All posts by Katie Waxman.

Did you know that coffee is liquid gold? Well, not actual gold, but it’s certainly worth its weight in gold. And our office coffee service can help you find more gold. You might not believe that right now but hear me out.

Let’s start by looking at what happens without office coffee service in your break room.

1. When coffee isn’t available or tastes bad, employees must find it elsewhere.
2. Coffee has caffeine, and we all know caffeine is a popular energy booster.
3. A great break room with a variety of delicious hot drinks is a highly valued employee benefit.

Now, let’s consider the impact that it can have.

Company Morale

Offering our service in your Phoenix break room can affect your employees. Start by asking your employees about the types of beverages they would like to see. Options might include traditional coffee, espresso-based beverages, single-cup options, or hot tea. Their preferences might surprise you.

Knowing that their employer listened, employees are more likely to feel valued, creating a positive workplace culture. The break room will also become a central meeting and relationship building location. Both planned and unplanned conversations lead to increased creativity, problem-solving, and a better overall team spirit.

Staying On-Site

This question might sound over-simplified, but where do your employees go if they can’t get a good coffee at work? The answer is off-site. While that should only require a short break, the reality is often quite different. A short break turns into a longer break, which means less time working and lower productivity.

But, if you offer our service in your Phoenix break room, that doesn’t have to happen. Our menu includes everyone’s favorite hot beverages. Employees need only make a trip to the break room for a great-tasting cup of Joe and an impromptu conversation.

Coffee and Energy Levels

Employees in Phoenix are tired, so it shouldn’t be surprising that almost two-thirds of adults drink coffee every day. What can you do to help them with their lack of energy and need for caffeine? The answer is coffee. Not only does the caffeine supply an energy boost, but it can also improve one’s mood. And the high levels of antioxidants and other nutrients offer added health benefits.

Combine the three reasons above, and you can see why your break room needs our office coffee service. Your unique solution will include the perfect combination of brewers and brands to create the experience your employees deserve. From single-cup or bean-to-cup brewers to traditional brewing equipment, there is a solution for everyone.

For more information about upgrading your current coffee service or about our micro-market and vending services, please call Southwest Refreshments at 623.780.3036.

Office coffee service (OCS) is often considered a separate service when it comes to the break room. But it doesn’t have to be. For a moment, ponder what it would be like to mesh coffee service with a micro-market. On their own, each offers distinct benefits. But when they are blended together in your Scottsdale office break room, they create a unique employee perk.

Employees now have a relaxed on-site spot to grab a gourmet coffee and a snack or meal. This is now even more important. Research has also found the best time to enjoy a cup of coffee is mid-morning or early afternoon, not right after waking up.

To effectively blend coffee service and micro-markets, there are two things to consider. The first is the different aspects of coffee service. And the second is how each aspect helps integrate coffee with the micro-market.

Coffee Brewers

• choose a brewer that makes gourmet beverages; bean-to-cup and single-cup brewers are the current favorites
• with the concerns around COVID-19, consider a touchless brewer
• discover which brands are most sought after in your area—yes, brands matter even with brewers

Coffee Beans

• offer a range of local and national brands
• discover which coffee brands are well known and liked by your Scottsdale employees
• make sure that the perception of the coffee brands matches the perception of the micro-market—both should be high-end

Other Coffee Service Factors  

• place the coffee service near food and snacks that go well with coffee. Scottsdale employees are more likely to purchase a breakfast item or an afternoon treat if it’s nearby.
• create a supply station with a variety of creamers, flavorings, and sweeteners.
• employees are consumers. Brand recognition of brewers and coffee brands plays a role in purchase decisions.

To make the melding process easier, Southwest Refreshments can help. We will guide you through the steps of integrating your OCS into an existing micro-market or adding both at the same time. For more information about micro-markets, coffee service, and other vending solutions, please contact us at 623.780.3036.

When is a coffee break more than just drinking a cup of coffee? The answer is when it happens during a work break. Even though many businesses are short-staffed or overwhelmed because of COVID-19, Scottsdale employers realize that encouraging their employees to take breaks is necessary.

15 minutes of employee downtime to enjoy a hot cup of coffee or healthy snack from a vending machine or micro-market results in other benefits. As a result, many employers go out of their way to encourage employees to take a coffee break.

Health Benefits

Coffee contains caffeine. The main reason most people drink coffee is the caffeine, but it can also improve one’s mood and cognitive performance. Moderate coffee intake is also shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, brain cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. A bonus when an energy boost is an employee’s primary goal.

A break room also encourages Scottsdale employees to move around. Sitting for long periods can cause joint stiffness and fatigue. Eye strain and headaches can happen after staring at a computer screen for too long without a break. Therefore, everyone finds multiple benefits when employees take breaks.

Breaks help employees work better, and employers see an increase in morale and output.

Coffee Gets Everyone Talking

According to Entrepreneur.com, stress levels are at an all-time high. Too much stress causes a loss of productivity and morale, and an increase in health costs, errors, and interpersonal conflicts. Today, almost everyone suffers from some degree of stress.

Encouraging coffee breaks is one way to help your Scottsdale area employees combat stress. Just as stepping away from one’s desk for 15 minutes helps decrease stiffness and increases circulation, walking and taking a break helps the brain relax.

Another benefit of the coffee break is an increase in communication among employees. Breaks encourage everyone to share concerns, which helps reduce stress. The break room is also a great place to relax and engage in informative conversations. These gatherings often stimulate creative ideas, improve employee camaraderie, and build workplace morale.

The Drink Menu

Coffee isn’t the only beverage that offers benefits. Many employees do not like the taste of coffee or consume limited amounts of caffeine. If an employee falls into either category, there are many other delicious and healthy options. Hot or iced tea, bottled water, and energy drinks are just a few. The goal is to create a time and place for employees to recharge so they can go back to work more focused.

