Office Coffee Service

Coffee and everything related to it has more of an influence than most Tulsa employees realize. In fact, it’s impact isn’t only related to the caffeine boost that comes from drinking the beverage.

Recent research in the Consciousness and Cognition journal found that exposure to coffee-related cues, without having actually consumed any coffee, can trigger a chemical-response pattern in the brain that increases “concrete, precise thinking and mental arousal, or attentiveness.” It’s sort of like Pavlov’s dogs, but in this case, individuals are exposed to non-chemical but coffee-related cues which then trigger a chemical-response pattern in the brain.

So what types of coffee-related cues in Tulsa office break rooms could cause this effect? The answer is almost anything such as colors, sounds and smells that can be observed. Let’s take a look at one of America’s favorite hot beverages and the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch), and see how each sense can impact alertness and attention.

Taste: While the concept of taste is often associated with the physical act of drinking, taste can can also play a role in a more abstract way. For many Tulsa employees, the “taste” of coffee is often the first thing that comes to mind when someone else mentions coffee.

Sight: Seeing a physical object such as an image of a mug, roasted beans or even an actual cup of coffee are just a few of the many different visual cues that can create a response.

Hearing: Understanding which sounds have the ability to trigger the chemical-response pattern is a bit more complicated as sound is unique for everyone. Several popular sounds include grinding beans, the brewer brewing and sounds that are associated with a favorite local cafe.

Smell: The sense of smell is similar to the sense of hearing in that everyone experiences it differently, but freshly brewed coffee, the smell of beans being ground or that favorite cafe tends to elicit almost the same reaction from everyone.

Touch: Experiencing the feel or size of a favorite mug, picking up the container that holds the ground beans, pressing the start button on the grinder or using an espresso machine or favorite French press are all ways to activate the brain via touch without ever drinking a single drop.

Whether it’s by itself or in combination with other senses, the human body takes in many different observations during the day. It’s time to increase the likelihood that more of your employees will benefit from the coffee effect and design your Tulsa office coffee service to engage all of the senses.

Blue Sky Supply can help customize a refreshment menu that includes the hot beverages your employees seek out as well as healthy snacks, cold beverages and fresh food. A successful break room is more than just a place to grab a quick snack. It’s a welcoming and relaxing place that encourages employee creativity, collaboration and productivity.

To update your current break room menu or design a new break room space, contact Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100. We look forward to enjoying a cup of Joe or tea with you.

The blueprint of the local coffee shop continues to evolve as the broader coffee industry grows and consumer demands change. New flavors and combinations and roasting and brewing practices constantly appear in the market making local Tulsa foodservice establishments the perfect place to take a break and discover the next in-demand beverage.

With more opportunities to find the “perfect” coffee or espresso-based beverage in nearby cafés and retail locations, it is more important than ever to make sure your office coffee service (OCS) offers your employees what they want and can draw them to the break room. Michael Schaefer, global lead of food and beverage at Euromonitor International shared that “successful coffee players will combine discovery, experience, long-term purchasing and rapid product innovation, all across a wide range of distribution points.”

Encouraging Tulsa employees to stay on-site during the workday also creates multiple opportunities for spontaneous conversations between coworkers and increased creativity. Add in additional break room benefits such as delicious coffee and tea options as well healthy snacks and freshly made food, and you’re likely to find healthier and more productive employees. 

To learn about what your employees want and how to introduce your employees to new choices consider hosting one of the following events with Blue Sky Supply:

• Not sure which new OCS options to include in your coffee service menu? Have a coffee taste-testing party, but don’t forget to include potential new tea options. Ask your employees to rank their preferences and use the results to determine one or more new selections to add to the menu. 

• The same type of event would also work for healthy snacks. New and unknown tastes, especially when it comes to food, can be intimidating. Remove some of the pressure connected to purchasing an item and not knowing if it will taste good by hosting a “Try a Sample” gathering. Your employees might be surprised at how delicious healthy can taste.

• Survey your employees about the types of coffee condiments they enjoy with their coffee and tea. Adding a non-dairy milk or raw sugar option to the menu might be enough to attract those employees who usually go off-site to find a less traditional choice. Small changes can have a big impact.

Whether you’d like to add a new beverage or healthy snack to your current menu or update your entire vending services, Blue Sky Supply is here to help. We will work with you to create a customized solution that will meet both your and your Tulsa employees’ needs. For more information, please contact us at (918) 599-9100.

Enjoying coffee and tea from the office coffee service may provide Tulsa and Oklahoma City employees with additional health benefits. Scientists from Boston Children’s Hospital recently found that consuming caffeine may help decrease pain sensitivity in those with chronic pain. The consumed caffeine caused dopamine, a carrier of messages between nerve cells in the brain, to flood the brain’s pleasure center resulting in decreased pain sensitivity, a huge benefit for chronic pain suffers.

