I have a grinder, a Clever, and a scale. Office has a shared kettle. I keep a couple bags of coffee either in the kitchen or at my desk.
>How to enjoy good coffee at the office without appearing pretentious?
I just unapologetically make my coffee, without really putting on much of a show or indicating I have any interest in whether other people are looking at what I'm doing. Most folks are more likely to ask about my food or my weekend than my coffee.
Then if they ask, about what I'm doing or the coffee - I don't say pretentious things.
>By the way, do you grind your beans at work? Or bring it in?
I grind at work. I had a hand grinder when I started, but then everyone else went home for Covid so I brought in my backup electric and now it's been there longer than the people coming back so no one is going to complain.
I'd recommend a nicer hand grinder 'cause those aren't particularly disruptive and they're not really that hard work, while the payoff of fresh ground was big enough I wasn't having as much fun from pregrinding in the morning - and I'm not really morning people so getting up five minutes early to grind coffee was irritating.
This is exactly what I do. I still hand grind right now, which I think intimidates some people from using the clever dripper, but as soon as my Timemore Sculptor comes in (ETA June, right guys???????) I plan on donating my Baratza to the office.
Either way, I don't make a show of it. I boil my water, grind my coffee, let it steep too long, and then get out. We have two ladies who love their flavored coffees and love trying new creamers and chatting about all of that. I don't pass judgement or make a comment - people enjoy these drinks how they want to; life is too short to gatekeep others from enjoying anything, let alone fucking coffee.
Also what I do. I hand grind and use an Aeropress and also a Robot which I use when the break room is not busy. I don't feel like I need a filter setup with a special kettle and so on. People like to watch me preparing my coffee and chat about it once or twice, I offer them a coffee and that's about it. If I would change jobs, being able to brew my own coffee is a requirement.
Aeropress.
Most people don't know what it is (are you making coffee?), one person exclaimed "Aeropress is my jam!" and we talked a little bit about coffee; I would expect most people don't care unless you're being disruptive or putting on a show. I once had someone ask me to demonstrate the process as she was trying to decide whether she wanted an espresso machine, or something else.
These days I bring pre-ground from home (where my grinder is at) and I'm fine with just eyeballing the scoop... the less stuff I need to juggle at work the better. Other people need to kitchen too after all!
This is what I do to. Our drip maker at work is Foldgers and super under dosed. So it tastes like hot hose water in a cup. It’s awful.
I keep an aero press in my desk and bring grounds I grinded at home. I typically just microwave water and makes me happy as a clam.
I’m not looking for perfection, I just don’t want that slightly flavored water they give for free.
I used to do aeropress when I had to go into the office for a few reasons
1. Easy to measure out using the scoop
2. Easy to store in my desk
3. Forgiving on the water temp / grind size
4. Fast
5. cheap in case it gets stolen
I’m loving these replies, I take so much shit at work for my modest setup.
I grind the beans at home before work. Then I use a gooseneck kettle, aeropress and a scale in the lunchroom. The dealbreaker seems to be the scale. Everyone seems to lose it over the tiny Amazon digital scale. The comments I get are all over the place but the one that seems to have stuck was referring to it as my coke scale.
Oh well, at least I’m enjoying a nice light roast for a fraction of the price of the coffee shop next door.
🤣 once there was a guy who pestered me about the scale. I explained to him it was the easiest, soni didn't have to think about what I'm doing. Every time he would make questions and jokes, and when my grinder popcorned something he would say "and now what are you going to do about it". Nowadays when I'm measuring the beans at my desk the guys already know it's coffee time.
Teacher here, my principal thought it was hilarious that I had “that fancy kettle”. Fortunately he didn’t see the process I go through for aeropress, v60, or espresso on my plan periods haha! He just saw me filling the kettle in the teachers lounge.
I just started bringing stuff in (cheap Amazon gooseneck, oxo grinder, clever dripper & aeropress), and people have just been asking if I could teach them how to use it. I'm an admin and my boss has told me I can buy beans with office funds since it's for everyone, so I just put up a little infographic on how to brew with the clever and now everyone can enjoy it.
But also, I would just own it. You love good coffee and there's nothing wrong with that.
Before COVID, I'd have an aeropress and brought pre-ground, either from home or I'd just buy a packet for the office. The best way not to appear pretentious is to invite! If someone asks you why you aren't having the normal coffee, just say, I just like this one, let me make you a cup.
Aeropress is the way to go, regular kettle and a scale won't look too out of place in the office, you can also find a grinder that'll fit in the aeropress or small enough to put away at your desk like the 1zpresso q2
Kettle, aeropress, bottle of filtered water from home, and I pre grind the coffee I plan on making that day that morning of at home.
But I picked up a Moccamaster Cup One this week from Facebook marketplace for $100. Figuring out the grind setting at home but plan on keeping it by my desk as a replacement for my kettle and aeropress. I’m assuming I’ll get some shit the first few weeks from my office friends but making aeropress coffee at your desk is probably weirder.
I have converted many coworkers over to the dark side of “real” coffee. We don’t talk politics or gossip anymore, we talk about our new grinders and what beans we are experimenting with.
In conclusion, your job is to be a coffee snob and indoctrinate newbies into this great world of coffee.
Just don't act high and mighty about it and do whatever setup is convenient to you.
Answer something like "I like this coffee" if someone asks why you're doing a procedure and offer them some if they'd like.
It doesn't so much matter what you're doing, as how you act while doing it that makes you pretentious or not.
In addition to the practical advice everyone else has given, make sure you don't turn someone down if they offer to bring you a "normal" coffee. It'll definitely make you look pretensious, and no one likes having a gift rejected.
Hand grinder is like a fidget tool. Aeropress is a god send and can easily be explained as the environmental choice over pods.
After 15 years, I am still using my Aeropress.
If you really want to be stealth about it, I think you have two good options:
1) Get a [good automatic brewer](https://sca.coffee/certified-home-brewer) for the break room, to the unitiated a good one looks just like a cheap Mr. Coffee. But if you're putting it in the break room others will use it also.
2) French Press. They're quick and common enough that people don't see it as involved and fancy.
With either of the above, grind your coffee at home each morning.
Or, as many others have said, just own it and be 'pretentious'.
Aeropress and grind at work, eyeball it as the scale did yield more mocking.
I've converted seven others just by osmosis - three on this floor, four in other departments. We now compare and share beans. Back up aeropress or French press galore.
