Work coffee solutions

The coffee bar at the place I work is a Starbucks concession so as a good Guardian reader I need to boycott them for non-payment of tax 😉

What are your solutions for making a decent cup of coffee twice a day at work? I have access to hot water from a boiler but that’s about it.

Kind of ironic that starbucks stock the Guardian….
Anyway, I use an Aeropress.
http://www.aeropresscoffee.co.uk/

carte noir instinct stuff I like

At work I use starbucks via because Im a capitalist bastard 😉

I used a small cafettiere and Illy at work for years – was fine and didn’t draw too much attention.

Isn’t all coffee a solution?

Depends how you define ‘decent’, I’m finding the Millicano stuff to be a reasonable compromise between instant and fresh.

Isn’t all coffee a solution?

the posh instant stuff is also a suspension these days 😉

I tried that milicano stuff and thought it was pretty rubbish. Certainly no more coffee like than basic kenco instant anyway.

as a good Guardian reader I need to boycott them for non-payment of tax

Ever had a look at how the Graun arrange their taxes? 😉

Seeing as a nespresso machine can be picked up for about a hundred quid and is quite compact, you could pick one up for work.

I had a ‘cafetiere mug’. Wasn’t the best. Now use a small cafetiere, Nowt like a stove-top mind.

I’ve just bought an Aeropress after recommendation on here. It’s taken a bit of experimentation to get coffee the way I like it, but it makes an excellent cup now. The best thing about it is how easy it is to clean up – way less faff than cafetiéres as the grounds just squash up into a little puck that you pop in the bin. Cost just over £20, including enough spare filters for 300-odd brews.

I got an aeropress for my birthday. Its too big to commute with, hence why I still use vias, and pity that it needs quite a large mug to rest on, but other than that it works well. Try and use 80deg water though rather than scalding.

We just had a filter between about 5 of us in the office. Got a bit silly when 3 left though and we were still making (and drinking) a full brew. Got even sillier when someone statted only making it with half the water but the same amount of coffee!

Made reasnoble coffee and made the rest of thebuilding envius as it wafted down the corridoor first thing in the morning.

+1 for aeropress. I use mine all the time, makes a great cup of coffee.

Anyone tried one of the electric moka pots? Might be worth a look.

I walk into the staff room and pour filter coffee out of the jug into a mug.

1×2 cone and paper filter. Fresh coffee.

Mess free, quick and easy.

Never seen the electric moka pots stocked over here.

Re aeropress – is there a danger of the cup shooting away as you press on the plunger or do you not press that hard.

I am tempted….

Family-size cafetiere thing works for me

Put the dregs in the bin and rinse in the sink.

Re aeropress – is there a danger of the cup shooting away as you press on the plunger or do you not press that hard.

Never happened to me, and I’m over half way through the 300 odd filters they supply. It’s not perfect in operation (inverting it makes a far better cup) but it’s quite a lot better than a cafetiere.

Smartcafe Mug for me. Next to no faff, only one thing to wash up and coffee stays hot for a long time. And cheap!

Smart Cafe Mug Clickidy Click Click

Re aeropress – is there a danger of the cup shooting away as you press on the plunger or do you not press that hard.

I am tempted….

If you use a very fine grind the pressure is quite a lot but normally fine. I like mine. A cafetiere is not a lot of mess but an aeropress is a lot less again, producing nice dry pucks straight into the bin. No need to swill out or clean from day to day. I give mine a quick wash once every 3 or 4 weeks and use it 5 or 6 times a day.

Would people use coffee bags if they gave a decent cuppa?

(inverting it makes a far better cup)

How do you get the coffee to run uphill into the mug?

Would people use coffee bags if they gave a decent cuppa?

I use them when camping but considering the scale of my coffee problem (I’m on my forth pack of 400 aeropress filters since about April this year 😳 – and that’s just my @ work solution) they work out too pricy for day to day use.

This chap:

Brilliant.

Im a capitalist bastard

Hardly a bomb shell 😉
Almost the same problem at work, we have a nespresso, but for the one like me running mostly on tea no keetle, so I bring my own brew, in a flask.

Handpresso here. Spendy, but at £1.20 for an average cup of UK style expresso (something like espresso but not quite right) from the staff caff, after about 6 months it’s paid for itself.
Superior cup of espresso, but very much of a one trick pony.

franksinatra – Member
Smartcafe Mug for me. Next to no faff, only one thing to wash up and coffee stays hot for a long time. And cheap!

Smart Cafe Mug Clickidy Click Click

Ooooh….!

Another for Aeropress

Aeropress like others said. I have one in my desk drawer and it’s travelled around Europe and to the US with me so I don’t have to drink crap coffee at conferences/shows.

This aeropress fella. Does it make espresso style coffee or more like standard filter?

(inverting it makes a far better cup)

@wrecker – Also interested in what you mean by this?

@CHB – Coffee bags are revolting and worse than instant IMO.

@Daddypig – Aeropress makes espresso, which you can then top up with hot water/milk to make an americano/latte as you prefer.

So you are boycotting them, even though they said they will pay £10m pa for the next two years, but not when they weren’t paying tax.

The problem with using the Aeropress as instructed is that as soon as you pour the water in, the coffee floats and the water drains through the filter into the cup without passing through enough coffee.
Best method;
Push the plunger slightly (5mm) into the main body
Rest it so that it’s upside down.
Put the coffee in, pour the water over it.
Stir thoroughly.
Top the water up.
Screw the filter holder onto the top and rest for about 3-4 minutes.
Hold the main body AND plunger (or it will slip out) an right it onto the cup.
You’ll feel that there’s a lot more resistance when depressing and the coffee will be stronger.

On a more constructive note, how about a Handpresso[/url]. Mine works great and portable!

Wrecker – that’s one complicated method for what is an easy operation!

What gind coffee are you using – cafetiere/filter or espresso? In an emergency I used rough cafetiere style grind and it dripped through like you say but with a finer grind – not a drop ever.

coffee in, water in, wait a few seconds, stir a little with the other end of the scoop, wait a few (about 3!)more seconds, plunge, top up with water, drink. One level scoop for a normal mug, two for a stupid sized pint mug. Using 2 scoops of fine grind I recon I have to apply 10-15kg of pressure to get the coffee to start to come through – about 2/3rds of that for a single scoop.

The coffee I get delivered from a company called Exchange Coffee, they do a good range, ground to how you like it and deliver next day.

A guy a couple of desks away has a nespresso pod machine but it’s very noisy.

I’ve got one of those cafetiere-in-a-cup things. Works well but drinking out of a plastic cup is like, well, I gave that up at 3 years old.

I take it bikepacking for a hot caffeine blast in the morning. Spot on for that.