coffee tables - my favourite photos

Kouzou Coffee Table

2009-04-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

That's what I call one ofe the best coffee tables I've ever seen. Enjoy!

How A Coffee Service Can Save You Money

2009-03-18T05:32:00.000-07:00

An office coffee service can save you money in surprising ways. That may seem to go against the traditional wisdom that says doing something yourself is always cheaper than paying for a service, but providing coffee for your office staff and clients can add up in the accounting books in places where you don’t see it. Contracting with an office coffee service can increase productivity, increase staff and customer satisfaction with your company and reduce the unexpected overhead costs of coffee in your office.

Is coffee costing your company money?

If your company provides coffee for the staff and clients, then you probably think you have a pretty good idea of what your coffee costs are. Bankrate.com, one of the premier finance websites on the Internet, points out costs that few businesses consider when totaling the cost of providing coffee service for their employees. Among those “hidden” costs are the amount of time it takes to shop for break room coffee supplies and the time your accountant or bookkeeper spends tracking coffee expenses for your annual expense reports. Those may seem minor, but when you consider how much you are paying your accountant, it can add up surprisingly fast.

Believe it or not, even those businesses that do not have a break room on premises where they provide coffee for their staff and customers could be losing money by not employing a coffee service. When you provide coffee service on premises, none of your employees are leaving the building to pick up coffee at the local coffee shop; trips that add up in terms of lost productivity and time out of the office. By contracting with a coffee service to provide fine coffee for your employees, you can increase the amount of time that your employees are at work and focused on their jobs.

Can a coffee service increase your company’s profits?

The surprising answer to that question is “absolutely!” Here are just some of the ways that providing coffee through a coffee service can affect your bottom line.

- Providing coffee service for your staff improves employee morale.
Happier employees are more productive employees. While coffee may seem like a very small thing in the larger scheme of things, providing good coffee (especially free good coffee) to your employees’ rates very high with them. In a number of surveys, researchers asked employees to name something that their employer does that makes them feel valued and appreciated. In nearly every survey, more employees named free coffee than any other perk.

- Offering fine coffee to your customers increases their positive feelings about your company.
Anything you do to make customer or client experience with your company will show up in your bottom line, even if it can’t be easily quantified. Offering your customers a cup of gourmet coffee is one way to make them feel valued and appreciated. This is a lesson learned by high-end hair stylists, doctor and dentist offices and even upscale retail stores. Give your customers good coffee, and they will leave feeling far more appreciated, which can translate into a better bottom line for your business.

- Coffee can improve focus and can increases productivity.
A recent study measured productivity in workers who drank coffee during the day against the productivity of workers who do not drink coffee at the office. They found that workers who drank coffee at their desks were more focused on their work and completed more work than their co-workers who did not. The difference between the two groups of workers became more marked as the day went on. In fact, most of the coffee drinkers avoided the typical mid-afternoon slump in productivity entirely. A good coffee service can improve your bottom line by increasing productivity and reducing errors. Not to mention, your employees most likely will not be heading out the door to grab a coffee at the local coffee shop if they have a great coffee service providing coffee in the break room.

Using an office coffee service is less expensive

In many cases, the coffee service will provide a high-end coffee maker for your office for free as long as you purchase a minimum amount of coffee from them. Depending on the quality of the coffee that you choose, a coffee service for your office will cost between 4 cent and 19 cents per cup; the 19 cent figure is for Starbucks coffee from a coffee service. The machines ranges from double burner pour-over coffee makers to fancy bean-to-cup coffee machines that dispense gourmet espresso, complete with frothed milk.

If you are considering providing coffee for your office, or if you already provide free coffee for employees and customers, take a look at what a coffee service can do to save you money on your coffee.

By: Stephanie1

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Stephanie Larkin is a freelance writer who writes about tips for living and saving money, often offering suggestions about certain services to try such as office coffee.

4 Best Coffee Brewing Methods

2009-03-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Image by →lulu← via Flickr

While the perfect cup of coffee can depend on personal preference, including strength and flavor, there are 3 essential elements that are necessary for preparing any coffee:

Fresh filtered water
Good Coffee Maker
Fresh quality coffee beans

There are several methods for brewing coffee, and they are significant as each yields a particular flavor and strength of the brew in the cup. Also, deciding on the brewing method and the best coffee makers for you depends on personal preference, including how much time one wants to invest in preparing coffee.

Automatic Filter Drip

The automatic drip is probably the most common method of brewing coffee, such as good old Mr. Coffee. The automatic drip is the easiest coffee brewing method, and many drip coffee makers can be set to auto and they will turn on and brew coffee on a timer.

Automatic drip coffee brewing works by heating water in a chamber to almost boiling and slowly pouring the water over ground coffee beans, either via an electronic drip machine where the water is sprayed over the coffee grinds, or manually poured over grounds in a cone-shaped filter. These days, Bunn coffee makers are one of the most popular brands of automatic drip brewing.

French Press

A French press, also known as a press pot, coffee press, coffee plunger or cafetière, is a very simple coffee brewing device.

A French press has a narrow cylindrical jug usually made of glass or sometimes plastic, with a lid and a "plunger", made of metal or plastic, which fits tightly in the cylinder and which has a fine wire or nylon mesh acting as a filter. Coffee is brewed by placing the coffee and water together, leaving to brew for a few minutes, then depressing the plunger to trap the coffee grinds at the bottom of the jug. The French press requires a coarse grind of coffee in order to get the best results.