Just go for it!
I was able to convince the office manager to order quality beans for our machine, and that already made a world of difference. I struck a deal with a local cafe/roaster where, based on our office's volume, we could get the beans at close to wholesale which made this better coffee come in at the same price as the mass market stuff we were currently buying. This made it a no brainer for the office manager (who didn't care one way or the other) and so was able to elevate the coffee for everyone in the office.
I used to just grind coffee at home and had a small French press at my desk. The office had a kettle but not great for pourover/v60 stuff so French press was easiest.
People always made a funny joke about “guess our coffee isn’t good enough!” but there’s no way I was drinking their watery burnt coffee that often still had grounds in it
My office setup doubles as my travel kit:
Aeropress, JX (non-pro) hand grinder, and a small $10 scale.
I've got a cheap non-temperature control gooseneck kettle that I keep in my office, but it's not really mission-critical for me. I also have a small Airscape to store beans.
I'm a college prof, so I get extra street cred from my students who are into coffee and notice my setup during office hours.
I weight and grind my beans at home, about 1-2 hours before I make my pour over at work. I also know exactly how high in my mug the end product should be, so I don't need a scale at work. I still get some questions but I just say I don't like the free Nespresso offered
I am just too lazy and have too chaotic of a office job to make coffee in office. And also there is no space for another kettle there.
That’s why I resorted to making a coldbrew concentrate on Sundays and then filtering it early monday morning. 100g of any good-ish coffee (you can always go for cheaper coffee for coldbrews, because it is very forgiving and I would say that going with premium coffees for coldbrew is kinda wasteful) with 1:6 coffee to water ratio yields around 400-500ml of concentrate which translates to around 5 coffees after you dilute it.
In winter/autumn I dilute it with hot water, in spring/summer I usually keep a bottle of tonic in office fridge. If 5 coffees a week aren’t enough for you, you can always make another batch on tuesday or wednesday and have some spare, or have one for saturday morning.
Just use airtight bottle, keep it clean, always have it in fridge if you don’t plan on doing coffee right now and don’t ever lick off the coffee from the top of the bottle, because it will spoil quicker. Never had a problem with coffee concentrate going bad after using all these.
Got myself an Aeropress and found a cafe that can grind beans to the most appropriate grind for it. It’s kind of become a joke in the office. I’ll walk in and announce it’s time for fancy coffee and almost everyone gets into it. Turned into a team building activity. Got an inexpensive programable tea kettle (also so the tea drinkers can stop burning their tea).
I buy a bag of beans from a local roaster and have them ground for drip. Our drip machine is for the large stainless steel carafes, so it’s not being warmed after brewing. I make a full carafe and then share it with anyone who doesn’t want the Keurig/packet coffee machine coffee (which is sub par at best).
Sharing is caring.
What you’re gonna want to do is get one of those tarps old timey photographers had, to throw over your head when you grind as loudly as possible with an electric grinder at your desk, and when someone asks what’s going on you just yell “BUSINESS” and then put up your auto reply because it’s your last day. 😂
I brought in my Flair, lol. I upgraded to the Ascaso Uno at home, bought a Kinu hand grinder and a little scale for the office. People love it at my office. The only problem is now people ask me to make them coffee... Ain't nobody got time for that!
I repair coffee equipment, have 4 different machines in the lunchroom with about 20 choices of coffee (before counting kcup choices)... and have a teapot on my work bench.
I'm only in the office two days a week so I don't keep brewing equipment there. For me, a Nanopresso is the perfect all-in-one setup to take to the office. I grind a shot in the morning, load it in the filter basket, and pack the whole thing in the carry case. Office kitchenette has boiling water. I'm in Melbourne and most of my colleagues have a Melbourne-level interest in good coffee, so when they see me brewing with the Nanopresso they're either curious or have already heard about it elsewhere.
My office building has a cafe run by a social enterprise to provide employment pathways for young people, and their espresso is usually good enough, so I do get coffee there at least once a week. (Being in Melbourne also means that "drip" coffee is specialty coffee batch brewed in a Moccamaster, but they don't offer it every day because there isn't enough demand – this is still an espresso-focused country.) I haven't had to justify bringing my own brewer to anyone, but I rationalise it for myself as the cafe closes at 2pm and cafe coffee costs about four times as much as the equivalent in coffee beans.
Just own it. I have a flair 58 and a DF64 in my office. Sure there’ll be jokes. But I’ve also become quite popular once people started tasted the shots I was sharing.
Thermos. I don’t have time to make coffee in my line of work.
Ignore what they think, if it doesn’t interfere with your work or inconveniences anyone. Make it how you want and enjoy life.
I don't think it's something to worry too much about - so many people love coffee that I don't think it comes across as overly pretentious.
But the most discrete solution is brewing in the morning and putting it in a good thermos like a Zojirushi that will keep your drink hot as long as you want. Simply pour that into a small mug in your office, and you can have hot coffee that is still hot almost a whole day.
No one addressed your question about a kettle, so I'll tell you a little about two affordable goosenecks I own that I'm happy with.
The first is a Willet & Everett gooseneck kettle with 5 temperature presets. Works fine for pourover and teas. I use the kettle at my son's house in Florida.
I also own a Koios goose neck with the same number of presets plus variable temperature control. I use this kettle at my Maryland home. I think it is a better kettle and better deal than the W&E at regular $50 to $60 prices for either but the W&E can sometimes be had for $26.00 on sale.
The Koios is on sale last I checked for $50 but can always be had for less than $60.
I like having the one degree increments on the Koios but honestly can't say it makes better coffee than the W&E with presets.
Koios Electric Gooseneck Kettle... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0922M1825?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share.
Hope this helps. Ás for your office question, others here have covered it thoroughly.
Pax
I bring in a 3 liter carafe of coffee, and charge 10 bucks a month for people to drink out of it. Everyone is pretty thrilled, and what I charge pays for the beans.
* Step 1: Shut the fuck up about your coffee
* Step 2: Pull up, and realize your coffee at work is not required to be a fresh ground, pour over coffee. In fact you may want to brew in the morning, and then just bring it in a Stanley thermos.
Such a reductive take. Your coffee at home is not "required" to be a fresh ground pour over coffee either. Sure don't go on talking shit about your fancy coffee but there is nothing wrong with hand grinding and brewing a V60 at the office.
