My office provides for free fountain colas and free coffee. We’re trying to be green so everyone was issued a plastic tumbler and a coffee mug. The styro cups were removed from all the break rooms. The coffee they use changes from time to time, and comes in pre-measured filter packs. I’ve always been of the opinion that there wasn’t enough coffee in a filter pack to make adequately strong coffee, but I didn’t care much because our little sub group of about five people have our own coffee pot that we keep near our desks. We buy the ‘good stuff.’ Well, we unfortunately ran out the other day, and I went and nabbed a few of the filter packs as a cheap substitute. I cut open two or three of the filter packs and emptied them into our freshly emptied canister. From there I added the usual amount for a single 10-12 cup pot of coffee, and I barely had enough coffee from the combined filter packs! So not only did I use twice as much coffee for a single pot; our pot is smaller than the thermo pot in the break room. No wonder it tastes like water with a brown crayon dipped in it.
I work for the gubment, so we don’t get free anything. We can have our own coffee pots in a public canteen area or we can buy overpriced, mediocre coffee from the cafe downstairs. I choose to use my own pot, which means I am in a constant battle with thieves … or should I say … constantly obsessing over trivial questions of who owns what.
My boss once found a security guard from three floors away enjoying a cup from my pot. When I told the security supervisor she said “we can’t be expected to tell every guard not to touch your coffee!”
Instant coffee or a personal cafetiere for the win.
We’ve got an old commercial-style Bunn coffeemaker that requires commercial filters in our work unit. It has taken tremendous abuse, but still delivers. Depending on who’s making it, the coffee ranges from too weak to drink all the way up to too strong to even touch to your lips (just the way I like it). We supply the coffee and any creamer, but the correctional dairy does supply us free skim milk from incarcerated cows.
I use the creamer.
Its instant for us. I don’t usually bother with it.
The small company I’m contracting with presently has a large professional espresso machine and huge bean grinder (apparently acquired 2nd hand from some closing-down cafe) and gets excellent beans in.
The development team lead is a keen amateur barista and makes a round of top-notch coffees a couple of time a day.
bliss 
We have instant coffee. There’s a café in the lobby for anyone who wants better. It doesn’t worry me either way because I don’t drink coffee at work.
The cafeteria has free coffee that’s actually dishwasher water so we have a 3 pot Bunn coffee maker for our department. We buy our own coffee, half n half and sugar. You do have to be on the list* posted above the coffee maker to drink it though. It’s better than the last company I worked for that threw away all the coffee makers one day without explanation.
*No, really, the last guy that wasn’t on the list we brought behind the paintshop and whipped him with pool noodles and posted the pictures next to the list.
We have an array of “brew it into one or two travel mugs” coffee makers that we have all chipped in for over the years. We each bring our own coffee and fixins, and bring in boxes of filters to share. It works out OK, and if you don’t like your coffee you have only yourself to blame. It’s state government, so nothing is paid for us (including the water cooler - we all chip in a couple bucks a month to have that.)
I’m a bit of a coffee nut - at home using either a vacuum pot or a French press with fairly decent coffee from Trader Joe’s. At work our maid-of-all-work makes the coffee in a standard drip machine using coffee from big cans of Folgers. You just know it’s going to be icky, don’t you?
Well I can’t figure out the secret, but her coffee is better than anything I can do at home, and right up there with most of the stuff at Starbucks. And she uses only about half of the recommended grounds.
Phooey! Frustrating! It’s not fair! I hate her!
I don’t think the county supplies coffee. I bring in and brew my own in a little 2 cup Melita cone filter.
What did the cows do wrong?
At home I have both a drip coffee maker that makes coffee by the travel mug (I use 8’oclock fresh ground) I also have a home flavia machine that we all love. It can get rather expensive for all the coffee types and teas that we buy. Lately we have been using that a lot less due to the cost. I would recommend the Flavia machine to any office that can afford it. That way everyone can drink what they want and be happy. It makes a decent Chai Latte as well.
Well, we are both retired and we have a drip coffee maker at home; we use 100% Colombian coffee and we get lots of compliments on how good our coffee is. But things may change pretty soon: Colombian coffee is now above $10.00 per can while the other garbage is still around $8.50.
I bought our office of 15 people a cheap $15 coffee maker last Christmas and had all the coffee drinkers (about 7) pay me $2 as a ‘lifetime usage fee’, so I broke even.
We have bin set up for people to put pop bottles in, which so far has been enough to pay for a constant supply of Folgers, sugar, and creamer. Whenever someone feels generous, they are more than welcome to bring in some of ‘the good stuff’.
Our relatively small office has a Keurig in our lunch room. I really like it, and am a rabid fan of the Caramel Vanilla Cream. When that’s all used up, I switch to Hazelnut. (Yes, I like the gently flavoured coffees.) When I feel like it, I open one K-cup of cocoa, dump it in my cup, and finish off with something called Kona something which is supposed to be rich, dark and have cocoa overtones, and make a mocha. I don’t drink coffee at home, just at work or restaurants, and I don’t drink tea (hot, strong) out, just at home. Anyway, I like the K-cup thingee, but I hate it when people
a) Leave their used thingee in the machine, and
b) Stop it before it’s completely brewed, so that when I go to make my cup, it thinks it’s still brewing the previous cup.
I don’t know what they do for coffee on the other floors of my building, because I joined a coffee club on another floor. All the members pay $5.00 monthly and someone (usually one of the district directors or her secretary) runs out to buy a giant-size tub of Folgers or two. Whoever gets there first, usually that one lady who likes really really strong coffee, gets the old-fashioned giant urn-style percolator going. Those who like decaf have a separate 12-cup coffeemaker on a table. I just show up, get my coffee, pour a little hot water in my cup so it won’t be as strong, and add all the powdered creamer and sugar I need. Since I am a heathen who actually has the gall to enjoy unusual flavorings in her coffee sometimes, I keep my own little jar of hazelnut-flavored creamer at my desk.
Everyone who sits around me either comes in with their own Starbucks cup or has an unauthorized hot pot to make tea.
We have Starbucks “interactive cup” machines. They grind beans and brew on demand. If they have good beans, the coffee is decent (I don’t like the beans they’re currently stocking ours with). We used to have Keurigs which were not bad and better for variety. The best coffee from the Keurigs wasn’t as good as the best coffee from the Starbucks machines, but it was better than the worst coffee from the Starbucks machine. They’re all better than the horrid office coffee I’ve had at previous jobs, but not as good as many cups I’ve had elsewhere…
Moooving violation.
We have a Bunn coffeemaker and use Folgers where I work. Up until a few years ago, we had an older guy who liked super weak coffee. So weak you could see the bottom of your cup. If you made it too strong, he made faces, called it “rotgut”, and poured it out. Then he retired, and we could make coffee as strong as we want. And the peasants rejoiced.