Espresso

Caffè espresso or espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing steam or hot water under pressure through very finely ground coffee. The defining characteristics of espresso include a thicker consistency and a much stronger flavor than drip coffee because of the high-pressure coffee brewing process, all of the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are concentrated. For this reason, espresso often becomes the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiatos and mochas.

All though some drink espresso straight up, it is coffee on turbo and not intended for the first time coffee drinker or the caffeine squimish.

Keurig Coffee Brewing

The Keurig coffee maker is a cool new and innovative way to brew coffee because it brews gourmet coffee house coffee with the convenience of brewing immediately in your own kitchen. The innovation of Keurig is that it brews one cup at a time and the Keurig brewer makes a fine cup of coffee in under a minute and takes away all the guesswork from brewing a consistently great cup of coffee.

Because perfect coffee is a very personal preference, the Keurig system offers hundreds of K-Cups varieties and multiple brew sizes on home Keurig brewers. These choices give you the flexibility to find your perfect cup of coffee.

In reality, you do not have to spend hundreds of dollars a year getting your coffee from a coffee house, such as Starbucks, you can brew a great cup of coffee at home with one of these brewing methods and save lots of money.

By: JR Lang

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Browse wholesale coffee makers, including, Keurig, Espresso, French Press and more at: Best Coffee Makers. Keurig Coffee Maker and learn more about coffee, beans and the different Coffee Grinds .

Coffee tables

2009-02-17T03:10:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Recently a popular trend in restaurant furniture and bar furniture has been to move away from regular dining height tables and chairs and towards attaining a more comfortable and informal look by using sofas accompanied with coffee tables. This has led to bar furniture suppliers sourcing and offering a wide variety of coffee tables to suit almost any situation.

Glass topped coffee tables with chrome frames have the advantage of being easy to clean and giving a thoroughly modern look and are particularly attractive when combined with leather or fabric sofas. The glass topped coffee tables can also be purchased with powder coated steel underframes in the same or contrasting colour to complement the decor of the room. Of course it is important to check that the top is made of tempered toughened glass that has been tested to meet the British standard requirement to test the strength of the glass (in the test a steel metal ball is dropped from height in the testing laboratory on to the glass top). Glass topped coffee tables look particularly effective when round, square and rectangular tops are mixed in the room with one, two and three seater sofas.

Wooden coffee tables are still very popular and are usually based on conventional dining tables but with the legs or pedestal base having a reduced height. These look most attractive in timbers when made from a timber with a distinctive grain, for example oak or ashwood when finished in a light stain will look very beautiful. Of course if darker stains are chosen the wood grain is still noticeable but not so important so cheaper timbers like rubberwood are acceptable. Stability is as much a concern with coffee tables as with regular bar or restaurant tables so a conventional table with four legs is a good choice and if a pedestal is used it is important to ensure that the base has a good wide footprint on the floor.

Some Companies supplying leather sofas also offer leather topped coffee tables. These have only been seen in quantity in the last few years and are a result of cheaper forms of leather becoming available, mostly from Chinese manufacturers. When the skin comes to the factory it is very thick so usually is cut into three slices, the top cut being the most valuable. In recent years processes have become available to use the second and third layers whereby heavy presses form the illusion of a 'topgrain' leather appearance and then a polyeurethane protective coating is applied. This is called 'Bycast' leather and can manufactured in a huge variety of grains, finishes and colours with an appearance that approaches the best topgrain leathers but at a fraction of the price. Naturally the factories making leather sofas and leather dining chairs from this cheaper bycast leather were keen to find other uses for this new raw material, so started offering wooden coffee tables completely covered in leather. Truthfully a room full of leather sofas plus these coffee tables looks somewhat oppressive so it is generally the best idea to use wooden coffee tables of metal and glass coffee tables to lighten up the decor.

There are many Companies on the web specialising only in coffee tables, some of their sources include exotic timbers from India, such as Sheesham wood (Indian Rosewood) or Mango wood. These are available with precise machined finishes or with a less smooth simpler rustic look. Many Companies give the reassurance that the timbers used are farmed responsibly. While they may well be telling the truth, this reassurance can be more confidently received if endorsed by one of the many bodies whose interest it is to promote sustainable timber farming.

Of these, two of the most well known are the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC) or the Program For The Endorsement Of Forest Certification Scheme (PEFC). These are both reputable bodies and if the Company you are thinking of buying from are members of one or both of these bodies, you can have some reassurance that their timber supply is from a sustainable source.

Having chosen the coffee tables and chairs or sofas that you feel are best for your venue check the delivery date the Company promise that they can achieve. If possible buy from a Company that is holding stock and in these times of economic gloom, be very wary if asked for full payment before delivery- there are plenty of Companies looking for business right now, so nailing down a good deal should include not only discounts but safe payment terms.

By: James K. Johnson

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

James Johnson is a freelance author who has vast knowledge in restaurant furniture and coffee tables. For more information she suggests you to visit: www.trentpottery.co.uk

wheelbarrow coffee table

2009-02-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

So now, your coffee table is mobile....

2009-02-09T03:54:00.000-08:00

Interesting coffee table in japanese style. I have to search for more interesting 'far east' coffee tables.