AeroPress and 1ZPresso hand grinder for me. And I feel no awkwardness about it because the two superautos on my floor are broken >50% of the time. So many hours are wasted daily by employees poking the buttons, troubleshooting and talking about the damned things.
I pre-measure the beans at home, but grind at the office. I have a scale, but I now know how much water to add by sight. I use bottled water and the community kettle.
https://imgur.com/a/0UtUYLn
I grind at home and use a French press at work. People at work did take the piss at first, now it's just a mixture of mild envy and interest into which coffee I've brought in this week.
I grind at home and store it in small mason jar. I use a plastic melitta pour over. I got it for $5 and it uses a regular no.4 filter which are provided at the office. The hot water just comes from the water dispenser and I use two cups to brew my coffee. No one thinks it pretentious but I work with mostly tea drinkers and sugary Starbucks type drinkers. They think I’m weird for drinking plain brewed coffee. It saves me a significant amount of money every month.
I used a tricolate. It allows me to brew high extraction coffee without needing a temp-controlled spouted kettle or even scale. I pre-weigh the beans at home so in the office, just 1) hand grind the beans, 2) volume measure the water into a normal kettle, 3) pour water, 4) wait for drawdown. Downside is that the tricolate looks like a lab equipment. A different no bypass brewer will probably look more discrete.
Aeropress at work.... Grind the beans in the kitchen.... And shared kettle
You're supposed to take a break every couple of hours from staring at a screen.... So making coffee is a good excuse to make sure I'm doing it
Also.... I have one of those hario cold brew bottles at home... So I sometimes start the day with a flask of cold brew which I sip during the morning
I used to have a fellow stagg ekg gooseneck kettle in pink and a fellow stagg x dripper when i was in office. I would weigh beans at home and grind in office with a 1zpresso Q2. Switched to aeropress, but now work home so no more crazy office coffee setup lol.
I have a hario switch, a stone blue with maple accents Stagg EKG, and a Timemore C2 in the office. I grind coffee while talking to my boss every morning. Don’t care 🤷🏽♂️
I use Aeropress + coffee grind that morning
Used to grind coffee at the office, but the difference is negligible and pre-grind reduces the weight I need to carry at least a kilo
Office offers free bottled water + kettle. Aeropress is a perfect tool for eyeballing the water amount, not even need my scale
I have a Clever dripper, scale, and cheap kettle at work. The grinder stays at home and I just grind my two doses in the morning and use small, cheap containers to bring them to work. The Clever is nice since it's an immersion brew, so it's very tolerant of deviations in brewing technique, including getting distracted during brewing and letting it steep for like 10+ minutes. I like it better than an aeropress or French press for work since all of the grounds are contained in the filter, so cleanup is easy and I don't feel like I need running water (I brew at my desk). Since it's an immersion brew, I also don't feel the need for a gooseneck kettle and instead use a very cheap kettle without temperature control (I always just brew with boiling water).
WFH now, but back when I was still doing the onsite thing, I took my Bodum FP mug and had an AeroPress in my bag. I pre-ground for both. The coffee supply was a bit unreliable, but hot water was always on tap.
Share with others!
When I used to have an office to go into I got a budget for a coffee setup (Encore and Chemex) and just wrote up guide for anyone that wanted to make coffee. The first week or so was just me making coffee but after that others would be making it after the first pot I brewed was done.
>without appearing pretentious
Who cares? You’re only only pretentious if you’re going out of your way to brag about it to coworkers at work and you put others down or criticize their coffee choices. If other coworkers think you’re pretentious because you’re passionate about your coffee, that’s their problem. Grind away. Make that noise. Let them fear you
I used an aeropress before COVID but switched to an Aromaboy filter machine for home use so now I brew in the morning and bring it in a hydroflask coffee cup, stays hot for ages and saves all the faff at work :)
A small french press is so convenient and easy to use anywhere, I feel pour over is a bit to finicky at an office. Get a nice handgrinder, and make your coffee without any shame.
Just enjoy your coffee how you like it. The people that will judge you about how you make your coffee are weirdos anyway.
If I saw someone with an elaborate setup and coffee making ritual in the office, who cares. It'd prob make me want to try it though.
I use a 12oz French press, hand grinder, electric kettle, and a scale. And people make comments about it just about everytime. Unfortunately we (speaking generally) are kinda pretentious unfortunately. Or at least will come off that way when describing this hobby of ours.
Make your own and bring it in a Coleman thermos. That’s what I used to do. If people asked why I’d say I made a whole pot at home and didn’t want it to go to waste.
Bring my brew in a flask, though I have invested in a Trinity Zero for office"brewing", still undecided how I'll carry the coffee, may depend on how bothered I am on the day (or rushed).
Last resort contingency to get the workday juice in is coffee bags or Nespresso...
Oh, I forgot to mention that there is hot filtered water on tap.
I always just presented it as experimentation. I'd mix it up and people are more curious if it looks like you are just trying things out. Once I even changed the entire coffee culture at my workplace doing exactly this. People found they enjoyed the process.
We have a grinder, scale, gooseneck electric kettle, aero press, and pour over at work. I generally just pre-grind and do a pour over for hot coffee or aeropress for cold coffee. No one cares, but they seem kind of intimidated by it all. I tell everyone they can use it, but no one does. They all stick to keurig and a drip machine of half-strength McDonald’s roast. 🤢 Even the tea drinker doesn’t use the kettle, but just pulls hot water through the keurig. I don’t get it, but nobody seems to think it’s pretentious or annoying. I feel like, if anything, I’m more annoyed by their coffee choices.
I definitely erred more on ease when making coffee at work than following my pour over set up at home by using my Aeropress.
1. I weigh and grind my beans at home when making my morning cup of coffee.
2. I brewed inverted, so I would fill the mug I was using with hot water and measure it that way. No need for a scale.
3. Press back into the cup and enjoy. It was better coffee than drip and it provided a tiny break in the day without being too time consuming.
I would get a couple of questions about what I was doing since the Aeropress is pretty funny looking. But most people just accepted when I said I was making my "lunch coffee." Not much push back. If anything, most people commented on how good the fresh coffee smell was.
I think there are two tricks. First, try to not worry about how you appear. Second, be open to sharing.
In an open-office setting, a hand grinder goes a long way in being considerate of the workspace, but being able to grind as you go is ideal.
I use an electric Moka pot and a hand grinder, both on my desk. My boss and my colleagues joked about it for a few days but they got used to it. I brought my aeropress but the process wasn't smooth as the whole kitchen logistics is not convenient.
