It is a funny deal. I write computer programs for a living and the quality of the coffee really does not have a great impact on the amount of coffee I drink. When I write programs, I drink coffee. I generally try to stick with decaf so I am not bouncing off the walls, but I drink an awful lot of the stuff. It is a funny deal because I work, drink bad coffee, and have never considered that there might be a better way. Then yesterday, a bunch of strangers showed up at the place where I work. They all looked very serious like they had an important job to do. They were talking in serious voices and carrying serious equipment and tools in and out of the building. It turns out all they were doing was installing a new coffee machine. But, oh, what a coffee machine. Filterfresh. Awesome.
My workplace has been notorious for the quality of the office coffee. Our building is right across the street from a huge Hewlett-Packard manufacturing facility. Hewlett-Packard is famous for the provision of great coffee (and tea in Ireland) for their employees. Because we have done so much business with them and because it is such a small community, we have been listening to them complain about how bad it is to drink our coffee. Then these strangers showed up. All I can say is WOW! I can’t wait for some of those snooty HP engineers to show up now.
I was talking to several of the people and the explained that there is even a better economic model for this type of coffee machine. The reason that it makes great coffee is the same reason it is cheaper. You see, only one cup is brewed at a time. There are no full pots of coffee wasted in the afternoon when someone makes too much. All you do is stick your cup under the spigot, adjust the settings for strength, decaf or regular, Mocha, Cappuchino, or hot chocolate and press the start button. In about a minute, the drink is ready and it is fabulous. It might just be that I am so used to drinking really bad coffee that this is just average or even only just kind of bad, but wins by comparison. I kind of doubt it though. I’ll make a note to myself to do a taste test in a couple of weeks (as opposed to just drinking the stuff without thinking while I program).
A company that is really striving for excellence, does so even with the small stuff. In this, I give my company an A+. It is the kind of buzz that makes people want to come to work with us. If this is good, the other bigger stuff is probably good, too. And in this case, I am happy to say that it is.