brewing @ work?
brewing @ work?
Anybody brew at work? If so, what's your setup/process? I'm fortunate enough to have free access to a shared automatic espresso machine (beans not pods) so the drive to do this is not super strong. I wrote about my experience with the pipamoka device for travel, and I'm thinking it might make for a pretty simple at work option rather than sitting in my cabinet when I'm not on the road. Often the mediocre espresso has me longing for something better even if it means using my own stash.
I used to use my aeropress in the office and would bring grounds with me. The coffee maker had a hot water dispenser so that was handy.
Now I work from home.
I used to do pour overs, and got plenty of mileage out of that. Before then I’d used a French press but cleanup became a gigantic pain in the ass…
My recommendation would be a hand grinder, V60, and a gooseneck kettle. Clever drippers are the tits as well.
I have access to hot water machine, need to bring my thermopen in and see where it's at temp wise. I have a q2 for grinding. Hadn't thought about FP! I have Caffi FP filter bags that make cleanup super easy. I haven't been able to get FP to taste quite right with them though - might experiment more with that though.
Good luck. Office life is usually bereft of good coffee.
Generally I've found water heaters pretty low temp, like 70-80C. I like 90+, and would boost it in the microwave to a boil and then add a splash of cold.
With aeropress or pour over and hand grinder it's easy to make a nice cup.
Team Clever for the win!
I have a DeLonghi Magnifica S sitting in my office. Bought it for the company with my own money when we were just 6 people, then once we started expanding and got a larger system for the kitchen, that one moved in with me and has been a steady companion ever since. I bring my own beans as well, so I don't have to drink the terrible stuff the others seem to like. Win-win.
Our office has a keurig and I bought one of their official reusable cups and it's not bad for what it is.
We also have some no name coffee grinder and a VERY nice brevil machine that I don't fully understand.
Not espresso, but I used to have a couple v60s and a hand grinder, and would bring some beans with the promise that I’d pour people coffee if they grind their cup. It became a nice way to take a morning social break for a few minutes, and a way for me to cycle fresh beans a little faster.
Back in the day I used to keep an aero press and an electric kettle at my desk. I had a hand grinder and also preground coffee. I don’t bother anymore, office coffee got better.
used aeropress for a while, but now using a kalita pour over setup and a timemore c2 grinder
Just plain old boring office coffee unfortunately. But defo coming straight home to a cup of aeropress usually ☕
I'm in a class (for work) and I do most of the coffee stuff.
We have two 12 cup pots that I prep before I leave. One auto brews and is ready when I get in and the other is ready to start whenever the first one starts getting low.
Other people bring in bags of coffee. I usually bring the creamer.
I set up a coffee station in my office and it has made working in the office much more enjoyable! I have a cheap gooseneck kettle and 1zpresso KMax hand grinder, along with a scale and carafe. My office mate and I bring various beans from roasters around town or when we travel. We have various methods for brewing to choose from: V60 size 02, Hario Switch size 03, Orea v3 (with negotiator option for no bypass), and an AeroPress.
Clever Dripper, a scale, a kettle, and a Knock Feldgrind 2 (I've had this grinder for years) but any of the reasonably priced decent grinders from Kingrind, Timemore, or 1zpresso would be fine.
I have tried a few different options for brewing at the office:
French Press: Pros - few user inputs and reasonably good/consistent cups of coffee. Cons - major pain to clean up and I don't like the fines and micro grounds in the bottom of the cup.
Moka Pot (with a hot plate): Pros: not too many user inputs and fairly easy clean up. Cons - too hard to consistently get a good cup of coffee.
Regular pour over (Melita and V60): Pros -easy clean up and fairly easy to get repeatable good cups of coffee. Cons - too many user inputs. Must take time to get the pours right.
The winner: Clever Dripper! The lowest user inputs, easy clean up, clean cup of coffee with no fines or micro grounds in cup, very repeatable and consistent good cups of coffee.
Clever + Feld + something to heat the water up to brew temp in, was my kit too, back in the day.
Fyi - mentioned it in another response, but Caffi filter bags for French Press eliminate all the cons you listed there. Worth a try if you have a French Press you want to try to revive. You need to grind quite a bit finer than you normally would and maybe push extraction closer to 5min. Personally though, I feel like the flavor comes out a bit flat. Not to rag too heavily on FP, but I feel like a big part of the FP taste is oil and fines and when you cut those out with a filter it seems you are left with fairly mediocre coffee. That being said, maybe I need to work on technique because with the caffi filter the brew process becomes very similar to an immersion brewer much like the clever dripper.
Biggest problem was water temperature. They'd have a microwave, and one of those fancy taps that gives chilled or instant-coffee-hot water, but not hot enough for brewing, and no electric kettle. Can't put the gooseneck kettle in the microwave. I had a plastic gravy separator thing to microwave the water in for a while. Better to just use something less dependent on pouring technique, like aeropress or clever.
Nanopresso (another Wacaco travel brewer). I'm only in the office two days a week so I couldn't justify a full office coffee setup. I grind enough for two shots in the morning (I have the 'barista kit' with two larger baskets) and I can pack everything neatly into the Nanopresso.
I'm lucky enough to have amazing coffee at work, so there's really no need for me.
Even if this weren't true, I would probably just drink whatever was on offer and save my good coffee for the weekends. Having developed a taste for good coffee, I still have no problems drinking some run of the mill instant coffee or regular machine brewed coffee, it's not excellent but it will get the job done in a pinch.
Yeah, that's the funny thing about coffee fanatics. Most of us are part connuiser and part addict. One day I'm debating about an extra click on a comandante, but the next I'm not not drinking the dunkin donuts box somebody brought to the conference.
I have a less expensive version of my espresso machine from home in my office. a De'Longhi EC155
I sometimes take my Aeropress with me. My Timemore Slim fits inside, so it's really compact to transport. At my workplace, they already have a kettle.
I used to bring an Aeropress with me, with Airgrind. Nowadays I'm bringing a Flair Pro with 1ZPresso JMax with my trusty Acaia Lunar with beans. More time away from the computer the better.