The Douwe Egberts Coffee Machine at Headquarters

Hi. This may be an inappropriate place for this, if so I apologize. I also love this coffee. The problem is I also only need small amounts. I was wondering where you purchase the syrup for the machine??

Thanks so much!!!

It took us forever to figure this out but apparently there are distributors throughout the country. Douwe Egberts used to be owned by Sara Lee, but they've been sold (or at least, some part of them has because we got a big letter a year ago explaining that the coffee wouldn't change but that the company had been restructured and moved to some other firm or something). If you can find out who owns them, you call for your local distributor. They set up a schedule to deliver the syrup to you based on your needs. Our guy only stopped by every few months. You pay them for whatever they deliver; they'll bill whatever credit card you have on file. It's often a local vending machine company.

Try and go to http://saraleefoodservice.com/en/SalesSupport.aspx and then enter "beverages" on the check box and select your state from the drop down menu. That will give you the contact information of a support person, who should be able to point you in the right direction. I think that's how we eventually found our local distributor.

A close friend and I discovered Deuwe-Egberts coffee in much the same way as you did - we had lunch at a bar in downtown DC, and in spite of them having incredible scotches, it was the coffee we noticed the most.
It's very sad that DE doesn't offer anything for the home. We've been trying to get a few local restaurants to invest in the machines, but thus far to no avail.

Hasufin,

Occasionally, you can find restaurants that go bankrupt or upgrade their equipment on eBay. During the height of the recession, I saw some of these machines go for as low as $90 in mass liquidation sales. If you can get your hands on the machine itself instead of buying or leasing one from the company, you can buy the coffee supplies from the distributor. You have to buy four "packs" of coffee at a time, which is $200 or $300, but they seem to last forever ... I mean, each of them has far too many cups of coffee for even a handful of people to drink! On a per-cup basis, it ends up being very, very cheap.

After the first cup we were addicted! For the past few months we have been doing research and finally found the brand and your website. We were very happy when we found others that considered this to be one of their favorite brand. I have a question, how long do you usually store the concentrate in the machine for? They said the recommended period is 3 weeks. Have you notice any degradation of the aroma after 3 weeks?

I just got back from a restaurant where I raved about the coffee.  I asked if it was syrup based and the waiter said yes and mentioned Dowe Egbert.  I have been scouring looking for the machine since the company had coffee beans.  Thanks for the info.  Guess I'll have to wait til I can round up some other serious coffee drinkers.  Loved your post.  Pat in Pittsburgh.

If you are lucky, sometimes bankrupt restaurants will put their machines on eBay. Back when Burger King switched to Seattle's Best, I saw their old Douwe Egberts machines go for next to nothing!

Just be careful as the machines are computerized. There was a recall just recently (summer 2012) with one of the chips. Another tip: We have a lot of calcium in our water and sometimes the machine will drip. To remedy this, press the button rapidly stopping and starting the water - our service person showed us this. Also he said to occasionally remove the box/cartridge in the refrigerated compartment and using a paper towel, clean out the spout where the coffee comes out in the refrigerated compartment. For some reason this can get gunked up and cause the machine to sense that it should not make coffee. Another tip - when the indicator on the machine says empty, the coffee is really not empty. The bags work like the wine that comes in the box - by vacuum. If you take the coffee bag carefully out of the box, lay it on a flat surface, take a pencil and starting from the opposite end of the spout, press the coffee forward toward the spout, replace the bag in the box and return the box to the refrigerated compartment. (Or if you don't want to mess with it, just take the bags home, empty the contents into a container and make your own coffee adding hot water.) This will give you at least 5-10 more cups of coffee. Warning, be careful not to get any of the concentrate on your clothes - it will not come off.

Pat - it's been some time since you posted but I thought I would respond anyway. I just picked up a Douwe Egberts c300 from a guy in Minneapolis for $150. I was able to pick it up so I saved on shipping. He has about a dozen of them left and is still selling them currently on ebay. They are used but great shape. I just got mine hooked up today and I'm in heaven. We just had to change out the 220 plug in to one that matched what we already had and had a plumber come to pipe the hot water to it. Not a bad job at all - and very worth it. So if you're a till in the market, look on ebay. He's selling them for a railroad - he works for them. He might be willing to ship - it's worth asking him if you're still looking for a machine. I was able to buy the coffee through my local Farmers Brothers Coffee distributor.

