How to brew the tastiest cup of office coffee

If your cup of office coffee tastes sour, bitter, or lacks body, you could be making it wrong. A well-balanced and enjoyable cup of coffee is part science and part personal preference. Follow these five tips for brewing the tastiest cup of coffee, in association with Office Barista.

1. Bean-to-cup is best for freshness
   
   Which coffee you prefer depends on your personal preference. But for the freshest and tastiest cup of office coffee, bean-to-cup is best. Office Barista recommends Lavazza Coffee Super Crema Beans. This blend has a woody to bitter taste, with deep chocolate tones, and produces a good crema. Crema is the layer of light coffee coloured foam on the top of a freshly poured espresso. It indicates a quality, well-ground coffee and that a skilled barista made it. Quality coffee machines are perfectly calibrated to produce consistently good cups of coffee. According to Office Barista, modern appliances are so good that it’s hard to tell the difference between coffee made by hand or in a machine.
    
2. The best beans need the best water
   
   It doesn’t matter how good the beans are if you make your coffee with poor quality water. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, you probably won’t like it in your coffee. To achieve the tastiest cup of coffee, use fresh filtered water. Plumbed-in coffee machines are usually fitted with an inline filter that removes the impurities that affect its taste. Filters also remove hard water minerals that can affect the performance of coffee machines. Without a filter, scale will eventually build up in water pathways stopping your machine from working efficiently. It could even shorten its lifespan.
    
   We recommend that you fill jug machines from a filtered water supply such as a Borg & Overström point-of-use water dispenser. Plumbed-in water dispensers are also fitted with inline filters, which removes the need for bottled water or water filter jugs.
    
3. Avoid scalding the coffee with boiling water
   
   Coffee machines are calibrated to ensure water is at the correct temperature to achieve a balance of flavour with temperature. The recommended temperature is 195 degrees – 205 degrees. If you put water in when it’s too hot, it can scald the coffee and make it taste bitter. When using water from a kettle, let it sit for 30 seconds to cool down before pouring on your coffee.
    
4. Choose a blue mug
   
   Eating and drinking are multisensory experiences. So, it may not come as a surprise that the colour of the mug may also affect the flavour of the coffee. The contrast in colour between the mug and the coffee may affect its perceived intensity/sweetness. For instance, this experiment found coffee drunk from a white mug was rated less sweet compared to the transparent and blue mugs.
    
5. Cleanse your palate with fresh sparkling water
   
   Like wine, coffee is best enjoyed with a clean palate. Drink fresh filtered water before sipping your coffee to remove any strong tastes so you can fully appreciate the flavour of your coffee. For a more effective palate cleanser, try Deep Sparkle® from a Borg & Overström dispenser. The bubbles in sparkling water are said to stimulate the tongue and make it more receptive to new flavours. Above all, coffee always tastes better when enjoyed with colleagues, friends, and family.
    
   Office Barista is a long-established office coffee distributor based in Ireland. They believe that “Better coffee makes good business sense, whatever your business”. We agree.