Workplace Caffeine Delivery Systems

[Chris Amirault]

I bet we'd learn a lot about culture and caffeine if everyone shared a photo and brief description of their coffee or tea set-up at work. After all, the Society is international, and surely we can learn something from the works we all use to satisfy our addictions.

You game? Lousy phone photos will do the trick here. Nothing fancy needed.

[Chris Amirault]

I'll start. I only drink tea at work now:

Left to right:

A cheap Isetan glass pot and two small cups, one for the tea and one for the basket after I pour the first of two cups.

A superfast Toastmaster electric kettle with a coil, not a hot plate, at the bottom. Got it at a yard sale and it's served me well for a decade.

OXO timer that just made the move from home -- where I wanted to fling it across the room -- to office.

Finally, my expensive modular design tea storage system.

[weinoo]

I don't have an office. At least not one that I go to.

But back when I worked in Silicon Valley (at a pinball/video game manufacturer), I basically had a whirly-bird grinder, beans, a single cup Melitta drip and near-boiling bottled water. Many of my co-workers looked at me like I was nuts. But since I made my boss a cup of coffee every afternoon, it wasn't a big problem.

[Chris Amirault]

Many of my co-workers looked at me like I was nuts. But since I made my boss a cup of coffee every afternoon, it wasn't a big problem.

Genius. I would've hired you, man.

[HungryC]

Standard-issue coffee service induction boiler multi-pot setup...we brew Community Coffee, three different kinds: coffee & chicory (aka "New Orleans Blend"), a medium roast, and a medium-roast decaf. Sometimes a fourth kind, "Cafe Special", just for the boss. I drink the coffee & chicory with plenty of sugar & half-n-half. For 3 pm coffee break purposes, we stroll over to a gelateria a few hundred yards away that uses locally roasted, custom blended beans and local milk.

[Wholemeal Crank]

1--Kamjove KJ-350 infusion cup, leaves are a Nan Nuo loose sheng mao cha from norbu, from a while back

2--Thermos for carrying tea to clinic and meetings (sadly empty)

3--Pino digital kettle pro

4--bamboo tea tray with yunomi by Ginkgo and small koi gaiwan, with some Dragon Well tea

5--basket for carrying yunomi with me to clinic

6--tea forum on the computer

[Chris Amirault]

HungryC, love the post-its.

That's a great example of caffeine culture right there: you don't see "Coffee and Chicory" on the food-service carafes up here.

[lancastermike]

My darling wife got me a Keurig machine for my office for Christmas. I can't take any pictures as it is prohibited to use a camera here. BTW I work at the county prison. The Keurig spits out very quickly a cup of hot steaming flavored water. Is it coffee? Of a fashion, I guess. But it gets me started in the morning and it was a very thoughtful gift.

[Chris Amirault]

Wholemeal Crank, that Pino digital kettle looks fantastic. Smaller footprint than I expected a 1.5l kettle....

[toolprincess]

Here we have a Flavia brewing system with several options of dark roast, medium roast, extra dark, hot chocolate, foamy froths and fancy "sweet" toppings.

My link

We also have access to (free for now) fountain sodas in the form of Pepsi products (pepsi, diet pepsi, mountain dew, diet mountain dew, sierra mist, diet dr. pepper).

I'd prefer Coke products as Diet Coke is my poison of choice but I make "dew" with the Diet Mt. Dew. Although I have to moderate my consumption due to jitters and stomach issues.

[Chris Amirault]

Wow. Free soda. Whoda thunk it.

[toolprincess]

Wow. Free soda. Whoda thunk it.

yes a "perk" that may soon disappear courtesy of austerity measures and company mergers.

at my previous job we had free cans of soda, juice, and bottled water - but alas that "perk" went down the tubes for the same reasons.

[Foodietopo]

Coffee in the Japanese work place is pretty limited. There is everything needed to serve green tea, but most of my co-workers drink instant coffee.

I work in 5 schools and I also spend a lot of time at the Board of Education of my tiny little village in the Japanese mountains, all this without any decent coffee.

The one school that brews coffee on a daily basis prepares the weakest coffee I have ever seen anywhere. They probably use 2 coffee spoons for 8 cups. It's pretty bad stuff and I drink it to be polite.

I mostly drink green tea all day which is amazing.

I brew my own coffee at home with a simple pour over set up. My wife bought me a Chemex for my birthday, I can't wait to try it out.

Good coffee is available in Japan. I found a couple of great roasters in my area, but the work place is still green tea oriented.

[Chris Amirault]

Instant coffee? The mind boggles. What brand?

[Foodietopo]

It's mostly Nescafe Excella which is quite popular in Japan and they use a non-dairy creamer called Creap produced by Morinaga. There is also a jar of Maxim instant coffee in the staff kitchen.

I don't understand this fascination with instant coffee.

One of my co-worker uses UCC individual drip coffee system which is pretty much a single cup pour over system.

Coffee in a can is also very big in Japan. You can buy hot cans of coffee pretty much anywhere, including isolated road in the middle of nowhere.

Instant coffee? The mind boggles. What brand?

[nakji]

My co-workers all drink instant coffee, as well. They love it - and they're British. I think workplace drip coffee is a North American luxury. (One that I miss!)

I switched to tea during the day over the last two years since I no longer have ready access to filter coffee. Here's my set-up:

Lock n' Lock tea flask with strainer insert to keep the leaves back - I put leaves in at the beginning of the day and refill with hot water as the day goes on. I use tea of a quality that stands up to this. Usually the second and third cup are the best.

I use the water cooler for water - it's set to a tea-optimizing temperature, just below boiling. The teacher's offices have nice coolers, but the rest of the school rocks it old school style with traditional Chinese pink or green thermoses.

[Will]

This is an old picture, but roughly the same as my current work tea setup. Not pictured are a bunch of pots and cups, tins and pouches of tea leaves, and some other random teaware.

Our work's filtered water isn't great (kind of flat tasting), so I usually bring in either bottled spring water or filtered water from home.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Will (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Where do you live/work, Will?

[Alex]

Instant coffee? The mind boggles. What brand?

Starbucks Via Columbian medium roast (a Costco acquisition) isn't bad at all. We take it on trips as an alternative to the usually terrible in-room coffee service. It hardly takes up any packing space.

At my workplace, it's just a standard Keurig. Pods are in a drawer. Barely worth a picture.

[haresfur]

Wow! Do you really file your tea by type? A very impressive stash.

[Will]

Where do you live/work, Will?

Just east of Los Angeles (city), still in LA County.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Will (log)

[pax]

My company's caffeine delivery system is this place: Ithaca Coffee Company. There is no point in having a coffee machine in place when you work down the hall from them.

Yummy goodness in amazing variety.

[Lilija]

We have a giant Keurig machine, and about 20 different kinds of the little tubs. I can't take pictures, because I work in a lab, but it's a sprawling monster that takes up half the break lobby. I generally avoid it, since I'm not there 9-5, and have coffee at home.

[BeeZee]

one of my first jobs out of college I worked at a strange company which was run by the family, the queen bee was the 70 year old matriarch. They refused to supply any kind of coffee setup, saying that you should drink it at home. She scowled at all of us with our thermoses that we were forced to bring in with our brew of choice, but couldn't stop us. Ah, memories.

[Chris Amirault]

You should what? Where does that "coffee at home" notion come from? I've never heard of it, and given that caffeine is the gas of office life, it's illogical to boot.