Healthy levels of dopamine help regulate emotions, cognition, food intake, and the endocrine system. Chronic pain, on the other hand, often causes endocrine, cardiovascular, immune, neurological, and musculo-skeletal system problems resulting in decreased immune health, spikes in blood pressure, trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating, and disruptions of daily activities. It appears that caffeine causes a boost in dopamine which works against some of the negative effects of chronic pain.

This new information is great news for the 25.3+ million adults who live with chronic pain. But caffeine has other benefits that can improve workplace productivity too. Caffeine has been known to decrease fatigue, offer short term mental boost, and improve memory. Coffee, tea, and chocolate are a few of the more familiar sources of caffeine. The different levels of caffeine in caffeinated beverages is a result of different places of origin, varying processing and preparation methods (including brewing time), and the amount of milk or cream added.

Typical levels of caffeine in tea and coffee include:

• Coffee: 8 fl oz. mug includes 95 mg to 165 mg
• Espresso: 1 fl oz. shot includes 47 mg to 64 mg
• Black Tea: 8 fl oz. mug includes 25 mg to 48 mg
• Green Tea: 8 fl oz. mug includes 25 mg to 29 mg
• Ready-to-Drink Bottled Tea: 8 fl oz. bottle includes 5 mg to 40 mg

If coffee and tea have too much caffeine or are too acidic for your Tulsa and Oklahoma City employee, enjoying a bar of dark chocolate or a mug of hot cocoa from the office break room is another option. Both dark chocolate and hot cocoa have less caffeine than the traditional office coffee service choices.

Typical levels of caffeine in chocolate include:

• Hot Cocoa: 8 fl oz. mug includes 9 mg
• Dark Chocolate: 3.5 oz. bar with 70% to 80% cocoa includes 80mg
• Dark Chocolate: 3.5 oz. bar with 50% to 69% cocoa includes 70mg
• Milk Chocolate: 3.5 oz. bar includes 20 mg
  

Consider offering all of your Tulsa and Oklahoma City employees the chance to enjoy a caffeine pick-me-up while at work. Whether enjoying coffee or tea from the office coffee service or a bar of dark chocolate from the vending machine, there is an option for everyone. For more information about adding coffee service or updating your micro-market options, call Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100.

Maintaining recommended fitness levels is a challenge for many individuals, but there is new research about caffeine that might make it just a bit easier to accomplish. Recent research from the University of São Paulo in Brazil found a link between caffeine consumption and more effective workouts. In the study, the participants’ cycling speed was recorded after the cyclist burned 450 calories. The first time after taking a caffeine pill, the second time after taking a placebo, and the third time after taking nothing. The average cycling speed after consuming the caffeine pill was 3.3 percent faster than when compared to taking nothing. That is a substantial boost.   

Benefits

But caffeine offers more benefits to Tulsa and Oklahoma City individuals who consume it than just improving one’s workout performance. If you ask, most individuals know that it decreases fatigue first thing in the morning as well as during the mid-afternoon slump. Less familiar may be the idea that caffeine has been found to provide a mental boost for 45 minutes after consuming it and improved memory over the next 24 hours. Tulsa and Oklahoma City employee’s reaction time, and concentration also increases. Each of these benefits on their own are good for employee productivity, but when combined, they could be great.  

Caffeine has also been found to play a role in preventing a number of health conditions including type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, as well as reduce the risk of liver cancer and mouth and throat cancers.

Sources

To get the most benefit, it is best to consume snacks and beverages with naturally occurring caffeine. “Added” caffeine does not contain the powerful antioxidants and vitamins that are found in the naturally occurring form causing its boost to be a sudden jolt up and a fast crash down. Some of the 60 plant species that contain the naturally occurring form include cocoa beans, kola nuts, tea leaves, coffee beans, yerba maté, guarana berries, guayusa, and the yaupon holly. Chocolate, tea, and coffee are three of the more popular forms of naturally occurring caffeine in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and each one contains different beneficial antioxidants.

• Chocolate: flavonoids, procyanidins, epicatechin, cocoa phenols
  
• Tea: epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epicatechin
• Coffee: chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and melanoidins

Which one is your favorite type—chocolate, tea or coffee? Offering all three of them in your Tulsa and Oklahoma City office break room is a cost-effective way to help your employees relax and  at the same time, boost their productivity. For more information about different vending machine or micro-market options, call Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100. We can help you determine the best caffeinated options for your employees.

