’re already investing in a coffee program, hype it up and turn it into something special rather than just another box to check in the kitchen. Bloom Ready’s coffee service is built around variety and discovery, making coffee a new experience week to week. Here are some ways we make coffee special and you can too: 

• ​​Serve a variety of coffee in your office: Keep different beans coming into the rotation and make signs so people know what they’re drinking. Announce when you’ve “launched” a new coffee in the kitchen!

• Drink freshly roasted coffee: Coffee is best within 10 days of its roast date (a quality coffee will have its roast date on the bag). Buy less more often so you can keep things fresh.
  
• Grind coffee fresh so they smell it from their desk: The smell of freshly ground coffee is a sensory experience that almost everyone loves. This will make coffee at the office feel fresh and special.
  
• Start a Slack #coffeeclub: Some of our customers have a passionate following of coffee drinkers that share musings on the brews we send. We’ve also seen that people who aren’t big coffee lovers turn into coffee aficionados from learning from their coworkers and participating in #coffeeclub.

Tip #3: Make Coffee A Team Sport
Research has demonstrated that workplaces that make empathy central to their culture “tend to enjoy stronger collaboration, less stress, and greater morale [...].” (source). An easy way to bring more empathy into the workplace is making coffee a team sport. The simple gesture of brewing coffee for another person goes a long way. Here are some actionable tips we’ve seen our offices do to help make brewing a team sport:

• Avoid single-serve machines: Single-serve machines may seem convenient, but they are massive waste producers. Brewing pots of coffee creates less waste and inherently promotes the communal nature of coffee; when you brew a pot, you’re helping yourself but also your fellow teammates.
• Consciously create your office watering holes: Even if you’re on more than 1 floor or spread out, you may not need multiple brewing locations. Consolidating the “watering holes” will automatically increase the frequency your teammates wind up talking to each other.
• Create a “Brewed By” sheet: Let people take pride in their brew. Hanging a sheet near the equipment where people can sign off on their job well done is a great way to get the whole team involved
• Hang instructions: Simple instructions with pictures encourages people to brew for the office

Tip #4: Provide Multiple Options to Keep Your Team Happy 

​Like everything else you encounter in your job, you know that everyone on your team has their own preferences and things they care about. For some, you will find it’s coffee. As office coffee professionals and office workers ourselves, we can tell you it’s hard to make everyone happy. Here are some of our best tips for how to please the most people:

• Offer More Than 1 Option: We send our offices 2 different coffees per week. People love having options, and if you choose coffees that are fairly distinct from one another, people are usually able to find something they like. One way to do this is to serve a lighter roasted coffee and a medium-dark roasted coffee.
• Allow Your Coffee Aficionados To Brew Manually: Pour over coffee equipment like a Chemex or V60 gives your coffee aficionados the freedom to do things their own way, so you can focus on the rest of the office.
• Don’t Forget About Tea: Not everyone drinks coffee! You may not even drink coffee :) Make sure to pair your awesome coffee program with a tea program of equal caliber. We use Zojirushi water towers so water is at the right temperature and just a button push away. Go out of your way to make your tea team happy and get them a variety. 

Thanks for reading! 
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Get in touch if you want to partner with us on delivering an exceptional coffee program for your team.

-From Your Friends at Bloom Ready. 
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Becky Gessler
Co-Founder
becky@bloomready.com

Annie Krambuhl
Co-Founder 
annie@bloomready.com