It’s a safe bet that anyone reading this blog is aware of how good used coffee grounds are for composting, even if you’re not in a position to use them that way.

That’s become a factor, in some places, against adopting coffee machines; many of them have supplied pods in non-biodegradable materials like plastic, and the environmentally conscious coffee drinker will go to the extra effort with each cup so that they have composting material.

And that’s why, a little while ago, Keurig introduced biodegradable coffee pods. Now more of the pod can be broken down and composted with the rest, allowing us to have the convenience of coffee machines without the concern.

The Best is Yet to Come

Happily, it doesn’t stop there, either! A number of other coffee pod suppliers are developing fully-biodegradable containers which can be added to any food waste for recycling or put with your rose bushes to break down and be reborn in a more beautiful form even than fresh, full-flavoured coffee.

The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) has already certified pods from Club Coffee, a major Canadian supplier, and is testing new lines from Dean’s Beans, Wolfgang Puck Coffee (backed by the legendary chef and restauranteur – you may know him as Gordon Ramsay’s culinary mentor, as seen on Hell’s Kitchen), and many others.

Where You Come In

Businesses in particular are in a position to make a real change for the better by moving to biodegradable and compostable pods.

By switching the coffee consumption of every individual working in your premises, collecting the pods, and arranging with a community organisation to deliver them to a project where they can do the most, it’s possible to reduce your environmental impact and strengthen bonds with your community simultaneously.

Allotments and park flower displays are equally worthy recipients, and taking the time to integrate more firmly with the people around you is a good step for any business. In all likelihood you can even arrange for a volunteer to collect the pods, making for an arrangement with no downsides.

Where We Come In

As you might expect from a company like Nexus Drinks, we’ve been monitoring this situation carefully. Like our customers, we’re keen to do supply coffee and other hot drinks in ways that have the greatest positive impact on the world around us, and we’re happy to discuss supplying you with appropriate pods whenever they’re available for your coffee machines – and to discuss coffee machines that will use biodegradable pods if you’ve decided to upgrade, or if knowing this has convinced you it’s time to move from time-consuming coffee brewing to these wonderful machines

The Fairtrade Foundation has become an icon of ethical coffee purchasing for over two decades. Founded in 1992, the Foundation has not only taken great strides in ensuring that coffee growers get a better deal, but also in raising people’s awareness of the ethical questions in their coffee purchasing.

However, in recent years, questions have been asked about just how well the Foundation has succeeded at its mission statement. There’s no doubt that it has helped, and each payment it makes to cooperatives of farmers does make a difference, but there have been some confusion about what proportion of each payment reaches the farmers supporting those cooperatives.

In any case, the Fairtrade Foundation operates in a way some would call ‘stopgap’; it still requires the Foundation, in London, to act as a broker for these cooperatives, and the bargaining power ultimately lies with them.

Whilst their achievements are very definitely worth celebrating, at Nexus we want to ensure that we are supporting long term solutions for coffee farmers. We want to help them help themselves so that everyone involved in the process can benefit.

That’s why most of our coffee is sourced through the Rainforest Alliance. While less well known, this newer organisation is working directly with the farmers to show them how to leverage their role in the industry for better bargaining that comes from them.

It’s the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish, and we’re proud to support the Rainforest Alliance in this important effort. We encourage you to join us and lend them your support too, and after all, in return?

You’ll get some excellent coffee.

The high street is a constantly evolving collection of outlets and shops which reflect the local consumers’ choices. This is why most main shopping areas in our towns and cities now have at least one coffee shop and most probably two or three. Even villages are following suit and providing the welcome haven of a coffee shop after a hectic car journey for stressed drivers.

Coffee shops, with their steaming, gurgling coffee machines, are great attractions for shoppers and businessmen alike and have become a popular place to meet friends and catch up on all the latest gossip. Shopping can be a tiring business and there’s nothing nicer than dumping your bags, ordering a coffee and relaxing.

Such is the popularity of coffee that the most unlikely places, such as garage waiting areas, are now installing vending machines which dispense hot Flavia coffee to their customers while they wait for their cars to be ready.

Coffee machines can be found in offices and form a meeting point for staff, who can take the opportunity to chat and relax for a few brief minutes in their busy working day. It is perhaps in the office environment that the kettle and tea trolley are most often being replaced and Flavia coffee introduced.