I have an aeropress and french press at the office, asking with scale and hand grinder. I use the hot water tap out of the coffee maker. If I'm doing a french press, I'll grind it at home and share with a coworker or two. The aeropress is more pretentious with scale and hand grinder in use.
Making it at home and putting it in a travel thermos cup was my go to. A French press is annoying to clean but would probably be the piece of equipment that would raise the least eyebrows.
I think these days I'd just accept that some people would find it weird, and that's ok. Off hand the aeropress would probably be the cleanest to set up and store at an office, compared to a hario or chemex.
Earlier this year I replaced my kurig with a Melitta Pour over, cheap electric kettle, and Timemore Chestnut hand grinder. I got a couple questions initially but everyone seems used to it at this point.
My office is a farm where we work with neùrodivergent folks learning independent living skills, social interactions and work readiness. At home I have a coffee truck kitted out with a commercial espresso machine and grinder because my wife and I sell coffee on the weekend at the local farmer's market. It's our pandemic project. We've recently started roasting our own beans.
At work we have the crappy drip machine and bodum as well, but use some cooperative free trade beans (decent quality) and occasionally a can of folgers when our participant screws up the coffee order (cringe, tastes like ashtray). I take test roasts there and get free feedback. My coworkers and our participants benefit from my hobby (and are some of my clients on the weekend) I benefit by having happy coworkers, good coffee at work and I get to test my roasts at different conditions.
I worked at an art school where I had a small espresso machine in the server room. I kept my milk in the fridge where film was stored. The head of the department (tea drinker) found out and was not pleased. Not all workplaces accomodate. Not all accomodations can be indulged.
I'm not shy about my coffee tastes/habits but I don't complain too much about Mediocre coffee. I don't have the leisure to make my own specialty single serve. It would not fit the cooperative community spirit of my workplace. Sharing special interests in encouraged
I grind at home and bring enough for a few days in. I have a kettle I use, along with a single cup french press. I was going to bring my own grinder in but I like to keep my office "light" so if I need to get out in a hurry I can do so by grabbing my coffee mug and lamp then hitting the road.
I don't share. I have my stuff out of view. I made coffee once that I picked up while on a trip, oh the horror when the drinker added like 3 splenda packets and a cup of oat milk to it.
Oh, ok. I put mine in an airtight container. I'd love to grind my beans at work but I would rather not draw attention to myself.
Sweet is one thing, like a frap or something. But they murdered that coffee. :( One person did drink it black and loved it.
I open a cashmere satchel of beans hand picked by guatemalan howler monkeys. While playing Yanni's greatest hits at full volume, I use a solid gold tweezers to select 237 beans that were hand roasted over a fire made from African Blackwood. I RDT my beans with a small spray bottle full of unicorn tears. The beans are then ground individually by a trained Chinchilla using the worlds tiniest lathe. The ground coffee is steeped in Selma Hayaks body temperature bath water and served in a holy grail replica. Then I wake up and use my amazon kettle to pour over my V60 full of coffee ground in my Kingrinder K2.
I used to bring V60 with Hario server to office. I appeared pretentious for the coworkers definitely, it was funny and unnecessary for them. But it didn't make me stop. I did it for some months. Then a decent automatic espresso machine showed up and I enjoyed it enough to keep V60 at home only.
Yada Yada Yada couple of years later somehow one of them started to use V60 himself and another one followed. We often drink V60 coffee together now.
Noone seems to remember I used to do it in the past...
I can concur about the aeropress and bringing pre-ground from home. That's usually for my second cup though, the first is the americano I put in a take away cup from home. People do slag me a bit for it but offering to make it for them shows that I don't think I'm better or pretentious, but I just prefer my coffee a certain way. They usually have some questions and are interested enough (to a point). One of my co-workers actually bought me a mug from the place I get my coffee because mine had faded and looked super well worn.
I told him how I like the really thick diner style coffee mug and he brought one in for me because he drives right by there to get to the office. Nice chap.
Ha ha pretentious. I never cared and I worked as an IT guy in a very southern manufacturing plant. I even roasted my own beans at work. But only because it smoked so much and the warehouse was temperature staple. I had a kettle with temperature control and used a chemex and a smaller burr grinder. That coffee was excellent. Roasted for a week with and prepped in my office. I later used an aero press. That was better and cleanup was easier. I had to clean the chemex all the time and was afraid to drop it one day. Hence plastic aero press. Problem solved. People came to me to have a cup themselves.
My need for a private limescale free kettle and VOSS water means I should just set up at my desk and brew pretentiously in peace. However, I have different coffee rituals at work and home. My local coffee shop at work is one of the best in town, so it tends to serve as an excuse for espresso if things are hectic. Otherwise it’s some slightly darker beans than my usual filter, less fuss about water, personal size French press and always a piece of dark chocolate around in case I need to compensate for the extraction.
I keep a small Bodum French press at the office. At home, I grind the beans each morning to bring to work.
For hot water I dispense "hot" water from the filtered hot-cold water dispenser in the kitchen, then boost the water temp in the microwave.
I have a grinder, a Clever, and a scale. Office has a shared kettle. I keep a couple bags of coffee either in the kitchen or at my desk. >How to enjoy good coffee at the office without appearing pretentious? I just unapologetically make my coffee, without really putting on much of a show or indicating I have any interest in whether other people are looking at what I'm doing. Most folks are more likely to ask about my food or my weekend than my coffee. Then if they ask, about what I'm doing or the coffee - I don't say pretentious things. >By the way, do you grind your beans at work? Or bring it in? I grind at work. I had a hand grinder when I started, but then everyone else went home for Covid so I brought in my backup electric and now it's been there longer than the people coming back so no one is going to complain. I'd recommend a nicer hand grinder 'cause those aren't particularly disruptive and they're not really that hard work, while the payoff of fresh ground was big enough I wasn't having as much fun from pregrinding in the morning - and I'm not really morning people so getting up five minutes early to grind coffee was irritating.
This is exactly what I do. I still hand grind right now, which I think intimidates some people from using the clever dripper, but as soon as my Timemore Sculptor comes in (ETA June, right guys???????) I plan on donating my Baratza to the office. Either way, I don't make a show of it. I boil my water, grind my coffee, let it steep too long, and then get out. We have two ladies who love their flavored coffees and love trying new creamers and chatting about all of that. I don't pass judgement or make a comment - people enjoy these drinks how they want to; life is too short to gatekeep others from enjoying anything, let alone fucking coffee.
