Coffee machine recipe: 71 g of coffee to 1,200 g of water (1:17). For a single 10 oz mug, use about 17 g of coffee to 296 g of water. Medium grind, and let the machine run a full cycle.
What office coffee service means
At its simplest, a provider supplies coffee, filters, cups and creamer on a schedule, and sometimes the machine as well. At the other end, a company leases a commercial machine, services it, and restocks it. Plenty of New Jersey offices, especially smaller ones, skip the provider entirely and buy coffee and a good brewer themselves.
None of these is right for everyone. The best fit depends on how many people drink coffee, how much variety they want, who will clean the machine, and how much you want to spend each month.
The four common models
| Model | How it works | Works well for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine leasing plus supplies | A provider installs a machine, maintains it, and sells you the coffee and supplies to run it. | Offices that want one call for everything | Contract length, supply minimums, and what happens to the machine if you leave |
| Single-serve pods | Each person brews one cup from a sealed pod. | Small teams, mixed tastes, little cleanup | Higher cost per cup, pod waste, and being tied to one pod format |
| Bean to cup machines | The machine grinds whole beans and brews each drink on demand, often espresso-style drinks too. | Larger offices that want variety and fresh grinding | Higher equipment cost, daily cleaning, and service response times |
| Drip brewer with bagged coffee | A batch brewer makes a pot or an airpot at a time from bagged coffee. | Teams that mostly drink regular coffee | Someone has to brew, and coffee that sits on a hot plate too long turns bitter |
Many offices mix them: a drip brewer for the morning rush and a few pods for decaf and tea.
Whichever you pick, decide who looks after it. A machine that nobody cleans makes bitter coffee no matter what goes into it. Put descaling on a calendar, empty and rinse the carafe or airpot at the end of each day, and keep a spare box of filters so the first person in on Monday is not stuck.
What drives the cost
- Coffee per cup. The price of the coffee divided by how many cups it makes. Pods fix this per cup; bagged coffee depends on your recipe.
- Equipment. Purchase price spread over its useful life, or the monthly lease.
- Supplies. Filters, cups, lids, stirrers, sugar, milk and creamer. These add up faster than most people expect.
- Service and maintenance. Descaling, repairs, and any service fees in a lease.
- Waste. Pots poured out at the end of the day, pods that go stale, and over-ordering.
- Delivery and minimums. Delivery charges, and minimum orders that force you to buy more than you use.
How to work out your cost per cup
Use the same method for every option so the comparison is fair.
Cost per cup = (coffee cost + supplies + equipment or lease + service) for one month, divided by cups poured that month.
To get cups poured, multiply the number of coffee drinkers by cups each per day by workdays in the month. To get coffee cost for bagged coffee, divide cups poured by cups per pound, then multiply by your price per pound.
A worked example
These numbers are invented to show the method. They are not our prices and not a market quote; swap in the real figures from your own provider quotes.
- People: 25 staff, 15 of whom drink coffee, about 2 mugs each per workday
- Cups poured: 15 x 2 x 21 workdays = 630 cups a month
- Recipe: a 10 oz mug at 1:16 uses about 18.5 g of coffee, so a 454 g (1 lb) bag makes about 24 mugs
- Coffee used: 630 / 24 = 26.25 lb a month
- Coffee cost: at an example price of $14 a pound, 26.25 x $14 = $367.50
- Supplies: an example $60 a month for filters, cups, milk and sugar
- Equipment: an example $300 brewer spread over 36 months = $8.33 a month
- Total: $367.50 + $60 + $8.33 = $435.83 a month
- Cost per cup: $435.83 / 630 = about 69 cents
Run the same sum with a pod quote (price per pod, plus the machine, plus supplies) or a lease quote (monthly fee, plus coffee and supplies at their minimum order), and you have a like-for-like comparison.
How much coffee an office uses per person
There is no reliable universal figure, because it swings with your team. A sales floor that starts at 8 am drinks differently from a studio that runs on tea. The honest answer is to count.
- For two normal weeks, keep a tally of pots brewed, pods used, or filters thrown away.
- Multiply by cups per pot (or one per pod) to get cups poured, then divide by workdays and by the number of people in the office.
- Use that cups per person per day figure in the formula above, and recheck it each season. Summer Fridays at a New Jersey office are not the same as January.
If you need a starting point before you count, plan on the worked example's assumption and adjust after the first month.
Questions to ask an office coffee provider
- What is the total monthly cost at our volume, including delivery, service and supplies?
- How long is the contract, and what does it cost to leave early? Who owns the machine?
- Are there minimum orders, and what happens if we use less in a slow month?
- How often do you restock, and how do we reorder between visits?
- Who cleans and descales the machine, and how fast do you respond when it breaks?
- Can we taste the coffee first, and is decaf available?
- Is the roast date printed on the coffee you supply?