Choosing the perfect office coffee machine

Moving back to the office soon and need to find an office coffee machine? Downsizing or adopting flexible working and need a coffee machine that’s equally flexible?

The modern workplace is fuelled by coffee and the quality of that coffee is arguably more important to staff than the quantity.

But what if you could offer both? What if you could source a flexible coffee machine that could scale up or down, deliver delicious coffee as well as other drinks? What if that machine was cheap to run, easy to use and efficient too?

That’s what you’ll get with most modern coffee machines. But not all machines are equal.

That’s why we put this guide together.

Choosing an office coffee machine

We’re going to outline a few considerations you need to take into account when choosing the perfect office coffee machine for your business.

Bean to cup machine vs. filter machine

There are lots of technical reasons why a bean to cup coffee machine is superior to a filter machine, but we’ll give you a scenario to outline why it’s no contest.

You’re first into the office in the morning. You turn off the alarm, turn on the lights, boot up your computer and go to make coffee.

You walk up to your filter machine and find that instead of emptying it and rinsing out the jug and removing the filter, everything has been left as it was the day before.

All social conventions were ignored and you now have to empty out day old coffee, clean the jug, remove the old coffee and filter and wipe everything down before refilling it.

Sound familiar?

You don’t get that with a bean to cup machine.

You also don’t have to drink the same coffee as everyone else or put up with lukewarm coffee either!

Quality and quantity

Another advantage of a bean to cup machine is the quality of the coffee you use with it. You can select a range of coffee beans with different flavour profiles, include decaf, tea, hot chocolate and other drinks too.

Want to improve the quality of the coffee? Change to a different bean. The machine will still work the same but will dispense better coffee.

An office coffee machine is also about quantity.

Many bean to cup machines have an optimum range. For example, an SCS Compact machine can deliver anywhere from 1-80 cups per day. The larger Coffetek Neo can dispense up to 550 drinks per day.

That’s a lot of flexibility in terms of fuelling your workforce!

If you’re using hybrid working, a range works well. If few people come into work, the machine can still deliver coffee in a cost-effective way.

If everyone turns up, the coffee machine can still keep everyone fuelled.

How much space do you have?

Office coffee machines come in all shapes and sizes, which will obviously limit the one you choose.

Smaller coffee machines can sit on a countertop and take up very little space. A vending machine style coffee machine will require more space and a water supply plumbed in.

Coffee machines with bean canisters on top will require more headroom than one without, so take space into account when selecting your machine.

Freedom of choice

Many of us drink coffee and are fuelled by caffeine, but not everyone is. Using an office coffee machine means you can easily cater to every taste or dietary requirement.

Many quality machines can serve coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot water for your own tea bags and even milk. Some larger machines are also capable of offering a wider range of drinks.

Value

Value is where many office coffee machine decisions fall down. A simple kettle and coffee filter machine are cheap to buy and simple to run, but are very limited in their scope.

A bean to cup office coffee machine may cost more, but offers much better value.

It can offer a wider variety of drinks, dispenses them to order so there’s little waste. They are also low maintenance and simple to maintain, so running costs are kept low.

Rather than paying for a bag of coffee only for it to sit in the filter jug all day to be thrown away, an office coffee machine delivers coffee on demand.

Plus, you can include servicing and preventative maintenance as part of your service contract!