How to Make Office Coffee Tasty?

The coffee at work is so bad, Mr. Pie has dubbed it Cat Litter Coffee. It doesn't come from civets, but it couldn't taste worse than if a creature shat it out first.

What do you add to your coffee? Any suggestions besides the usual suspects? From experience, a packet of Swiss Miss doesn't help.

Thanks!

If I'm feeling lazy, I add a splash of vanilla-caramel-something-something Coffee-Mate from the giant bottle in the office fridge.

If I'm feeling a little more motivated, I make my own with an AeroPress and coffee from home, and only use the office coffeemaker for its hot water spout.

We buy our own beans and have a grinder.

Realistically, you have 3 options:
1. Bring a thermos of coffee made at home
2. Buy coffee somewhere else
3. Convince the people to brew better coffee

It is hard to fix terrible coffee.

work from home...

Pie Lady wrote:The coffee at work is so bad, Mr. Pie has dubbed it Cat Litter Coffee. It doesn't come from civets, but it couldn't taste worse than if a creature shat it out first.

What do you add to your coffee? Any suggestions besides the usual suspects? From experience, a packet of Swiss Miss doesn't help.

Thanks!

There is a story in an old children's book called The Peterkin Papers in which Mrs. Peterkin accidentally adds salt to her coffee instead of sugar. Her kids then run to the chemist and the neighbors and so on asking what to add to the coffee to make it drinkable. They try various additions. Finally the Lady from Philadelphia, who always knows what to do, shows up and tells them to throw out the cup of coffee and start fresh.

We use godawful Folgers commercial vac-paks so I often sprinkle a teaspoon of ground cinnamon over the grounds before brewing. It elevates the quaff, IMO, and since there are only two of us in the office that drink "high-test" I don't have to worry about offending

Two of us in our building buy our own beans and half-and-half and brew our own pot every morning. We don't drink what my coffee buddy calls "the swill" made every morning for those who can't tell the difference between it and real coffee.

We have a grinder and use a french press instead. One of my colleagues and I used to take turns making mocha syrup and bringing it over to work. A little mocha syrup gives the coffee a nice chocolaty kick.

In these situations, I've found that in emergencies (if it's the overcooked, overbrewed strong industrial-pak stuf) adding hot water after the fact and drinking it a bit weaker, with cream or milk, sometimes helps. Truly, what you're reading about tossing it and doing something else is the best option: that industrial stuff is probably made from robusta beans instead of arabica, often subjected to burning on the bottom of the carafe (or at least flavored by the burnt crust left in the pot.) Switch to tea. Buy and make turkish coffee, then you don't have to worry about grounds.

Funny, I find that even vending-machine coffee (which I assume is instant) is better than the burnt-glass-carafe stuff.

Bring your own beans/grounds and do a French Press (as suggested above).

If that's too much mess, bring your own beans/grounds, some paper filters, and do a Black and Decker Brew 'N Go Coffeemaker. $17.42 on Amazon. I have one sitting on my desk right now. It's a a personal coffeemaker that brews just one cup, and brews straight into the mug.

A coworker does something similar, but with a pour over filter. It does take a little bit more time and involves heating up water in the microwave.

kathryn wrote:If that's too much mess, bring your own beans/grounds, some paper filters, and do a Black and Decker Brew 'N Go Coffeemaker. $17.42 on Amazon. I have one sitting on my desk right now. It's a a personal coffeemaker that brews just one cup, and brews straight into the mug.

There are several hotel liquidation stores in the Chicago area, most of them sell those tiny single-serve coffeemakers really, really cheap. Of course, you won't know where it's been.

How about adding a vanilla pod or a little ground nutmeg to the brew?

jblth wrote:Realistically, you have 3 options:
1. Bring a thermos of coffee made at home

The CRITICAL factor is to get a good insulated container. The absolute BEST in my experience has been the THERMOS brand - whether made in China or the US. The coffee is still at 110F after 24 hours.

I have had really poor experience with the Trudeau brand from Canada. The coffee is generally cold bu lunch.

One of my coworkers has 2- 20oz thermos containers. One is for the morning, the other the afternoon. Mine is 32oz.

The problem with "HOW TO MAKE OUR OFFICE COFFEE TASTY" is that no more than one or two people in any office can agree with what constitutes good coffee.

jlawrence01 wrote:The problem with "HOW TO MAKE OUR OFFICE COFFEE TASTY" is that no more than one or two people in any office can agree with what constitutes good coffee.

That's only one problem, IMO. Many, many offices have coffee that nobody likes because it's made from sub-par industrial robusta coffee that's allowed to go stale and made on equipment that isn't cleaned or maintained properly. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but there's a point where gross is gross.

