When it comes to selecting the best coffee maker for your office, the first thing to consider is how many people actually drink coffee within the office. Smaller offices which just have a few coffee drinkers can easily settle for opting for a conventional home coffee maker, whereas larger offices or corporate buildings may want to invest in a heavy duty commercial grade coffee machine to keep up with the caffeine supply and demand throughout the workday.
Commercial Grade Coffee Makers vs. Consumer Grade?
Well, the first thing to consider is that your average consumer grade kitchen coffee maker has a carafe which holds around 14 cups of coffee. Everyone takes their coffee a bit differently, so the exact amount consumed per cup of person can vary based on things like how much they take their cream.
But it is also important to account for the fact that many coffee drinkers don’t just settle for one cup: it might take two cups for them to really feel it, or maybe even 3, or maybe you have Joe the serious coffee drinker in the office who takes about 5 cups just to wake up in the morning.
Suddenly, your 14 cup pot is only serving the needs of a handful of people, instead of providing coffee for the whole office consistently: it might be time to look into commercial grade coffee machines.
We’ll subdivide this top 5 list into 2 sections, taking a look at 3 consumer grade kitchen style coffee pots which can serve just as well in the office, as well as taking a peak at 2 commercial grade options ideal for those with lots of coffee loving employees.
Consumer Grade Coffee Machines for Office
1. Moccamaster KBT Coffee Maker
The Moccamaster provides a no nonsense all in one solution to making a brilliant pot of coffee. Brewing at a consistent 196-205 degree Fahrenheit, the Moccamaster KBT can brew a full 10 cup carafe in just 4-6 minutes. The carafe itself is made out of an insulated stainless steel design, which traps in the thermal energy, preventing the need for a warming plate and keeping the coffee fresher for longer.
The Moccamaster KBT includes an integrated coffee grinder, which makes it an ideal selection for an office unit as it doesn’t require you to have any additional equipment present at the office: all you need is a Moccamaster and your favourite coffee beans.
We don’t find a lot of bells and whistles on the Moccamaster KBT in the way we might find neat little digital additions such as timers and automatic brewing scheduling present in some other coffee makers. Instead, the Moccamaster simply brews a brilliantly cup of coffee remarkably quickly, and provides a quality carafe for keeping it hot for long periods. Definitely worth looking into.
2. Keurig K10 Mini Plus Brewing System
You’ve probably heard of Keurig’s K-Cup system, the single serving distribution method for everything from coffees and teas to soups.
Providing an easy way to get just a single serving of whatever you’re after, the Keurig K10 Mini Plus Brewing System represents an ultimate sort of minimalism in the world of an office coffee maker.
Foregoing the communal coffee carafe in favour of a sort of every man for themselves type of approach, the Keurig K10 is ideal for offices where only a few employees need to tend their needs for coffee, as it allows a single serving (6, 8, or 10 ounces) in less than two minutes.
Also remarkably versatile, with the different K-Cups available, the Keurig K10 is not only a coffee maker, but also makes hot tea, soup, hot cocoa, and all sorts of other neat things they manage to pack into K-Cups.
3. Hamilton Beach Summit Ultra 4846 Coffee Maker
This Hamilton Beach does away with a carafe entirely, opting instead for a coffee dispensing design which stores the coffee, once brewed, within an insulated inner chamber. Coffee is dispensed by putting a drinking vessel under the unit and pressing a small bar to start the flow, much like a soda fountain or similar device.
One benefit of the dispensing station design is the fact that coffee tends to stay much better insulated in the internal storage chamber within the unit than it does even in an insulated external carafe. This means that you should – at least hopefully – have less coffee going to waste around the office.
The Summit Ultra includes the option to select between different strengths and brewing modes, enabling you to easily switch between bold, regular, iced coffee, or just make a tiny batch of coffee if you don’t want to go for a full 12 cup batch.
Commercial Grade Coffee Machines for Office
4. Bunn VPR-APS Pourover Airpot Coffee Brewer
Bunn has long been one of the leading names in coffee machines, renown for their high quality products and their ubiquity just about everywhere coffee is made. In the Bunn VPR-APS, you don’t get any fancy features, no excessive buttons or dials or anything like that. What you get is simple: a beast of a coffee machine, which can pump out enough coffee to keep your whole office wired all day, everyday.
The Bunn VPR-APS can make up to 3.8 gallons of coffee per hour, or a whopping 60.5 cups. Easy to operate and immediately familiar to anyone who has used a coffee maker, the Bunn VPR-APS does exactly what it was meant to do and doesn’t try to dress it up.
5. Grindmaster B-SAP PrecisionBrew
Much like the commercial grade Bunn above, this Grindmaster pumps out some serious coffee, designed to accommodate an 85 ounce airpot (not included with purchase.)
Unlike the Bunn, however, the PrecisionBrew offers a bit more features as its name might imply, giving you digital control over temperature, brew volume, select pulse brewing or pre-infusion options, and offering a host of other nifty features which give you more control over your brew.
Conclusion – Best Coffee Makers for Office
Hopefully this brief guide has set you on the course to finding the perfect coffee maker for your office! If none of these options tickle your fancy, look at what else is available.