How to choose the best Office Coffee Machine for 2022

Posted by Catherine Gray on 31-May-2022 14:49:50
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Brits take coffee incredibly seriously. Ask any office manager what drinks their staff prefer and we bet coffee will come out on top, with tea a close second.

We may have been a nation of tea drinkers, but that has changed. We’re now a nation of coffee lovers.

If you’re looking to upgrade your office coffee machine or need to replace one, you’re spoilt for choice.

Rather than tell you what model and what brand to go for, we’re going to outline some of the key considerations you need to make to choose the right machine.

Then, you can scour the market and make an informed decision about what’s available for your budget.

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The current coffee machine market

The current coffee machine market in 2022 is a good one. You have espresso machines, coffee vending machines, bean to cup machines, smaller coffee machines, large-scale machines and every type of machine you can imagine.

They can use different types of beans, offer multiple milk choices, can add flavoured syrups, reliably deliver speciality coffee and do everything but read your mind to make a choice!

Most good quality coffee machines also offer non-coffee alternatives. Those will include tea, hot chocolate, hot water for your own tea, hot or cold milk and other options too.

All at the push of a button.

So, what should you look for?

Capacity

A key consideration for any coffee machine is the capacity. You need a machine capable of delivering a sufficient number of drinks to staff without putting the machine under undue pressure.

Balancing capacity with the cost is essential. Ideally, you would want a coffee machine with a slightly larger capacity for the number of employees you have.

This will ensure staff aren’t having to wait around for drinks and the machine isn’t constantly brewing and delivering without a chance to take a break.

However, you don’t want to have such a large capacity that you’re not utilising it to its full potential. As higher capacity machines usually cost more, you’re then wasting money.

When you begin shopping, you’ll often see the capacity that a particular machine is capable of.

It will usually be shown as ‘X number of drinks per day’. This is an average and will include all types of drinks, not just coffee.

Bear this in mind when selecting a coffee machine to balance capacity with cost.

Coffee types

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We all like different things and our choice of coffee is no different. Some of us like black coffee, some like white coffee while others will like speciality coffees like cappuccino, frappuccino, latte and others.

Depending on your staff’s preferences, it helps keep the office running smoothly if you have a coffee machine that can cater to most, if not all these tastes.

Sure, you don’t necessarily need to go all the way and deliver every conceivable type of coffee available, but choice is key.

Then there’s the type of coffee you’ll use. Typically, this will be roasted coffee beans or ground coffee.

To use roasted coffee beans, you’ll need a bean to cup coffee machine. These will have a hopper on top where you pour the beans. The machine will then grind them, measure the coffee and deliver the drink automatically.

Ground or filter coffee machines won’t be able to grind the beans, but can still deliver delicious coffee.

Drink and milk options

The average office will have a range of dietary requirements covering every conceivable option.

While you won’t necessarily be able to please everyone, it will make life much easier for you and convenient for staff if you can cater to the majority of them.

Fortunately, newer office coffee machines can help.

They can provide a wide range of coffee including decaf. They can deliver fresh tea, decaf tea, provide hot water for fruit or herbal teas, hot chocolate and other drinks too.

Some coffee machines will also be able to offer up to three milk types, such as the Rex Royal S500. You could offer a dairy milk option and a non-dairy option depending on your employees dietary requirements.

All this helps to provide freedom of choice for staff.

Ease of use

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Ease of use is a key consideration for any office coffee machine. We all know people who just don’t get technology and we don’t want to alienate them from using the coffee machine.

The simpler the machine is to use, the happier staff will be. It can also help staff with extra needs.

Most machines these days offer a touch screen to order the coffee. Some will have extra options such as touchless technology or a phone app to remotely order or use contactless technology.

 

 

Maintenance

Setting up a machine is both an art and a skill, demanding technical know-how, and an understanding of coffee and how it performs in the different machines.

Most coffee machines will have a daily clean cycle, which can prevent the more common causes of failure. Not all do though, so watch out for that.

Many coffee machine vendors will provide preventative maintenance as part of the contract. Some will also provide regular onsite servicing and an emergency response service. Roast & Ground engineers are highly skilled and can keep your coffee machine in the best health, so helping minimise call-outs and maximising the life of the machine.

Maintenance

Value for money

Every business needs to maximise its efficiency and the value it gets from spend. That’s no different when choosing a coffee machine.

On the whole, using an office coffee machine is usually cheaper to run than a kettle in the office kitchen.

Kettles are cheap and easy to replace but are inherently inefficient and use a lot of electricity. Plus, you will usually have to provide a can of coffee, box of teabags and non-caffeine alternatives.

Add milk, non-dairy alternatives, sugar, non-sugar sweetener and the costs begin to escalate. Of course not forgetting the staff time boiling a kettle. All this and the result is undoubtedly a far inferior drink. 

There is always the option to rent or lease your office coffee machine as well, which can spread the cost and avoid any large initial outlay. We understand there are some tax benefits as your coffee machines will be treated as assets, but we’ll leave the details on that to your experts. 

So, while a coffee machine may seem like an extravagance, they are specifically designed to waste as little as possible, be as efficient as they can be and deliver the quality drinks and convenience your staff needs.

Contact Roast & Ground today for expert advice on choosing the perfect office coffee machine.

Topics: Office Coffee Machines, Choosing an office coffee machine, How to choose the best office coffee machine

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