I carry a pack of caffeinated gum in my purse, too. Sometimes all you really need is a shot of C8 H10 N4 O2 and some clean water.

Get the office to buy a Keurig or two.

They aren't all that expensive and my old office just had people put in a quarter when they wanted a cup of coffee (to cover the cost of pods) - though I imagine some offices would just pick up the tab.

Keurig's don't make the world's finest coffee, but it is a hell of a lot better than crap industrial coffee. It is simple, everyone can choose their own kind, required virtually no cleaning or upkeep, and takes up very little space.

I wrote a little paper and gave a quick speech at my office about coffee quality and sustainability, took a survey of the office, and set up a demo of some different Intelligentsia beans (sent over for free by the Intelli office-coffee team) but it was all for naught as we are locked into a contract until 2013 with a vendor and after that our corporate office is forcing us into a contract with an even worse vendor.

There was a small silver lining, though - our receptionist did some digging and found that our current vendor offered Caribou whole bean coffee and a grinder for the same price (or even a few cents cheaper per pound) as the crappy vac-pack stuff we were using. It's not fantastic, but it's drinkable.

Frangelico.

NeroW wrote:Frangelico.

If only I wouldn't fall asleep!

If the coffee maker is the kind with the heater under the pot, I have found that adding a splash of water to the pot before placing it on the burner, keeps the first few drops from burning when they hit the pot. That and breaking into a second portion control envelope to add an extra spoonful, makes it a little stronger. Keeping the pot clean also helps alot. i use the waitress trick of swirling some ice cubes (if available) in the pot to clean it.

Dump it in the sink, rinse the cup, and pour some Macallan 12 in. That usually works for me.

DClose wrote:Get the office to buy a Keurig or two.

They aren't all that expensive and my old office just had people put in a quarter when they wanted a cup of coffee (to cover the cost of pods) - though I imagine some offices would just pick up the tab.

Keurig's don't make the world's finest coffee, but it is a hell of a lot better than crap industrial coffee. It is simple, everyone can choose their own kind, required virtually no cleaning or upkeep, and takes up very little space.

Yes, this is what we did. They had a vote on 3 different coffees about 2 years ago. One was a french roast that was decent enough that I would have drank it. Only 3 people voted for it so they stuck with the same old garbage. Right after that I bought a Keurig.

I use Kohl's 30 percent off coupons when I get them or I shop at Woodman's where they have some 12 packs for under 6 bucks. TJ Maxx sometimes gets giant variety packs (like the Donut Shop Variety Pack) in and you can get 48 cups for 19.99.

Turns out we got rid of the Gloria Jeans stuff and now we're using the MasterPoo generic stuff, although the bags still say GJ on them, so I don't know what the hell this is.

Anyway, I had a sample of the Tasters Choice individual tubes of instant hazelnut, and it doesn't suck as much. That's the best I can say so far.

Have you tried the Starbucks VIA? I had my doubts, but became a convert after buying a four pack. Loads better than office coffee and they now have different blends and flavors available.

http://www.starbucks.com/coffee/via/instant-coffee

I added sugar to it yesterday. Behold, an instance where sugar actually makes something taste worse.

Here's the solution: drink Bawls High Caffeine Guarana Root Beer instead. Does the job and it's a damn fine root beer to boot. Too bad it's loaded with sugar!

Pie Lady wrote:Here's the solution: drink Bawls High Caffeine Guarana Root Beer instead. Does the job and it's a damn fine root beer to boot. Too bad it's loaded with sugar!

You know, I've been wondering for quite a while why no one makes caffeinated root beer. There have actually been many times when I've had a taste for root beer, but have grabbed something else instead because I wanted caffeine. I'll have to check this Bawls rootbeer out (I've seen normal Bawls sold in some stores and on ThinkGeek, but I've never tried it).

I bought mine at America's Market. I think they have more than one kind of caffeinated root beer.

I've seen bawls G33K B33R at Microcenter on Elston, with the impulse items near the checkout. They have regular bawls, too, and some other caffeinated sodas.

Khaopaat wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:Here's the solution: drink Bawls High Caffeine Guarana Root Beer instead. Does the job and it's a damn fine root beer to boot. Too bad it's loaded with sugar!

You know, I've been wondering for quite a while why no one makes caffeinated root beer. There have actually been many times when I've had a taste for root beer, but have grabbed something else instead because I wanted caffeine. I'll have to check this Bawls rootbeer out (I've seen normal Bawls sold in some stores and on ThinkGeek, but I've never tried it).

Barq's Root Beer also has caffeine.

Regular Barq's has 22.5 mg of caffeine per 12 ounce serving (similar to green tea), while Diet Barq's has no caffeine.