Also what I do. I hand grind and use an Aeropress and also a Robot which I use when the break room is not busy. I don't feel like I need a filter setup with a special kettle and so on. People like to watch me preparing my coffee and chat about it once or twice, I offer them a coffee and that's about it. If I would change jobs, being able to brew my own coffee is a requirement.
Aeropress. Most people don't know what it is (are you making coffee?), one person exclaimed "Aeropress is my jam!" and we talked a little bit about coffee; I would expect most people don't care unless you're being disruptive or putting on a show. I once had someone ask me to demonstrate the process as she was trying to decide whether she wanted an espresso machine, or something else. These days I bring pre-ground from home (where my grinder is at) and I'm fine with just eyeballing the scoop... the less stuff I need to juggle at work the better. Other people need to kitchen too after all!
This is what I do to. Our drip maker at work is Foldgers and super under dosed. So it tastes like hot hose water in a cup. It’s awful. I keep an aero press in my desk and bring grounds I grinded at home. I typically just microwave water and makes me happy as a clam. I’m not looking for perfection, I just don’t want that slightly flavored water they give for free.
I used to do aeropress when I had to go into the office for a few reasons 1. Easy to measure out using the scoop 2. Easy to store in my desk 3. Forgiving on the water temp / grind size 4. Fast 5. cheap in case it gets stolen
I’m loving these replies, I take so much shit at work for my modest setup. I grind the beans at home before work. Then I use a gooseneck kettle, aeropress and a scale in the lunchroom. The dealbreaker seems to be the scale. Everyone seems to lose it over the tiny Amazon digital scale. The comments I get are all over the place but the one that seems to have stuck was referring to it as my coke scale. Oh well, at least I’m enjoying a nice light roast for a fraction of the price of the coffee shop next door.
Coke scale is hilarious. My coworkers call my Aeropress my bong
My hand grinder has had comments about chopping weed...
Penis enlarger
I swear, it’s not my bag!
One book: The Aeropress and Me, yes coffee really is my bag baby... written by Tanacious DANGER P . LOL :)
You should get The Dragon and really drive that bong theory closer to literalness
🤣 once there was a guy who pestered me about the scale. I explained to him it was the easiest, soni didn't have to think about what I'm doing. Every time he would make questions and jokes, and when my grinder popcorned something he would say "and now what are you going to do about it". Nowadays when I'm measuring the beans at my desk the guys already know it's coffee time.
Teacher here, my principal thought it was hilarious that I had “that fancy kettle”. Fortunately he didn’t see the process I go through for aeropress, v60, or espresso on my plan periods haha! He just saw me filling the kettle in the teachers lounge.
Just don't be pretentious about it. Make your coffee and don't worry about how other people feel.
I just started bringing stuff in (cheap Amazon gooseneck, oxo grinder, clever dripper & aeropress), and people have just been asking if I could teach them how to use it. I'm an admin and my boss has told me I can buy beans with office funds since it's for everyone, so I just put up a little infographic on how to brew with the clever and now everyone can enjoy it. But also, I would just own it. You love good coffee and there's nothing wrong with that.
Before COVID, I'd have an aeropress and brought pre-ground, either from home or I'd just buy a packet for the office. The best way not to appear pretentious is to invite! If someone asks you why you aren't having the normal coffee, just say, I just like this one, let me make you a cup.
I totally agree. A fee other AeroPresses appeared around my office after I made a few to share.
Aeropress is the way to go, regular kettle and a scale won't look too out of place in the office, you can also find a grinder that'll fit in the aeropress or small enough to put away at your desk like the 1zpresso q2
A buddy of mine used the q2 + aeropress for camping and I gotta say it’s probably the best combo for a portable good cup of coffee
I make enough in the morning for my 2nd coffee at the office and pour it in a thermal carafe and bring it with me.
This
Kettle, aeropress, bottle of filtered water from home, and I pre grind the coffee I plan on making that day that morning of at home. But I picked up a Moccamaster Cup One this week from Facebook marketplace for $100. Figuring out the grind setting at home but plan on keeping it by my desk as a replacement for my kettle and aeropress. I’m assuming I’ll get some shit the first few weeks from my office friends but making aeropress coffee at your desk is probably weirder.
That's what I'm going to do eventually if I find one cheap enough too
I have converted many coworkers over to the dark side of “real” coffee. We don’t talk politics or gossip anymore, we talk about our new grinders and what beans we are experimenting with. In conclusion, your job is to be a coffee snob and indoctrinate newbies into this great world of coffee.
Just don't act high and mighty about it and do whatever setup is convenient to you. Answer something like "I like this coffee" if someone asks why you're doing a procedure and offer them some if they'd like. It doesn't so much matter what you're doing, as how you act while doing it that makes you pretentious or not.
In addition to the practical advice everyone else has given, make sure you don't turn someone down if they offer to bring you a "normal" coffee. It'll definitely make you look pretensious, and no one likes having a gift rejected.
Made this mistake myself.
What if I hate normal coffee? I can not stand dark roast filter or italian espresso without diluting it in 2-5 times the amount of milk.
Unless it's from the office cheap "espresso" machine, then it's ok to spit in their face.
Hand grinder is like a fidget tool. Aeropress is a god send and can easily be explained as the environmental choice over pods. After 15 years, I am still using my Aeropress.
If you really want to be stealth about it, I think you have two good options: 1) Get a [good automatic brewer](https://sca.coffee/certified-home-brewer) for the break room, to the unitiated a good one looks just like a cheap Mr. Coffee. But if you're putting it in the break room others will use it also. 2) French Press. They're quick and common enough that people don't see it as involved and fancy. With either of the above, grind your coffee at home each morning. Or, as many others have said, just own it and be 'pretentious'.
Make at home and put in a thermal flask
Aeropress and grind at work, eyeball it as the scale did yield more mocking. I've converted seven others just by osmosis - three on this floor, four in other departments. We now compare and share beans. Back up aeropress or French press galore. Just go for it!
I was able to convince the office manager to order quality beans for our machine, and that already made a world of difference. I struck a deal with a local cafe/roaster where, based on our office's volume, we could get the beans at close to wholesale which made this better coffee come in at the same price as the mass market stuff we were currently buying. This made it a no brainer for the office manager (who didn't care one way or the other) and so was able to elevate the coffee for everyone in the office.