For more information about our hot and cold beverage menus or to add additional vending services, please contact Southwest Refreshments at 623.780.3036. We look forward to hearing from you.

Which is better—coffee or green tea? While everyone has an opinion, there is no right or wrong answer. Both beverages are part of any office coffee service and offer a multitude of varieties and flavors and health benefits for Phoenix employees. A popular benefit of both drinks is the energy boost that comes from caffeine. Traditionally brewed coffee has about 96 mg of caffeine in one 8-oz cup, while green tea has between 20 mg to 45 mg per 8-oz cup.

It’s Good for Your Health

Benefits of ingesting caffeine, whether in coffee or tea, include an increase in energy levels and a decrease in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. While coffee offers almost double the amount of caffeine, green tea offers other significant benefits from higher levels of flavanols, an important micronutrient, catechins, a natural antioxidant, and L-theanine, an amino acid.

For example, the combination of caffeine and L-theanine in green tea results in improved brain function, or stronger working memory, better attention levels, and less anxiety. Other benefits of drinking green tea include an increase in bone strength and health, improved condition of one’s skin from improved moisture retention to anti-aging, and a reduction in heart disease risk factors, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

It’s Time to Enjoy

With the ongoing stress of 2020, enjoying a beverage that offers all those health benefits is a good idea. Let’s look at four things that can help Phoenix employees create a delicious mug of green tea in the break room.

Know Your Tea

As with almost everything, it’s hard to create a great result if you don’t know your ingredients. Most green tea originates in China and Japan. The Chinese variety usually has a smokier flavor because the tea leaves are roasted, while the Japanese variety has a sweeter taste because the leaves are steamed.

Making the Tea

Green tea leaves are sensitive to heat. When prepared with water that is too hot, the leaves can burn. If the leaves are steeped for too long, the leaves can burn. Both scenarios result in a bitter flavor. To prevent burning, steep the leaves for no more than two minutes and don’t use water that is too hot.

Add Flavors

Whether the goal is to mellow the natural flavor or create a new flavor combination, many options are available. Some popular additions include lemon slices, honey, fresh ginger (use sparingly—ginger can overwhelm quickly), peppermint leaves, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg, and citrus peels.

Infuse with Fruit

Fresh and dried fruit can also be added to provide additional flavor and sweetness. Fresh apples or berries are a great option as they are readily available and are also high in flavanols. Dried fruit such as mango, pineapple, peach, and papaya are also good as they mellow out the bitterness.

As the number of tea options available grows, it is essential to modify your Phoenix break room refreshment menu to meet the demand. Not only will your employees enjoy the benefits of drinking a delicious beverage, but they will also be more likely to visit the break room when they want fresh food or a snack. For more information about improving your refreshment services, including office coffee service, vending machines, or micro-market, call Southwest Refreshments today at 623.780.3036.

For coffee drinkers in Scottsdale and around the world, the end of September and the beginning of October is the perfect time to celebrate their favorite hot beverage as National and International Coffee Days happen within two days of one another. In celebration of this delicious holiday, let’s look several reasons why the beverage is so loved.

A Short History

The exact origin of coffee is unknown, but one of the more well-known legends includes a goat herder, his goats, and an abbot from a local Ethiopian monastery. After seeing his goats experience a boost in energy after consuming the berries from a local plant, the herder told a local abbot, who made a beverage from the same berries. From there, the beverage we now know as coffee traveled to the Arabian Peninsula, Europe, and finally the Americas.

Health Benefits

Whether it’s the caffeine or the antioxidants and other compounds in the beans, everyone’s favorite caffeinated beverage offers health benefits for Scottsdale individuals including:

• Reduced risk of death: Drinking one cup per day was associated with a 16 percent lower risk of death. Bump the numbers up to two to three cups per day, and those participants had a 19 percent lower chance of mortality.
• Reduced risk for type-2 diabetes and heart disease: Four cups of coffee. According to researchers in Duesseldorf, Germany that’s all the caffeine it takes to trigger a protective effect in the human heart. The domino effect caused by caffeine consumption ends with the protection and repair of the heart muscle.
• Reduced risk for different types of cancer: The International Agency for Research on Cancer determined that coffee can no longer be classified as a carcinogen. In fact, researchers determined that coffee intake was associated with a reduced risk of oral, pharynx, liver, colon, prostate, melanoma, and endometrial cancers. Woo-hoo!
• Improved memory, a short-term mental boost and better group performance: Caffeine has been found to provide a mental boost for 45 minutes after consuming it and to improve memory over the next 24 hours. Research by the Graduate School of Management at UC, Davis also found that caffeine has a positive impact on a group’s performance.
• Coffee, in its many forms, also makes everyone feel happier: A 2018 study found that 47 percent of survey participants said that consuming that morning cup of Joe played an integral part in having a good start to the day, 43 percent would choose an iced coffee for a “pick-me-up” during the day, and 38 percent of participants would be more willing to spend a day without their smartphone than not drink any form of coffee for 24 hours.

2020 Trends to Explore

• Coffee-cola beverages: mix coffee with cola
• Nitro cold brew: cold brew infused with nitrogen
• Coffee Spritzer: combine a splash of seltzer water with cold brew
• Quality decaf: enjoy deliciously roasted beans without the caffeine
• Snapchilled: brew your favorite beans using a traditional method and rapidly chill it to extract additional flavors

Help your Scottsdale employees celebrate this delicious and caffeinated holiday by providing OCS in the break room. In additional to a variety of hot beverages including tea, make sure to include a selection of sweeteners and dairy and non-dairy creamers. For more information about OCS or any of our other break room services, please contact Southwest Refreshments at 623.780.3036.