With the choice and variety of office drinks machine available today, choosing the most suitable one for your office can be difficult. I have already posted several articles discussing the pros and cons of different types of machines and in this article we discuss another ' the traditional office vending machine.

Many years ago the basic office vending machine consisted of a table top unit containing several canisters of loose dried drinks ingredients, push buttons to select the drink and a simple coin mechanism to enable money to be collected.

A typical arrangement for the machine of ingredient canisters or hoppers would comprise of freeze dried coffee, powdered milk, drinking chocolate, sugar and one other ingredient usually soup. Tea was not really an option as the taste of instant tea was not of sufficient quality and despite improvement this still remains the case today.

A plastic cup was taken from a column, money inserted in the mechanism and the cup put underneath the various selections and a button pressed to select the ingredient required. A white coffee for example would require a 6 stage process to produce a drink that still had to be stirred. Coin inserted, cup taken, coffee pressed, milk pressed, sugar pressed and lastly hot water added by pressing the final button.

This format still forms the basis of many smaller budget office drinks machines today. The technology has improved, the taste and choice of the drinks is vastly superior but the concept remains the same.

Larger automatic machines still use different ingredient hoppers, but have incorporated the whole process into a single one button operation that dispenses the chosen beverage into the cup at a fixed position so there is no need for manual operation.

Generally these types of machines offer instant drinks only, so that tea drinkers are often forced to choice an alternative. This sort of machine is easy to restock as it is a simple matter of refilling the various canisters inside the machine with the appropriate product. However spillages do occur and it is important that a daily cleaning and hygiene process is undertaken.

Modern and more expensive office vending machines can offer fresh brew coffee and leaf tea options and serve fabulous tasting drinks. However the complicated brew process means that cleaning and maintenance is more involved and your service engineer will need to call more often. Machine, drink and service costs are all higher for fresh brew machines, so this needs to be taken into account.

It is always best to discuss your requirements with a reputable supplier who will advise the best solution to your office drinks needs and suggest the most appropriate style of machine to suit your particular office layout, taste and budget.