Office Coffee Etiquitte...

84FSP said:

I heart this thread. 

I function as the office barista.

On more than one occassio I have done the cost per cup calculation to justify a solid bean ground espresso maker vs the dark forces of the K-cup empire.

I have almost always been the office coffee guy. Why? Because I drink a ton of coffee. I don't give a crap about everyone else, but dammit when I get up to pour another cup, I want coffee to be there.

When I worked at Omix I found a MASSIVE 60 cup percolator stashed in the break room. Damn right I got that bad boy going. Everyone thought I was being a team player, so much so that our GM thanked me for it. But that coffee maker was the only way I could guarantee that I'd have coffee all day long.

Eventually I brought in my own five cup percolator and hid it in the graphics department where only I and our photographer used it. I brought in coffee from the local farmers market for just me and the hippy photographer. It smelled amazing in our corner of the building. But that is when I stopped making coffee for the rest of the office, and the dark times were upon them......

Buncha bloody addicts...

I use K cups at work only because it is less hassle, though I will use my French press on occasion.  The leaving of the K cups in the machine irritates me way more than it should. 

Streetwiseguy said:

Buncha bloody addicts...

NOTMEMANICANQUITANYTIMEIDONTNEEDTHECAFFENEIJUSTDRINKITTOBESOCIALWHATSTHATBUZZINGSOUNDCANYOUHEARITTOO

Don't toss coffee just because you don't want to drink it. 

I've got a co-worker who insists on making a new pot of coffee every time she wants a cup. 

In the process, she throws out "Special Coffee" that is sometimes people's personal brews, or doubles, or stuff that is cold intentionally. 

Did I mention I hate hot coffee? I think hot drinks are the bane of humanity. I can't stand burnt taste buds, they are the only ones you've got, why make them suffer? Chill out bros, luke-warm coffee won't kill you.

In reply to pheller :

As a tangent, have you ever experimented with cold brew coffee?  I hear it better than cold hot brew coffee, but have never tried.

[rule n+1 - because I don't know what number we are on] thou shall not make played-out jokes like "I guess I/you/we haven't had my/your/our coffee yet" anywhere in the office at any time of day or day of week.

[rule n+2] If ever asked "how was your weekend?" thou shall never respond "too short".

alfadriver said:

In reply to pheller :

As a tangent, have you ever experimented with cold brew coffee?  I hear it better than cold hot brew coffee, but have never tried.

Concentrated cold brew coffee bought in liquid form and mixed with whole milk is EXCELLENT. Trader Joe's makes a good one. Wifey and I have not been able to find a 'brew your own' method that is even close to the same finished product.

Around here, its "thou shalt not allow the ex-cops/military to make the coffee".  Whenever this rule is broken, it ends up looking/tasting like the Exxon Valdez sank in the pot.  I love the military and law enforcement, but seriously, who taught you guys to make coffee? 

kazoospec said:

Around here, its "thou shalt not allow the ex-cops/military to make the coffee".  Whenever this rule is broken, it ends up looking/tasting like the Exxon Valdez sank in the pot.  I love the military and law enforcement, but seriously, who taught you guys to make coffee? 

Honestly, that's another reason to justify making your own coffee.  I love very strong coffee, so that I can taste it.

kazoospec said:

Around here, its "thou shalt not allow the ex-cops/military to make the coffee".  Whenever this rule is broken, it ends up looking/tasting like the Exxon Valdez sank in the pot.  I love the military and law enforcement, but seriously, who taught you guys to make coffee? 

If you want tea, drink tea. 

If you never get off your duff to make a community pot of (company purchased) coffee, you do not get to complain about how it was made or how it tastes.

alfadriver said:

In reply to pheller :

As a tangent, have you ever experimented with cold brew coffee?  I hear it better than cold hot brew coffee, but have never tried.

Cold brew is the only way I really enjoy it. Something about the roasting process and the way ita made takes out a lot of the bitter and other things that make coffee less palatable. When I was at the brewery, we traded kegs of coffee with a joint that made it, for washing said kegs, as we were set up to do kegs on a semi industrial scale, and I could burn through their entire stash in less than two hours. 

In reply to Mndsm :

I did a quick search on making it, and I was kind of surprised to see so much variation in method.  Many were 12-20 hours, but the amount varied.  One was 10min, with an aeropress...  Seems like I can do an experiment overnight with normal coffee amount, in a press, overnight.  

What's your favorite method to make it?

I've got a cold coffee carafe and part of it's issue is that it require a tremendous amount of coffee grounds for the same potency as drip-brew coffee. 

I'd like some way that I could get the maximum amount of caffiene out of the smallest amount of coffee without heating it. I'm think Aeropress is the way to go.

In reply to alfadriver :

Don't know, never tried to make my own. From what I do know of the process, it's a lot like bbq. Force the flavor and it's gonna taste burned. I know the guy that owned big watt (st Paul MN for those who want to get down) was pretty quiet about how he dod it, but I know it took him forever to get it right. 

In reply to pheller :

Grind the beans into a super fine powder and just stir them into your water. Turkish coffee, but cold?