Posted on March 6, 2002 - by deCadmus

Office Perks

Does the latest office perk include throwing the perc away? At the height of the dotcom boom — with companies in cutthroat competition for the best and the brightest tech employees — specialty coffee gained a toehold in the workplace, an environment that had long been wasteland of oversized coffee urns and weak, bitter brew. It seems those employees who ducked the pendulum’s swing have dug in their heels on the coffee front, to the delight of coffee sellers like Peet’s and Starbucks, as well as Mom and Pop shops across the land.

Office coffee is a huge market — at US $3 billion or so — so it’s not surprising that the gourmet Goliath’s are in full pursuit. But does high quality pre-ground coffee translate into a great office cup? Not if it’s business-as-usual… and a quick survey of the office coffee machine will tell the tale.

The essentials of brewing are the same whether you’re brewing a solo cup at home, or a big pot for the office crowd. Mind your grind, ratio, time and temperature, and — at the very least — clean that icky brewer!