Every morning in workplaces across the UK, millions of employees will step away from their workstations in order to make themselves a hot beverage. Your company’s coffee machines are arguably some of your most important facility solutions. However, have you ever considered how the different varieties of coffee may impact upon concentration and productivity levels? Here’s a closer look at three popular ways of serving coffee, and what they might mean for your company on a global scale.

What is it? – Espresso is coffee as the Italians drink it, and as objectively ‘purist’ a beverage as you can enjoy. Made by forcing a small amount of boiling water through ground coffee beans, espresso is served in a small mug and provides a short, sharp caffeine kick.

How much caffeine? – The average espresso contains 212 mg of caffeine, more than twice as much as two caffeine tablets. Caffeine is a stimulant with a half-life of 3-4 hours, so one shot of espresso should keep employees energised virtually all day.

How many calories? – While caffeine can help individuals to feel energised and invigorated while at work because of the caffeine, your mind and body are actually fuelled by the energy found in food and drink. Your brain alone burns 300+ calories during the course of the average day, but a cup of espresso contains just nine.

How much sugar? – Commonly, a teaspoon of brown sugar is used to sweeten the brew. This will add an extra 11 calories to the drink. The glucose in the sugar will often have a more rapid effect on the body than the caffeine itself, allowing a faster pick-up.

What is it? – The Americano was a brew developed in Italy to provide tourists with something more easily palatable than the full-on flavour of an espresso. An Americano is made in exactly the same way as an espresso but more water is filtered through the ground beans, making the drink weaker and larger than the little Italian beverage.

How much caffeine? – A black Americano is essentially the same as an espresso, only with more water and milk. The caffeine content stays the same as long as one uses the same quantity of beans, regardless of the addition of milk.

How many calories? – Adding milk and hot water to an espresso boosts the calorie content, bringing the beverage to around 20 calories in total. In theory, this intake of energy should help to make your employees more alert and focussed, but hot milk can also work against this process, reportedly because the tryptophan within milk can be converted to the hormone serotonin, which can make you sleepy.

How much sugar? – Few people take a mug of coffee without sugar, adding another 11 calories to the beverage. However, the fat from milk may slow down the absorption of this sugar, giving a more level rise to blood glucose levels that may prevent as great a ‘sugar crash’.

What is it? – A cappuccino is made with espresso, hot milk and steamed milk foam. Inevitably, the drink is milder and milkier than an Americano and often considered to be a more indulgent beverage as a result.

How much caffeine? – Provided your cappuccino is made with the same quantity of coffee grounds as the above beverages then the caffeine content will be about the same. However, in order for your mug to accommodate all of the milk and foam necessary to create the drink, it’s common to make cappuccinos weaker than a standard mug of coffee.

How many calories? – As you would expect, a cappuccino contains far more calories than the less elaborate coffees on the market. Cappuccinos usually contain between 75 and 120 calories per mug, so whatever they lack in caffeine they make up for in energy.

How much sugar? – How many sugars do you take with your cappuccino? Many cappuccino drinkers like their coffee sweet and milky, so the average beverage might contain two spoonfuls of sugar (22 calories) and a shot of flavoured syrup (40 calories, 10g of sugar). This much sugar may have a significant impact upon continued productivity.

Applying science to the art of the morning coffee is a difficult challenge. Ultimately, your favourite beverage might help you to concentrate, but have a completely different effect on your employees. Rather than worry about what everyone’s drinking, why not ensure that your employees can fix themselves a coffee in the mornings with the help of our facility solutions?

March 13th 2014 | Back to Industry Insights