There’s like 15 different communities for coffee! Nice!
Like many of us, I survive largely on the break room coffee pot. Our grounds are running low again and the hospital doesn’t stock it, so it’s on the employees.
Our taste in coffee is driven mostly by cost, so we go through a lot of Costco-sized buckets of Folgers, but Folgers famously tastes like dirt. Still, it’s cheap and it’s coffee, so that’s usually the winner.
I’m not a connoisseur by any means, but… any good options that taste less like dirt while still being cheap / available in large quantities?
Unfortunately the hot plates that keep coffee warm also cooks it, so you’re a bit behind the eight ball. If you haven’t, taste the office Folgers fresh vs sitting on the hot plate after two hours. I’d rather have the fresh Folgers over pretty much anything off a hot plate.
To answer your question, the Kirkland stuff is definitely better and not that much costlier than Folgers if you just want a momentary reprieve from the dirt flavor. I will gladly drink that fresh off an okay drip machine, even pre ground.
While the hospital won’t buy the coffee, could you buy through the hospital? Your food operation might have access to something better than Folgers at similar or better prices. I know all that can be wildly complicated, but likely worth a five minute email.
You can contract a commercial entity as an office. I imagine hospital break rooms go through a lot of coffee. That could mean as little as getting a huge bag of coffee shipped every two weeks. I don’t know how in you are with whoever would greenlight that, or how much effort you’d like to put in, or how game your coworkers would be to try something new.
You could also do the selfish thing and bring your own beans and an Aeropress. It has the highest ceiling at the cost of being That Person. I also personally really like Cometeer’s pods, which are way more expensive but discrete.