Every day, more and more restaurants and places of work are reaching the same inevitable conclusion: If you want to keep people happy, you’ve got to offer them good coffee.

While workplaces and dining spots may indeed be distinctively different places, their coffee brewing needs are surprisingly similar. Both require a commercial coffee machine that offers an efficient, relatively foolproof way to produce reliably good cups of coffee in large quantities at reasonable prices.

Office Coffee Service

Many businesses today provide office coffee service to companies big and small. The biggest trend in office coffee service is the fact that such coffee food service provides often makes available premium coffee brands such as Starbucks Coffee and Peet’s Coffee.

The type of commercial coffee machines used in offices will vary with the type and size of the company. Small companies with relatively few employees may do well with home coffee makers; some have been known even to provide espresso machines for employees to operate themselves when they want a cup of espresso coffee. Pod system coffee makers also work well in such situations.

More often, however, and especially for larger companies, the commercial coffee machines most often in use are the Bunn coffee makers that have been familiar to so many employees since 1957 company founder George Bunn first developed the paper coffee filter still used to make drip coffee in so many offices and homes. Such office coffee makers generally brew one pot of drip coffee at a time, which can then be moved to a built-in warmer plate while another pot is brewed.

One key innovation favored in many offices now is the use of a thermal carafe, sometimes operated by a pump-style dispenser, to keep coffee hot and in optimum condition for longer periods of time. For larger offices still, commercial coffee machines exist that brew coffee in even larger volumes and keep it hot for dispensing through a spigot at the bottom of its holding tank. But even large companies may under special circumstances opt for more traditional home-style coffee services. At the corporate headquarters of Starbucks Coffee, for example, business meetings traditionally begin with the pressing and pouring of a French press pot of coffee ceremoniously presented at the center of the conference table.

Whatever their choice of commercial coffee machines, smart employers know that providing good coffee leads to more satisfied employees and higher productivity.

Restaurant Coffee Service

Those same types of coffee-brewing options exists in restaurant situations as well. However, the growing gourmet coffee drinks trend of recent years has led more and more restaurant customers to expect coffee in restaurants as good as the coffee they brew at home or buy at their corner coffeehouse. Smart restaurateurs also recognize that, by offering gourmet coffee drinks to their customers, they can easily increase the size of their customers’ checks while also improving their customers’ perception of the dining experience.

To that end, more and more restaurants opt to get their coffee brewing supplies from companies that offer premium coffees. They’ll buy or rent restaurant-scale espresso machines capable of quickly brewing cups of coffee expressly to their guests’ orders.

Travel Coffee Makers: Coffee on the Go

Make your own favorite coffee when you’re traveling! Travel coffee makers in a wide variety of designs and employing a wide range of brewing methods enable you to bring a coffee maker you trust along with you wherever and whenever you travel.

Portability is the key to a good travel coffee maker. But different people could well define a portable coffee maker in different ways.

Travel Coffee Makers to Suit Your Every Need

If most of your travel consists of business trips, then you want something compact that you can pack easily, secure in the knowledge that it won’t break during the rough and tumble of baggage handling. Travel coffee makers suitable for such use include everything from single-serving and multiple-serving French press coffee pots made of virtually indestructible polycarbonate, priced well under $30, to one-cup drip coffee filters (priced under $10) that you use in tandem with simple immersion coils (well less than $20) that bring a mug full of water to a boil in minutes.

If your idea of travel means hitting the road in your car or RV or floating blissfully on a boat, then your options in travel coffee makers are even greater. While all of the previously discussed simpler options will certainly do the trick, you could also bring along drip coffee makers or even old-fashioned percolators, generally priced around the $50 mark or even less, specially equipped with cords or adaptors that let you plug them right into the cigarette lighter socket or 12-volt outlet in your vehicle.

Travel Espresso Coffee Makers

Not even espresso lovers have to feel deprived when they’re traveling. For around $100 or even less, you can find compact electrically powered travel espresso machines made of stainless steel or tough ABS plastic, some with 12-volt adaptors, that automatically heats water to optimum brewing temperature, brew, and dispense a perfect cup of espresso coffee.