Office coffee traditionally meant one flavor brewed the way whoever was making the coffee liked it. If you didn’t like the flavor or how it was brewed, you had to either add enough creamer and sugar to mask the taste or suffer through it. And the coffee sat in the carafe until the carafe was empty which resulted in burnt, stale, flavorless “coffee,” or commonly referred to as “office sludge.”
John Sylvan wanted to solve this office coffee problem by creating a single-serve coffee package and a machine that could brew coffee using it. And the Keurig machine was born! The Keurig machine and plastic K-cups® solved the office coffee problem by brewing a fresh, individual cup of coffee for each user each time it was used. Employees could select their favorite coffee roast and freshly brew it to their individual strength profile. Single-serve coffee pods currently make up 37 percent of all coffee consumed, according to the National Coffee Association. However, as Keurig has gained in popularity both in offices and in homes, Sylvan and others recognize a growing coffee brewing issue: the plastic K-cup is not recyclable or biodegradable.
In 2014, Green Mountain produced 8.3 billion K-Cups. That’s enough K-Cups to circle the globe 10.5 times when the cups are placed end-to-end. Furthermore, 95 percent of K-Cups are made with non-recyclable plastic. Normal recyclable plastic melts when boiling water runs through it. So, Keurig made K-Cups out of a special, more durable kind of plastic that does not break down in high temperatures. That’s great news for coffee drinkers, but not for the environment. Similar to plastic 5-gallon water jugs, K-Cups take hundreds of years to break down, and K-Cups made from special temperature-resistant plastic are likely to take even longer to degrade.
Rather than go back to stale, burnt coffee, many environmentally conscious offices are turning to pod coffee makers. Coffee pods are small, round, almost flat discs of ground coffee wrapped in biodegradable filter paper. Like Keurig machines, pod coffee makers allow users to brew their favorite roast to their personal strength profile in under a minute. But unlike Keurig K-Cups, coffee pods are 100 percent biodegradable.
Coffee pods are the most sensible sustainable coffee solution for eco-conscious companies focused on improving their corporate social responsibility efforts. It may seem like a simple change but switching from Keurig machines and K-Cups to coffee pod machines and biodegradable coffee pods can drastically reduce your company’s plastic footprint. Reducing your plastic footprint cannot only help the environment, it can also help your company gain a competitive edge.
In addition to eliminating the plastic trash associated with single-cup brewing, coffee pods and coffee pod machines can provide a better tasting cup of coffee. Sustainable coffee available in coffee pods offers better coffee extraction because they have more surface area for the water to make contact with the coffee grounds, compared to the small K-Cup. This also allows for a stronger, bolder aroma while the coffee is brewing because the aroma is not sealed in the plastic K-Cup. Many coffee baristas attribute better contact time and a stronger aroma to a better tasting cup of coffee.
In addition to being an environmentally sustainable coffee alternative, coffee pod machines are an economical alternative to Keurig brewers. Pod brewing is 24 percent less expensive per cup than Keurig machines. On average, a single cup of coffee from a Keurig® costs about 66 cents while a single cup of coffee brewed using a pod coffee maker costs about 50 cents. The average office employee drinks about three cups of coffee a day so that’s a savings of 48 cents per employee per day. That means a 100-person office could save up to $12,000 over the course of a year by switching to a pod brewer!
So, what are you waiting for? Pod brewing is more environmentally sustainable, brews a better tasting cup of coffee, and costs less per cup than a Keurig® brewed cup. And lucky for you, Quench, who over 60,000 customers across the U.S. – including over 75% of the Fortune 500 – trust for their office drinking water, also offers pod coffee machines.
Great tasting coffee starts with great tasting water. Quench machines are known for their ability to sanitize and remove potential contaminants from your building’s drinking water supplies. Our pod coffee makers offer the same level of advanced filtration technology as our water machines.
Filtered water combined with the highest quality coffee brewing equipment is the foundation for great-tasting coffee. Our customers can choose from thermal brewers, single-cup pods, and more. And when you order your coffee supplies from Quench, you can rent your Quench coffee brewer for no additional cost!
Learn more about our Office Coffee Service and pod brewers by filling out the form above or calling a Quench Coffee Expert at 844-303-2841.