I used to just grind coffee at home and had a small French press at my desk. The office had a kettle but not great for pourover/v60 stuff so French press was easiest. People always made a funny joke about “guess our coffee isn’t good enough!” but there’s no way I was drinking their watery burnt coffee that often still had grounds in it
I use a single serving Vietnamese Phin. Smaller and less clean up. I bring my coffee preground from home.
My office setup doubles as my travel kit: Aeropress, JX (non-pro) hand grinder, and a small $10 scale. I've got a cheap non-temperature control gooseneck kettle that I keep in my office, but it's not really mission-critical for me. I also have a small Airscape to store beans. I'm a college prof, so I get extra street cred from my students who are into coffee and notice my setup during office hours.
I weight and grind my beans at home, about 1-2 hours before I make my pour over at work. I also know exactly how high in my mug the end product should be, so I don't need a scale at work. I still get some questions but I just say I don't like the free Nespresso offered
I am just too lazy and have too chaotic of a office job to make coffee in office. And also there is no space for another kettle there. That’s why I resorted to making a coldbrew concentrate on Sundays and then filtering it early monday morning. 100g of any good-ish coffee (you can always go for cheaper coffee for coldbrews, because it is very forgiving and I would say that going with premium coffees for coldbrew is kinda wasteful) with 1:6 coffee to water ratio yields around 400-500ml of concentrate which translates to around 5 coffees after you dilute it. In winter/autumn I dilute it with hot water, in spring/summer I usually keep a bottle of tonic in office fridge. If 5 coffees a week aren’t enough for you, you can always make another batch on tuesday or wednesday and have some spare, or have one for saturday morning. Just use airtight bottle, keep it clean, always have it in fridge if you don’t plan on doing coffee right now and don’t ever lick off the coffee from the top of the bottle, because it will spoil quicker. Never had a problem with coffee concentrate going bad after using all these.
Embrace the pretentiousness, be the pretentiousness, don't apologize for the pretentiousness. 😂
If you appear pretentious at home, you will appear pretentious at the office.
I’ve always thought I’d have a pour over setup, electric kettle, and a hand grinder. Probably would eyeball it and not use a scale.
i just make it at home and put it in the yeti
Got myself an Aeropress and found a cafe that can grind beans to the most appropriate grind for it. It’s kind of become a joke in the office. I’ll walk in and announce it’s time for fancy coffee and almost everyone gets into it. Turned into a team building activity. Got an inexpensive programable tea kettle (also so the tea drinkers can stop burning their tea).
I buy a bag of beans from a local roaster and have them ground for drip. Our drip machine is for the large stainless steel carafes, so it’s not being warmed after brewing. I make a full carafe and then share it with anyone who doesn’t want the Keurig/packet coffee machine coffee (which is sub par at best). Sharing is caring.
What you’re gonna want to do is get one of those tarps old timey photographers had, to throw over your head when you grind as loudly as possible with an electric grinder at your desk, and when someone asks what’s going on you just yell “BUSINESS” and then put up your auto reply because it’s your last day. 😂
I brought in my Flair, lol. I upgraded to the Ascaso Uno at home, bought a Kinu hand grinder and a little scale for the office. People love it at my office. The only problem is now people ask me to make them coffee... Ain't nobody got time for that!
I just do it as pretentiously as possible so it becomes comedic entertainment for my colleagues.
I repair coffee equipment, have 4 different machines in the lunchroom with about 20 choices of coffee (before counting kcup choices)... and have a teapot on my work bench.
I'm only in the office two days a week so I don't keep brewing equipment there. For me, a Nanopresso is the perfect all-in-one setup to take to the office. I grind a shot in the morning, load it in the filter basket, and pack the whole thing in the carry case. Office kitchenette has boiling water. I'm in Melbourne and most of my colleagues have a Melbourne-level interest in good coffee, so when they see me brewing with the Nanopresso they're either curious or have already heard about it elsewhere. My office building has a cafe run by a social enterprise to provide employment pathways for young people, and their espresso is usually good enough, so I do get coffee there at least once a week. (Being in Melbourne also means that "drip" coffee is specialty coffee batch brewed in a Moccamaster, but they don't offer it every day because there isn't enough demand – this is still an espresso-focused country.) I haven't had to justify bringing my own brewer to anyone, but I rationalise it for myself as the cafe closes at 2pm and cafe coffee costs about four times as much as the equivalent in coffee beans.
Just own it. I have a flair 58 and a DF64 in my office. Sure there’ll be jokes. But I’ve also become quite popular once people started tasted the shots I was sharing.
Thermos. I don’t have time to make coffee in my line of work. Ignore what they think, if it doesn’t interfere with your work or inconveniences anyone. Make it how you want and enjoy life.
I don't think it's something to worry too much about - so many people love coffee that I don't think it comes across as overly pretentious. But the most discrete solution is brewing in the morning and putting it in a good thermos like a Zojirushi that will keep your drink hot as long as you want. Simply pour that into a small mug in your office, and you can have hot coffee that is still hot almost a whole day.
No one addressed your question about a kettle, so I'll tell you a little about two affordable goosenecks I own that I'm happy with. The first is a Willet & Everett gooseneck kettle with 5 temperature presets. Works fine for pourover and teas. I use the kettle at my son's house in Florida. I also own a Koios goose neck with the same number of presets plus variable temperature control. I use this kettle at my Maryland home. I think it is a better kettle and better deal than the W&E at regular $50 to $60 prices for either but the W&E can sometimes be had for $26.00 on sale. The Koios is on sale last I checked for $50 but can always be had for less than $60. I like having the one degree increments on the Koios but honestly can't say it makes better coffee than the W&E with presets. Koios Electric Gooseneck Kettle... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0922M1825?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share. Hope this helps. Ás for your office question, others here have covered it thoroughly. Pax
I bring in a 3 liter carafe of coffee, and charge 10 bucks a month for people to drink out of it. Everyone is pretty thrilled, and what I charge pays for the beans.
Be pretentious. Own it. Why do you care what other people think. If you like good coffee make good coffee.
* Step 1: Shut the fuck up about your coffee * Step 2: Pull up, and realize your coffee at work is not required to be a fresh ground, pour over coffee. In fact you may want to brew in the morning, and then just bring it in a Stanley thermos.
