Coffee Bags for the Office

Coffee bags give an office proper brewed coffee with nothing more than a kettle and a mug. Each bag is a measured dose of freshly roasted ground coffee that you steep like a tea bag, so the cup tastes like coffee from a cafetière rather than a spoonful of granules. There's no machine to descale, no drip tray to empty and no argument about whose turn it is to clean it.

The bit most guides skip is the stocking. Get the box size right, so an opened pack is finished within four to six weeks, put a decaf next to it, and a coffee bag station will look after itself.

If you're new to the format, our guides to what coffee bags are and how to use coffee bags cover the basics. This one is about making them work for a team.

Coffee bags vs instant vs an office machine

Why coffee bags beat instant

Instant coffee is coffee that has already been brewed, then freeze-dried or spray-dried into granules. When you add hot water you're rehydrating something that was made weeks or months ago, and much of the aroma that makes fresh coffee smell like coffee doesn't survive the drying. That's why a jar of instant smells of very little once the seal is broken.

A coffee bag holds roasted coffee that has been ground and packed. The brewing happens in your mug, a few minutes before you drink it, which is the same thing a cafetière does. You get a fuller, rounder cup with more of the roast's character, and it stands up to milk without turning thin.

The other difference is consistency. A heaped spoon of instant on Monday and a scraped one on Friday make two different drinks. A bag is the same dose every time, so the 3pm cup tastes like the 9am one, whoever makes it.

It's worth checking the dose, though. Coffee bags on the market hold roughly 7.5g to 10g of coffee each. Ours hold 10g, which works out at roughly 43g of coffee per litre in a 230ml mug. A bag with less coffee in it brews a lighter cup in the same mug.

How to brew a coffee bag at work

• The method is simple:
• Put one bag in a mug.
• Boil the kettle and leave it for a minute.
• Pour on about 230ml of water and stir.
• Leave it for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Press the bag against the side of the mug with a spoon, then lift it out.

Where offices go wrong is everything around that.

Watch the mug size

Office mugs range from dainty cups to pint-sized novelty mugs, and a bag is built for about 230ml. Pour 400ml over it and you'll get a weak, watery coffee and blame the bag. Measure 230ml once with a jug and see where it comes up in the mugs in your cupboard. If the cupboard is full of giants, use two bags or pour less.

Boiling water taps

Many offices have an instant boiling water tap instead of a kettle. These dispense water at or very near boiling, which is a touch hotter than ideal. Our brew guide aims for 91 to 94°C, because water that's too hot pulls out bitterness. If cups from the tap taste harsh, fill the mug first, give it 30 seconds, then drop the bag in.

Making a round

A full 1.7-litre kettle is enough for about seven mugs at 230ml. If you're making a round for more than that, boil twice rather than stretching one kettle across ten mugs.

Give used bags somewhere to go

A spent bag is hot and wet. Put a small dish or spoon rest by the kettle so bags don't end up in the sink, the tea towel or the windowsill.

Stronger or lighter

Lift the bag out nearer three minutes for a lighter cup, or leave it nearer five for a stronger one. Plenty of people simply leave the bag in while they drink, which works fine if you like it bold.

How many coffee bags does an office need?

Work it out from how much the team actually drinks:

people × cups per person per day × working days = bags per week

Then match the box size to that number. The figure that matters is freshness: once a box is open, the bags are at their best for four to six weeks. Unopened, they keep for around six months from the roast date, so you can hold a spare box without worry. The aim is never to have an open box sitting there for two months.

Here's how that works out, assuming two cups each a day over a five-day week:

The rule of thumb: the 300-bag box makes sense once your team gets through around 50 bags a week or more. Below that, buy 30-packs and the open box will always be fresh.

The bigger box also brings the cost down. At the time of writing, Bags of Gold works out at about 70p a bag in a pack of 10, about 69p in a pack of 30 and about 40p in the 300-bag box. For an eight-person team on two cups a day, that's roughly £4 per person per week from the bulk box, with nothing to lease or service.

Don't forget the decaf

In most offices, someone stops caffeine after lunch, someone is cutting back, and someone doesn't drink it at all. With a machine, they often go without. With coffee bags, it's one more box on the shelf.

