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by jon_dahl 5821 days ago
One more item: in a work environment, it's really useful to have single cups of coffee on demand. A pot is usually too much, and is only really good for a short time (even in a thermal carafe). So my office sprung for a super-automatic espresso maker. We got this one - http://www.amazon.com/Jura-Capresso-13185-Impressa-Espresso-... - but there are a few dozen models that are similar.

It makes really good espresso (freshly ground, brewed at the right temperature, etc.), and you can dial in your desired strength by tweaking the amount of water. An espresso with a few ounces of hot water makes for great coffee. Not cheap up front, but with 5-10 people using it for a few years, it isn't that expensive either.
2 comments
Terretta 5821 days ago
Absolutely. Five years ago I calculated the cost of daily Starbucks (or local coffee bar of choice), considered why I preferred their coffee over regular coffee pot brews, found there really is a texture and taste difference with fresh ground espresso made coffees (see Wikipedia "espresso" paragraph on "crema"), and bought this:

http://www.amazon.com/DeLonghi-ESAM3500-N-Magnifica-Super-Au...

Some three thousand cups of perfect coffee later, it seems like it's not just a good idea for an office.

PS. Use distilled water in these machines, and you don't have to descale them, and you avoid coloring the taste of the coffee.

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dotBen 5821 days ago
That's a great model. I own a Krups XP9000 (similar to the Jura) which went out of production about 9 months ago but you still see them being sold off at places like Bed Bath and Beyond and even Amazon.

It's a great machine that originally retailed $2000 but you can pick it up for ~$500

I flip back and forth on the idea of having an espresso machine at work. Jason Calac-anus raves about how great it is your employees don't have to leave the office and can be more productive but I actually find getting out of the office to stretch my legs, give my eyes a break, etc is all beneficial to my productivity.

I'm also lucky here in downtown SF to be close to a number of Blue Bottle outlets and other fine local coffee establishments. It does add up though, I probably spend $50+ a week on coffee from cafes.

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