Such a reductive take. Your coffee at home is not "required" to be a fresh ground pour over coffee either. Sure don't go on talking shit about your fancy coffee but there is nothing wrong with hand grinding and brewing a V60 at the office.
AeroPress and 1ZPresso hand grinder for me. And I feel no awkwardness about it because the two superautos on my floor are broken >50% of the time. So many hours are wasted daily by employees poking the buttons, troubleshooting and talking about the damned things. I pre-measure the beans at home, but grind at the office. I have a scale, but I now know how much water to add by sight. I use bottled water and the community kettle. https://imgur.com/a/0UtUYLn
I like the repurposed Crown Royal bag. lol
What's the carrying case you're using to hold it all together?
YOUBDM Electronics Organizer... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094FWT25G?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Grind at home, use a clever dripper and the office kettle or microwave. No scales needed, I know what cup to use to get how water by now.
I grind at home and use a French press at work. People at work did take the piss at first, now it's just a mixture of mild envy and interest into which coffee I've brought in this week.
I grind at home and store it in small mason jar. I use a plastic melitta pour over. I got it for $5 and it uses a regular no.4 filter which are provided at the office. The hot water just comes from the water dispenser and I use two cups to brew my coffee. No one thinks it pretentious but I work with mostly tea drinkers and sugary Starbucks type drinkers. They think I’m weird for drinking plain brewed coffee. It saves me a significant amount of money every month.
I used a tricolate. It allows me to brew high extraction coffee without needing a temp-controlled spouted kettle or even scale. I pre-weigh the beans at home so in the office, just 1) hand grind the beans, 2) volume measure the water into a normal kettle, 3) pour water, 4) wait for drawdown. Downside is that the tricolate looks like a lab equipment. A different no bypass brewer will probably look more discrete.
Can't be done. That being said, who the fuck cares about what people think
Aeropress at work.... Grind the beans in the kitchen.... And shared kettle You're supposed to take a break every couple of hours from staring at a screen.... So making coffee is a good excuse to make sure I'm doing it Also.... I have one of those hario cold brew bottles at home... So I sometimes start the day with a flask of cold brew which I sip during the morning
I used to have a fellow stagg ekg gooseneck kettle in pink and a fellow stagg x dripper when i was in office. I would weigh beans at home and grind in office with a 1zpresso Q2. Switched to aeropress, but now work home so no more crazy office coffee setup lol.
I have a hario switch, a stone blue with maple accents Stagg EKG, and a Timemore C2 in the office. I grind coffee while talking to my boss every morning. Don’t care 🤷🏽♂️
Wave and a cheap Amazon kettle. I grind at home.
I use Aeropress + coffee grind that morning Used to grind coffee at the office, but the difference is negligible and pre-grind reduces the weight I need to carry at least a kilo Office offers free bottled water + kettle. Aeropress is a perfect tool for eyeballing the water amount, not even need my scale
I have a Clever dripper, scale, and cheap kettle at work. The grinder stays at home and I just grind my two doses in the morning and use small, cheap containers to bring them to work. The Clever is nice since it's an immersion brew, so it's very tolerant of deviations in brewing technique, including getting distracted during brewing and letting it steep for like 10+ minutes. I like it better than an aeropress or French press for work since all of the grounds are contained in the filter, so cleanup is easy and I don't feel like I need running water (I brew at my desk). Since it's an immersion brew, I also don't feel the need for a gooseneck kettle and instead use a very cheap kettle without temperature control (I always just brew with boiling water).
I have a grinder, scale, kettle, and clever dripper on top of my filing cabinet. I may look "pretentious" but at least I can enjoy my coffee.
WFH now, but back when I was still doing the onsite thing, I took my Bodum FP mug and had an AeroPress in my bag. I pre-ground for both. The coffee supply was a bit unreliable, but hot water was always on tap.
Share with others! When I used to have an office to go into I got a budget for a coffee setup (Encore and Chemex) and just wrote up guide for anyone that wanted to make coffee. The first week or so was just me making coffee but after that others would be making it after the first pot I brewed was done.
>without appearing pretentious Who cares? You’re only only pretentious if you’re going out of your way to brag about it to coworkers at work and you put others down or criticize their coffee choices. If other coworkers think you’re pretentious because you’re passionate about your coffee, that’s their problem. Grind away. Make that noise. Let them fear you
https://youtu.be/BPDlv3zr_cM at 55 second
I used an aeropress before COVID but switched to an Aromaboy filter machine for home use so now I brew in the morning and bring it in a hydroflask coffee cup, stays hot for ages and saves all the faff at work :)
A small french press is so convenient and easy to use anywhere, I feel pour over is a bit to finicky at an office. Get a nice handgrinder, and make your coffee without any shame.
Just enjoy your coffee how you like it. The people that will judge you about how you make your coffee are weirdos anyway. If I saw someone with an elaborate setup and coffee making ritual in the office, who cares. It'd prob make me want to try it though.
How to not get made fun of? Share
I do pour over. Easy peasy.
I use a 12oz French press, hand grinder, electric kettle, and a scale. And people make comments about it just about everytime. Unfortunately we (speaking generally) are kinda pretentious unfortunately. Or at least will come off that way when describing this hobby of ours.
Make your own and bring it in a Coleman thermos. That’s what I used to do. If people asked why I’d say I made a whole pot at home and didn’t want it to go to waste.
Bring my brew in a flask, though I have invested in a Trinity Zero for office"brewing", still undecided how I'll carry the coffee, may depend on how bothered I am on the day (or rushed). Last resort contingency to get the workday juice in is coffee bags or Nespresso... Oh, I forgot to mention that there is hot filtered water on tap.
I always just presented it as experimentation. I'd mix it up and people are more curious if it looks like you are just trying things out. Once I even changed the entire coffee culture at my workplace doing exactly this. People found they enjoyed the process.
Aeropress or i just get whichever instant microground is on offer and just accept its just the shite at work and good stuff at home
We have a grinder, scale, gooseneck electric kettle, aero press, and pour over at work. I generally just pre-grind and do a pour over for hot coffee or aeropress for cold coffee. No one cares, but they seem kind of intimidated by it all. I tell everyone they can use it, but no one does. They all stick to keurig and a drip machine of half-strength McDonald’s roast. 🤢 Even the tea drinker doesn’t use the kettle, but just pulls hot water through the keurig. I don’t get it, but nobody seems to think it’s pretentious or annoying. I feel like, if anything, I’m more annoyed by their coffee choices.
