Office coffee delivery

How to choose coffee for the office

Choosing the right coffee for yourself is already a fairly difficult decision. It gets harder still when you have to pick coffee for a whole office — is there even one kind of coffee that will satisfy everybody?

Ground or whole-bean coffee for the office?

The taste, the smell and the aroma of coffee are all very pleasant things. Being able to drink a cup of your favourite coffee at work is a sign of the times, and an office coffee machine has become standard equipment in company kitchens and break rooms. Which coffee suits your office depends largely on the machine you brew it with. If you have an office machine with a built-in grinder, always go for whole beans: freshly ground, they carry noticeably richer flavour and aroma. Coffee ground at the factory will not keep its full aroma until it reaches your cup, vacuum packaging or not.

Which coffee beans for the office

We know already that the best office coffee is whole-bean coffee. That is not where the search for a coffee everybody likes ends, though. The next step towards the perfect office coffee is choosing the right beans. Finding the ones that meet expectations and suit every taste starts with knowing your colleagues' preferences, and there we cannot help you. What we can do is share what we know about the types of beans and what sets them apart.

Arabica or Robusta

There are countless coffee varieties and therefore countless kinds of bean, but two of them clearly dominate our market: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica and Robusta beans differ in taste, caffeine content, the look of the bean and price.

Arabica beans are the most popular and are considered one of the first cultivated coffee species. They are more refined, but also harder to grow than Robusta. They grow on plantations above 1,000 m above sea level, which makes them more expensive. Arabica is delicate and velvety in taste. Its beans contain 60% more aromatic oils than Robusta, but less caffeine.

Robusta is grown mainly in Africa and Indonesia. It has a higher caffeine content and a deeper, stronger taste, along with its recognisable crema.

It is worth remembering that the search for the perfect coffee is not limited to single origin — coffee made up of beans from one source. For an office in particular, the best answer may well be a blend: a mixture of two or more coffees.

Good-quality coffee beans for the office

When looking for good coffee for the office, in both quality and variety, remember that whole beans are the better choice. Beyond that, a few more factors shape how the coffee tastes.

The aroma of coffee depends on the roast level. The International Coffee Organization (ICO) classification distinguishes 18 main aromas, of which chocolate, floral, nutty, spicy and fruity are the most sought after. Acidity is the next parameter. This is not the same as "sour coffee", whose taste usually results from mistakes made earlier: harvesting too early or roasting badly. Desirable acidity brings the flavour of refreshing fruit.

Crema is another important factor — the layer of foam on brewed coffee. It protects the depth of flavour and the aroma of the finished drink in your cup. Body is worth attention as well: the aftertaste you feel in your mouth after the first sips. Body should be creamy and delicate, yet dense, syrupy and velvety. It should never leave an impression of harshness or blandness.

How to improve the taste of coffee from an office machine

There is one important point that cannot be left out of any discussion about choosing office coffee, because it has a real effect on how the coffee tastes. We often forget that the brew depends both on the beans and on the technical condition of the machine. So if you want good, aromatic coffee at the office, it is worth thinking about maintaining the machine that brews it. Weak, watery coffee or a sour aftertaste does not have to be the fault of low-quality beans. The cause may well lie with the machine that prepares the brew.

Maintaining and cleaning office coffee machines

Thorough, regular cleaning of an automatic coffee machine not only extends the life of the appliance but also affects the taste and aroma of the coffee. This holds for machines at home and for company machines alike. The difference is that an office machine usually works under a heavier load than a domestic one — it brews more cups. With an automatic office machine, therefore, it is a good idea to give it extra care in the form of regular inspections, maintenance and cleaning at a professional workshop.