Coffee service is a catch-all term for services related to the delivery of coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 to employees of a business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 at low or no cost to them. Providing coffee to employees is popular among employers since employees will likely not leave the workplace to purchase coffee, subsequently reducing lost work time. Employers also see coffee service as a perk with a low cost.

Vending

Some companies, with high traffic of visitors and employees, opt to install a coffee dispenser (vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

) as their coffee service. Typically these machines give the user the choice of various types of coffee, tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 and hot chocolate

Hot chocolate

Hot chocolate is a heated beverage typically consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar...

. Money collected is usually kept by the employer to offset the cost of the maintenance contract and for the purchase of the instant coffee

Instant coffee

Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...

 used by the machine. However, sometimes companies make the coffee from such machines free. Unfortunately, the coffee dispensed by these machines may be of low quality.

Electric Coffee Maker

Another option is to use an automatic espresso

Espresso

Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....

 or drip coffee maker which grinds the coffee bean

Coffee bean

A coffee bean is a seed of a coffee plant. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit often referred to as a cherry. Even though they are seeds, they are referred to as 'beans' because of their resemblance to true beans. The fruits - coffee cherries or coffee berries - most commonly contain two...

s and dispenses the coffee into a cup. These machines do not charge per cup, but often provide a bypass slot where the employee can add their own coffee beans. By providing low quality beans, employees can be encouraged to provide their own beans. The cost of the maintenance contract still falls on the employer, however it is about the same as the cost of the machine per year.

"Frac pacs"

An increasingly popular preparation offered by coffee service providers is known as a frac pac. This is ground coffee in a self-contained packet, enveloped by a filter. This allows a conventional drip coffee maker to be used, but without the mess of cleaning out the old grounds and without the requirement to measure out the right amount of coffee. The user only needs remove the old pack and to place the new pack into their coffee machine.

The downside of such a service is quality of the coffee. Unless canned

Canning

Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances a freeze-dried canned product, such as canned, dried lentils, can last as...

, coffee needs to be brewed within the first week of roasting

Roasting

Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting usually causes caramelization or Maillard browning of the surface of the food, which is considered by some as a flavor enhancement. Roasting uses more indirect, diffused heat , and is...

 and within four hours of grinding for the best quality. Since local roasters will generally not have a filter enveloping machine, these packs are shipped great distances and may be weeks old before they even arrive at the office.

Onsite Espresso Bars

Some companies now provide on their premises full espresso bars where employees or contractors provide a full range of espresso drinks, free of charge or at company-subsidized prices.

See also

• Cafeteria
  Cafeteria
  A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
  
  
• Coffee pod
  Coffee pod
  Coffee pods are pre-packaged ground coffee beans in their own filter. In certain non-English speaking countries, such as Germany and The Netherlands, the word "pad" is used instead of "pod", for semantic reasons....
  
  
• Easy Serving Espresso Pod
  Easy Serving Espresso Pod
  An Easy Serving Espresso Pod, or E.S.E. pod, is a small packed coffee disk with a paper filter covering.Each pod contains seven grams of coffee compressed into a food safe filter package. A double serving contains 14 grams of coffee. Pods are typically 44-45mm size for E.S.E...
  
  
• Caffitaly
  Caffitaly
  The Caffitaly System is a capsule system for making espresso and other coffee drinks in home espresso machines...
  
  
• Flavia Beverage Systems
• K-Cup
• New England Coffee
  New England Coffee
  New England Coffee is New England’s largest independent specialty coffee roaster. Founded in 1916 by Menelaos Kaloyanides, George Kaloyanides and Megaklis Papadopoulos in Boston, Massachusetts, New England Coffee is currently owned and operated by a third generation of the Kaloyanides and Dostou...
  
  
• T-Discs
  T-Discs
  T-Discs are a type of coffee pod designed by Tassimo for use in the Tassimo single cup pod makers.-Technology:A bar code on top of each T-Disc instructs the machine to use the proper brewing settings. It will then change the water temperature, the amount of water, and the brew time and strength...