In fact, vending machines in schools are rapidly gaining in popularity and pupils can now buy cold drinks and snacks as well as cups of hot chocolate, tea, soup and Flavia coffee to warm them on cold days.

Many entrepreneurial people have included other attractions to draw the customers in. Combining good-quality drinks such as Flavia coffee with snacks is common, but adding a section in the shop where people can sit and read or borrow books is another good idea and is one which is proving amazingly popular.

This is especially so in rural communities, where accessing a library can be difficult. These little shops are great community assets which enable people to meet and socialise.

There are many ways of enjoying coffee and each is an individual choice. The great thing is you can choose freely from all that are available, so check out the choices and ask the experts here for advice and guidance.

Now maybe the perfect time to equip your work space with a Flavia coffee machine. As the summer fades into autumn and temperatures begin to drop, both employees and visitors will be grateful to have easy access to a tasty and warming drink. The Flavia system is the perfect choice for offices, lobbies and other areas where people naturally gather. One of the key features of this top of the line vending machine is the impressive selection of drinks available in the brand convenient filter packs. Highlights of the range include hot chocolate, cappuccino and fruit teas including exotic chai.

Another side effect of autumn is the return of the talent contests to the television. With favourites such as X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing (sadly without our favourite Flavia Cacace this year), staff members will inevitably gather round on a Monday morning to discuss the shows events from the weekend. A Flavia drinks systems is a great solution to elongated morning brews, as each drink is ready within 30 seconds helping your staff get back to work as soon as possible.

These coffee vending machines are also great for environments such as showrooms and hotel lobbies, as the can be fitted with either a tank or they can be plumbed into the water supply for a long term solution. Flavia coffee machines also come with the option of adding a paypod to your machine. Enabling the option to provide quality drinks to clients and staff, while recouping the costs.

For more information about the Flavia coffee system and all things related to vending machines, get in touch with Nexus Drinks. We have a range of great beverage solutions including Coca-Cola vending, water coolers and an extensive selection of other drinks machines. Or if you are looking for an all-weather solution then why not take a look at our range of hydro taps. These taps feature instant hot and cold water with the additional option of built in sparkling water. The Vi Tap comes complete with safety and waste reducing features such as anti-leak detection which protect both your staff and reduces costs.

It is common practice within salons throughout the UK to be offered a hot drink during your appointment. Getting pampered in a salon is often a special treat for many people throughout the United Kingdom and having a refreshing cup of tea or coffee can enrich this experience further. However, appointment times are generally restricted and so waiting for the kettle to boil can eat into precious pampering time. Vending machines (especially smaller models such as the Flavia coffee range) are a brilliant alternative for many reasons. Here at Nexus drinks, we are going to give a brief overview why.

Time saving

As we have mentioned previously, with vending machines you do not need to wait for the kettle to boil. You can simply press the appropriate button and the machine will do the rest in a matter of seconds.

Professional

Coffee machines are generally associated with professional environments therefore this is the impression that such a machine is likely to provide to your salon. By providing your clients with a variety of high quality fresh brew coffees or leaf teas at the touch of a button, you give an impressive reception whilst giving your clients a first class service.

Tidier

As well giving a professional image, coffee machines are also tidier. You no longer need unhygienic shared jars of tea, coffee and sugar. Instead, you simply need to fill the machine with the appropriate refills from popular brands such as Klix, Kenco, Maxpax and Flavia. While our machines can’t make drinks un-spillable, they do reduce the general levels of mess associated with making brews in any volume.

Quality

Our vending machines all provide quality fresh brew coffee, hot chocolate or leaf tea at the touch of a button and can be serviced in a coffee shop style paper disposable cup or even a choice of china cups.

Variety

From one of our speedy and reliable vending machines, you can provide your clients with a wide range of drink options, including Kenco, Flavia and Kenco Singles.

For more information on any of other vending machines, please visit our website. If you require any further advice and guidance, please contact our team who will be more than happy to assist.

There’s an awful lot of coffee in Brazil, or so the song would have us believe. But what makes this South American country such a success in the coffee-growing stakes? And is it as good as we are led to believe when you get it from vending machines?