Our Simmer Down Decaf bags use the same Swiss Water Process decaf we roast for whole beans. It's single origin from Cajamarca in northern Peru, 99.9% caffeine-free, with no chemical solvents used at any stage, and it tastes of vanilla fudge and caramelised biscuit. It has won a Great Taste Award, and the Roastery Collection it belongs to is independently lab-tested for pesticides, mould and mycotoxins.

Two office tips:

• Buy decaf in a smaller pack. Decaf loses its edge a little faster than regular coffee once the box is open. Unless half the team drinks it, a 30-pack alongside a bulk box of regular is usually the right mix.
• Keep the boxes apart. Loose bags look alike. Keep each type in its own box, clearly labelled, so nobody gets a full-strength cup at 4 pm by accident.

Ground coffee goes stale faster than whole beans, so a shared box needs a little care:

• Check the roast date when it arrives. A roast date tells you far more than a best-before.
• Open one box at a time. Put new deliveries behind the open one, so the oldest gets used first.
• Keep the box closed. Fold the lid down after each use rather than leaving it gaping.
• Store it somewhere cool, dry and dark. Not next to the kettle, where steam gets at it. Not on a sunny windowsill. Not on top of the fridge, which runs warm.
• Don't tip bags into an open jar. It looks nice on the counter, but it exposes every bag to air and light.

What to look for in a team coffee bag

• Grams per bag. It should be on the pack. More coffee per bag means a fuller cup in a normal mug.
• A roast date. It tells you how fresh the coffee was when it was packed.
• A crowd-pleasing roast. A shared box has to suit people who drink it black and people who take milk and sugar. A medium roast is the safest bet. Bags of Gold is a medium roast, strength 3 out of 5, with notes of chocolate and caramel.
• A decaf that says how it was decaffeinated. If the pack doesn't say, it's worth asking why.
• Clear disposal information. Know which bit goes in which bin. The inner bag in Bags of Gold is compostable and the outer packaging is recyclable, so check what your office's waste collection takes.
• A bulk size. If you're reordering every few days, you've outgrown the small packs.

When coffee bags aren't the right fit

Coffee bags are made one mug at a time, and that's their limit. For a meeting of twelve, a large cafetière and a bag of freshly roasted ground coffee will be quicker than twelve bags and two kettles. And if your office drinks flat whites all day, a bean-to-cup machine fed with good beans is the better tool. Our wholesale coffee page covers supplying beans to businesses.

For everyone else, from a two-person studio to a busy open-plan floor, coffee bags hit the sweet spot: real coffee, no kit, no cleaning. Have a look at our coffee bags collection and start with whichever pack size the table above points you to.

Frequently asked questions

Are coffee bags better than instant coffee for the office?

For taste, yes. A coffee bag holds ground coffee that you brew fresh in the mug, while instant is coffee that was brewed and dried long before it reached you. Bags take 3 to 5 minutes rather than seconds, but they need the same kit: a kettle and a mug.

How many coffee bags does an office need?

Multiply the number of people by cups per person per day, then by working days. Five people drinking two cups a day get through about 50 bags a week. Choose a pack size the team will finish within four to six weeks of opening.

How long do coffee bags last once opened?

Our bags are best within four to six weeks of opening the box. Unopened, they keep for around six months from the roast date. Decaf fades a little faster once open, so buy it in smaller packs.

Can you use a boiling water tap for coffee bags?

Yes. Boiling water taps run at or near boiling, which is slightly hotter than ideal. If the coffee tastes harsh, fill the mug, wait about 30 seconds, then add the bag.

Can you leave a coffee bag in the mug?

Yes. Leaving it in makes the coffee stronger, so it suits people who like a bold cup. Lift it out at around three minutes if you prefer it lighter.

Are coffee bags cheaper than an office coffee machine?

Per cup, coffee bags cost more than beans run through a machine. But there's no machine to buy or lease, no servicing and no cleaning time, so for small and mid-sized teams the total cost is often lower.

Can coffee bags be used for iced coffee in summer?

Yes, they can be cold brewed. Our guide on whether you can cold brew coffee bags explains how.