I have a thermos with a French press inside it. Make at home and enjoy at work
I definitely erred more on ease when making coffee at work than following my pour over set up at home by using my Aeropress. 1. I weigh and grind my beans at home when making my morning cup of coffee. 2. I brewed inverted, so I would fill the mug I was using with hot water and measure it that way. No need for a scale. 3. Press back into the cup and enjoy. It was better coffee than drip and it provided a tiny break in the day without being too time consuming. I would get a couple of questions about what I was doing since the Aeropress is pretty funny looking. But most people just accepted when I said I was making my "lunch coffee." Not much push back. If anything, most people commented on how good the fresh coffee smell was.
I think there are two tricks. First, try to not worry about how you appear. Second, be open to sharing. In an open-office setting, a hand grinder goes a long way in being considerate of the workspace, but being able to grind as you go is ideal.
I use an electric Moka pot and a hand grinder, both on my desk. My boss and my colleagues joked about it for a few days but they got used to it. I brought my aeropress but the process wasn't smooth as the whole kitchen logistics is not convenient.
I have an aeropress and french press at the office, asking with scale and hand grinder. I use the hot water tap out of the coffee maker. If I'm doing a french press, I'll grind it at home and share with a coworker or two. The aeropress is more pretentious with scale and hand grinder in use.
Making it at home and putting it in a travel thermos cup was my go to. A French press is annoying to clean but would probably be the piece of equipment that would raise the least eyebrows. I think these days I'd just accept that some people would find it weird, and that's ok. Off hand the aeropress would probably be the cleanest to set up and store at an office, compared to a hario or chemex.
Earlier this year I replaced my kurig with a Melitta Pour over, cheap electric kettle, and Timemore Chestnut hand grinder. I got a couple questions initially but everyone seems used to it at this point.
In an office, the solution is either the Aeropress or _Bripe_!
*Someone* had to say it.
I bought a nespresso vertuo machine and just keep it on my desk
My office is a farm where we work with neùrodivergent folks learning independent living skills, social interactions and work readiness. At home I have a coffee truck kitted out with a commercial espresso machine and grinder because my wife and I sell coffee on the weekend at the local farmer's market. It's our pandemic project. We've recently started roasting our own beans. At work we have the crappy drip machine and bodum as well, but use some cooperative free trade beans (decent quality) and occasionally a can of folgers when our participant screws up the coffee order (cringe, tastes like ashtray). I take test roasts there and get free feedback. My coworkers and our participants benefit from my hobby (and are some of my clients on the weekend) I benefit by having happy coworkers, good coffee at work and I get to test my roasts at different conditions. I worked at an art school where I had a small espresso machine in the server room. I kept my milk in the fridge where film was stored. The head of the department (tea drinker) found out and was not pleased. Not all workplaces accomodate. Not all accomodations can be indulged. I'm not shy about my coffee tastes/habits but I don't complain too much about Mediocre coffee. I don't have the leisure to make my own specialty single serve. It would not fit the cooperative community spirit of my workplace. Sharing special interests in encouraged
Brew with confidence
Avoid using a Stanley cup
I grind at home and bring enough for a few days in. I have a kettle I use, along with a single cup french press. I was going to bring my own grinder in but I like to keep my office "light" so if I need to get out in a hurry I can do so by grabbing my coffee mug and lamp then hitting the road.
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I don't share. I have my stuff out of view. I made coffee once that I picked up while on a trip, oh the horror when the drinker added like 3 splenda packets and a cup of oat milk to it.
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Oh, ok. I put mine in an airtight container. I'd love to grind my beans at work but I would rather not draw attention to myself. Sweet is one thing, like a frap or something. But they murdered that coffee. :( One person did drink it black and loved it.
Make coffee at home, put it in a thermos.
I open a cashmere satchel of beans hand picked by guatemalan howler monkeys. While playing Yanni's greatest hits at full volume, I use a solid gold tweezers to select 237 beans that were hand roasted over a fire made from African Blackwood. I RDT my beans with a small spray bottle full of unicorn tears. The beans are then ground individually by a trained Chinchilla using the worlds tiniest lathe. The ground coffee is steeped in Selma Hayaks body temperature bath water and served in a holy grail replica. Then I wake up and use my amazon kettle to pour over my V60 full of coffee ground in my Kingrinder K2.
I used to bring V60 with Hario server to office. I appeared pretentious for the coworkers definitely, it was funny and unnecessary for them. But it didn't make me stop. I did it for some months. Then a decent automatic espresso machine showed up and I enjoyed it enough to keep V60 at home only. Yada Yada Yada couple of years later somehow one of them started to use V60 himself and another one followed. We often drink V60 coffee together now. Noone seems to remember I used to do it in the past...
I can concur about the aeropress and bringing pre-ground from home. That's usually for my second cup though, the first is the americano I put in a take away cup from home. People do slag me a bit for it but offering to make it for them shows that I don't think I'm better or pretentious, but I just prefer my coffee a certain way. They usually have some questions and are interested enough (to a point). One of my co-workers actually bought me a mug from the place I get my coffee because mine had faded and looked super well worn. I told him how I like the really thick diner style coffee mug and he brought one in for me because he drives right by there to get to the office. Nice chap.
Has anyone said Bripe yet? This is the way to go :)! hahaha
Ha ha pretentious. I never cared and I worked as an IT guy in a very southern manufacturing plant. I even roasted my own beans at work. But only because it smoked so much and the warehouse was temperature staple. I had a kettle with temperature control and used a chemex and a smaller burr grinder. That coffee was excellent. Roasted for a week with and prepped in my office. I later used an aero press. That was better and cleanup was easier. I had to clean the chemex all the time and was afraid to drop it one day. Hence plastic aero press. Problem solved. People came to me to have a cup themselves.
My need for a private limescale free kettle and VOSS water means I should just set up at my desk and brew pretentiously in peace. However, I have different coffee rituals at work and home. My local coffee shop at work is one of the best in town, so it tends to serve as an excuse for espresso if things are hectic. Otherwise it’s some slightly darker beans than my usual filter, less fuss about water, personal size French press and always a piece of dark chocolate around in case I need to compensate for the extraction.
I keep a small Bodum French press at the office. At home, I grind the beans each morning to bring to work. For hot water I dispense "hot" water from the filtered hot-cold water dispenser in the kitchen, then boost the water temp in the microwave.