Have you noticed that coffee has had a makeover? Kyra Auffermann, National Coffee Association communications and content manager, described it best when she wrote,

“Coffee” used to be associated with a traditional percolated brew, consumed at home at the breakfast table. Now the perception of coffee has expanded to include an afternoon nitro cold brew while working at a café, or a bottle from a vending machine in the train station after work.

And the makeover has definitely had a positive impact. 62 percent of Americans now drink coffee on a daily basis—up from 57 percent in 2016. How that coffee is prepared at home, and the types of coffee consumers drink have also changed.   

Single-Cup Brewing

The introduction of single-cup brewing systems has impacted how consumers prepare their coffee at home and in the office break room. Not only have single-cup brewing systems had a 500 percent growth rate since 2012 but 33 percent of U.S. households now own one. The flexibility of the single-cup brewing system takes into account individual preferences when compared to traditional drip brewers and allows users to enjoy all types of coffee as well as tea and hot cocoa; a bonus at any Tulsa and Oklahoma City workplace.

Gourmet Coffee

The classification, gourmet coffee, covers many different types of coffee beverages and represents 59 percent of coffee consumed daily; a 13 percent increase since 2012. Gourmet coffee offers consumers a way to experience new flavors and preparation methods. While there isn’t a specific definition for gourmet coffee, for a beverage to be called gourmet coffee, it must meet several criteria. Gourmet coffee…

• is “specialty coffee” consumed any time of the day
• is often not made at home
• must meet a higher level of quality
• is more expensive than traditional coffee as consumers are willing to pay more for better drinks
• includes non-espresso based beverages such as cold brew, nitro coffee, and frozen blended coffee

And it’s not just one segment of the population that is requesting gourmet coffee beverages. In fact, individuals between 40 and 59 years of age had a 16 percent increase in daily consumption followed by 10 percent for those 60+ and 9 percent for 25 to 39-year-olds. With the increase in coffee consumption at all times of the day, it isn’t surprising that research has found that coffee service at work is a benefit that Tulsa and Oklahoma City employees value.

Does your coffee service match what your employees are looking for—individual gourmet choices? We can help you meet those needs by developing a plan for new coffee service or upgrading your break room. Contact Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100 to make the next step.

Coffee seems to be transforming its reputation. It’s no longer seen as the harmful beverage it once was. Just this year, the International Journal of Cancer published the results of a study examining “the effect of Italian-style coffee consumption on prostate cancer risk” in almost 7,000 men in the Molise region of Italy (Pounis, et al., 2017, p. 72). The researchers determined that the men who consumed more than three cups of Italian-style coffee per day had a 53 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who drank zero to two cups per day. That is great news!

But, wait a minute—what is Italian-style coffee? Is it the same as American coffee? Turns out, it isn’t. Italian-style coffee is prepared in high-pressure hot water (over 1600 degrees Fahrenheit) without using filters. Most Tulsa and Oklahoma City employees know it as espresso, not coffee.

This isn’t to say that coffee doesn’t have any health benefits. In fact, the results of two studies that were published in 2016 show that coffee does more than offer an energy boost and decrease the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. The International Agency for Research on Cancer determined, after reviewing 1000 previously completed studies, that coffee cannot be classified as a cause of cancer anymore. At the same time, a different group of researchers was performing a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between coffee and different cancer types. They found that coffee intake was associated with reduced risk of oral, pharynx, liver, colon, prostate, endometrial cancer, and melanoma. More good news.

There is one concern, however, that researchers discovered while studying coffee. Drinking hot or very hot beverages, whether coffee, tea, or something else, can contribute to an increased risk of esophageal cancer or cancer of the esophagus when compared to lower temperature beverages. To help avoid that, remember to give your coffee a few minutes to cool before drinking it. Tulsa and Oklahoma City consumers also have a variety of cold beverages such as iced tea or water to choose from if they are looking for something at a lower temperature.

With such as a variety of benefits and coffee’s improved reputation, it’s time to consider either updating your current Tulsa and Oklahoma City office coffee service or offering a new benefit to your employees—the gourmet coffeehouse experience in your break room. Uniquely sourced and locally roasted beans are the foundation for a great cup of coffee and a relaxing mid-afternoon break. To learn more, contact Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100 for more information.

Reference:

Pounis, G., Tabolacci, C., Costanzo, S., Cordella, M., Bonaccio, M., Rago, L., D’Arcangelo, D., Castelnuovo, A. F., Gaetano, G., Donati, M. B., Iacoviello, L., & Facchiano, F. (2017). Reduction by coffee consumption of prostate cancer risk: Evidence from the Moli-sani cohort and cellular models. International Journal of Cancer, 141(1), 72–82.    DOI: 10.1002/ijc.30720

As of September 22^nd, fall is officially here in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The chill is setting in, decorations are in stores, and everything pumpkin has made its way into stores. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, and a slew of other pumpkin items are now available nearly everywhere.