 

 

Brazil is one of the world’s major producers of coffee, vying with neighbour Colombia and the Ivory Coast in Africa. It produces around a third of all the coffee drunk in the world today and supplies the fragrant coffee bean to processors, where it is either ground or roasted.

 

 

The coffee plant is not a native of Brazil, being introduced there by Francisco de Melo Palheta in 1727. However, it flourished on the frost-free hillsides of the Brazilian state of Pará and was soon introduced to other parts of the country.

 

 

Europe was slower to catch on to this new drink, but soon coffee houses were springing up in all the major cities and it rapidly became very fashionable to drink it.

 

 

Nowadays, coffee shops on high streets are every bit as popular as they were in 18th-century London. The love affair with coffee has endured and whether the attraction is the stimulating caffeine content or simply the depth and quality of the flavour is unknown. Coffee is available served and brewed in so many ways, often with alcohol added, that most people have a favourite which they drink on a regular basis, whether it’s from a vending machine or a cafetiere.

 

 

Coffee machines have brought good-quality coffee to the masses. The espresso machine as we know it was invented by an Italian, Achille Gaggia, in 1945 and different varieties and designs were developed after that.

 

 

The vending machine has proved to be indispensable in workplaces, where employees are able to have a quality, full-flavoured cup of coffee from the various types of coffee machines available. Many vending machines such as Flavia machines make each cup individually. There’s a wide selection of different types of coffee available, ensuring full flavour every time and guaranteeing that there is something to suit everyone.

 

 

Decaffeinated coffee is a popular choice in the modern world as people think more and more about healthy options and this is shown in the choices of coffee made available from Flavia machines.

 

If you are interested in vending machines, why not contact us for more information?

TOKYO — Ten Japanese companies said Monday they plan to install electric vehicle chargers at the sites of drinks vending machines across Japan in a cost-cutting tie-up.

The consortium includes Forking Co., a major vending machine operator, and Panasonic Electric Works which will develop and produce electric vehicle chargers with rivals.

Forking has business ties with companies which own a combined 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, or about a half of the national total, company official Reiko Kobayashi said.

The firms plan to install some 10,000 electric vehicle chargers at the sites of the vending machines in the first year of the project, which is due to start at the end of March, she added.

Charging machines “will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones. There are various options,” she said.

SoftBank Telecom and SoftBank Mobile are due to provide telecom services to connect the charging systems, the group said in a press release.

Automakers such as Nissan, which launched its all-electric Leaf last year, are gambling that electric cars with zero tailpipe emissions will catch on and, some time in the future, start to drive traditional gas-guzzlers off the road.

But many consider the lack of a charging network as the key obstacle to the proliferation of electric vehicles, prompting consumer concerns such as “range-anxiety”, or the fear that their cars will run out of juice between charging points.

Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread has bought the Coffee Nation brand with a view to launching self-service coffee machines under the name Costa Express.

Whitbread, which already owns Costa Coffee, is paying £59.5m for the brand, which operates 900 coffee machines.

The group said it would aim to open 3,000 Costa Express vending machines across the UK over the next five years.

Whitbread said Coffee Nation “self-serve bars” were “fundamentally different” from traditional hot drink vending machines because they used fresh milk and freshly-ground coffee.

“Customers increasingly want great tasting coffee on the go, which makes the self-serve coffee market very attractive,” said Mr Harrison.

Costa Coffee has 1,850 outlets around the world, with 1,200 in the UK.

News of a novel vending machine in France has emerged. To satisfy their hunger for fresh baked goods, the French have vending machines that bake a fresh baguette in 90 seconds!

Here in the United Kingdom, the oddest vending machines that we get tend to be the sort in Airports that sell things like cameras and MP3 players. We don’t really get any of the truly disgusting ones like the Chinese vending machine that sells live crabs. A strange vending machine has now surfaced in France that sells something I would like to see in UK machines – fresh baked bread.

Fresh baked bread isn’t something we get a lot of in my area, the stores tend to bake once per day so if you get there too late it’s as cold had hard as a loaf wrapped in plastic. The French on the other had have a machine that you can slip a coin into and 90 seconds later the thing pops out a nice fresh baguette.

The photographer who took the photo says that the taste and texture won’t be putting any bakeries out of business soon, but I bet it tastes better than the fresh bread.