While fall is associated with the beginnings of the crazy holiday seasons, it’s also known as a time of comfort. Orange leaves hang like ornaments, waiting to gently cover the streets. Overcast skies hover above, promising rain tomorrow. Department stores place the latest styles to bundle yourself in. Coffee shops place bright red and orange decorations out, signaling it’s that time of year again.

All the donuts, all the creamers, all the syrups tempt you in the grocery aisles. Your friend sends you her “world famous pumpkin fritters.” Every party includes too many irresistible treats. It’s no wonder New Year’s resolutions are made after the holidays.

Fall is a time of fun; it’s where coffee and tea join with flavors you only get once a year. When you offer coffee
services to your Tulsa and Oklahoma City employees, you’re saying, “I care.” Instead of making people drudge through the cold weather, you’re giving them an opportunity to waltz over to the office coffee, grab a drink, and feel the warmth without ever having to step outside or throw on a jacket.

Holidays can also be stressful, not just at work, but in general. Why not give them the benefits? A quick “thank you” every morning or afternoon when they need some caffeine? You can’t beat the benefits of in-house coffee. The convenience during long, holiday lines at coffee shops and bitter weather can be huge in boosting office morale.

While offering coffee in the office may not seem like a big deal, it is. For employees who want to stay out of the cool weather as much as possible, having coffee at the office is something to look forward to every single day. This is a fantastic employee benefit with minimal costs involved. There’s no reason to keep coffee from your employees. For them, it will mean the world.

Whether you get a thank you or not, actions speak louder than words. Your employees may not voice it, but they are glad to have office perks like coffee. Instead of forcing them out of the office, you invite them to stay, focus on work, while also giving them a quick boost.

Fall is about new flavors, new weather, and new beginnings. The familiar sense of fall is a time of promise, hope, and the whispers of holidays to come. Start the season off right this year.

For more information on how you can start a coffee and tea service at your Tulsa and Oklahoma City location today, call Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100.

According to UCSF (and common medical science), “Excessive premature atrial contractions (PACs) have been shown to result in atrial fibrillation, stroke and death while excessive premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) have been shown to result in increased heart failure, coronary artery disease and death. Both abnormalities were tied to caffeine consumption through studies and trials, but these studies were performed several decades ago and did not use PACs and PVCs as a primary outcome.”

A recent study from UCSF, published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association, researched the chronic consumption of caffeine over a 12-month period and found that (contrary to popular belief) regular caffeine consumption does not lead to extra heartbeats.

“Clinical recommendations advising against the regular consumption of caffeinated products to prevent disturbances of the heart’s cardiac rhythm should be reconsidered, as we may unnecessarily be discouraging consumption of items like chocolate, coffee and tea that might actually have cardiovascular benefits,” said senior author [of the study] Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, a UCSF Health cardiologist and director of clinical research in the UCSF Division of Cardiology.

*And the crowd goes wild! Coffee, tea and chocolate lovers of the world rejoice!

So if more caffeine consumption does not have a negative impact on the heart, in honor of a month dedicated to love let’s take a look at the health benefits associated with coffee, tea and chocolate; three treats that we do LOVE.

Coffee

• Potentially protect against type 2 diabetes (Harvard School of Public Health)
• Potentially reduce risk of Parkinson’s disease and slow shaking in existing cases (Research Institute of the McGill University Healthy Centre)
• Lowers risk of liver cancer by about 40% (Milan’s Institute di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri)
• Can lower the incidence of cirrhosis of the liver in alcohol drinkers by about 22% (Kaiser Permanente)
• Can protect against heart failure (Harvard School of Public Health)

Tea  

According to Time.com certain teas can:

• Boost exercise endurance
• Reduce the risk of heart attack
• Protect against a “boatload” of cancers including: breast, colon, skin, lung, stomach, liver, ovarian and prostrate
• Improve bone mineral density

Chocolate

According to huffingtonpost.com chocolate can:

• Reduce stroke risk
• Lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease
• Improve skin (dark chocolate has antioxidants that can offer protection from UV damage
• Improve blood flow
• Boost your mood

There are a lot of benefits to offering a coffee/tea and vending services at your Tulsa and Oklahoma City office including increasing employee engagement, increasing productivity, improving employee happiness, and increasing your bottom line. Now you may want to add improving employee health (decreasing sick time) to the list.

For more information on the health benefits of coffee, tea and chocolate (three of our favorite things) or to find out how you can start a coffee and tea service at your Tulsa and Oklahoma City location today, call Blue Sky Supply at (918) 599-9100. One of our team specialists will be happy to help you create a program that best fits your company’s needs and that correlates with your company’s health and wellness programs.