I just went to a restaurant this past Saturday night here in MA. I had a cup of coffee and absolutely loved it. It was creamy and had a nutty flavor. I just called the restaurant to see what kind it was and the owner said Deuw-Egberts. He told me it comes in a liquid form and he has a special machine that brews it. The machine cost $2000 he said. I found the ground and beans in the brand online, but am told that it isn't the same as the liquid for and you need the machine. I don't think I will be buying a coffee machine that expensive, but wish they had replica's of it at BB&B or somewhere. I can't stop craving this coffee. My other alternative is to just go to the restaurant more often and get a cup! Just too expensive for non-restaurant owners to purchase! Keep me posted if you hear of any place selling this machine at a more reasonable cost. Thanks.

Thanks for this article.  I will stop the crazy thoughts in my head thinking that I can replicate the coffee @ home.  Wish I worked at your office!  I've been on this quest for over 10 years.  

No problem. I went through the exact same thing - we tried everything until i finally figured out the machine itself is a necessary part of the taste.

I have bought three of the machines from eBay. I have a c110 hooked up at my house, and a c60 set up at my shop for my employees. I have to say that it was not that difficult, nor expensive! I bought both machines off eBay for under $200. Make sure if you buy from eBay that you instruct the seller to pack the machine as if it were nitro glycerine! I've had two very nice machines destroyed by ups and FedEx, and parts for them are next to impossible to get unless it's a leased machine.
Anyhow, I also buy the coffee concentrate in the double box pack from eBay, and the shipper packs it in dry ice. I can get two, 2 liter boxes of concentrate from eBay for about $120, which lasts us for about 2-3 months. My point, don't settle for the piss water from the grocery- the trouble I went to was well worth it. My folks visit much more often now to see the grandkids.. but always go to the Douwe Egberts coffee machine first!

We have the Douwe Egberts coffee. They are now owned by Farmer Brothers Coffee...

Do you have a recommendation on the blend? i have had it much better than ours is in the office and I am convinced that it is the ratio of water to coffee.  We are using the colombian regular...

thanks!

Y

You're right about 1.) the Farmers Bros. ownership change; I never updated this post after putting it up a couple of years ago and 2.) the ratio of water to coffee being important.  The whole system is designed so that EVERY cup of coffee should taste the same and it has always been that way for us, even when we go out to restaurants, I can tell you if the coffee comes from Douwe Egberts.  So if you've had it better, it is either your blend or the concentration ratio.

I don't remember which blend we used - maybe Kona?  I know I also liked their plain Columbia Regular, as well, which seems to be popular at restaurants.  I'm writing from my home study right now because I need to spend the afternoon working on this months' content for About.com, otherwise I'd check for you.  I know that when they installed the machine, the technician talked to me about the flavor I liked and used Burger King as a base (this was back when they were using the Douwe Egberts machines before switching to Seattle's Best and losing me as a customer).  He mentioned that the Burger King ratio was higher than the default "normal" ratio and boosted ours using this little handheld tablet that plugged into the machine that only the techs have.  It's been 4 or 5 years but ... maybe 55 to 58?  I can't recall, I can still see the guy in the break room installing it but I was only half paying attention but those numbers keep popping up in my head, though I can't explain the reason.  The difference was noticeable and our coffee hat a bit more bite after he changed it for us, though.  He said if we ever wanted it modified in the future, we just had to call and he'd come out and tweak it for us.

Is it too watery?  Too concentrated?  What are you experiencing?

Thanks for the reply.

I will have to talk to the tech and ask him about the concentration. I am thinking we are too watery, because it does not offer that full-bodied experience that I am familiar with from DE coffee.  I had some this weekend from a resort and knew right away that it was DE and delicious. Ours in the office is lacking, but hard to tell exactly what...

We are using the Colombian, but not sure if there are multiple offerings in that.

I knew your post was from a long time ago and was taking a chance that it was even still monitored. Thanks for what you did give me, I will try to use the BK as a reference in talking to the tech.

Best,

Y

We have one of these machines at my workplace and we are trying to figure out how many cups of coffee you get out of the 2L concentrate. I cannot find this info anywhere. Any chance you know? We are trying to justify (for lack of a better word) keeping the coffee machine stocked and having staff pay for it, either by the cup or by monthly fee.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember. The sales staff should be able to give you all those figures. I know the cost per cup was a few pennies. It was easily under 5¢ or 10¢.

You mentioned that you purchased a DE machine "when my original company became successful".   Approximately how many employees are you talking about?  I work for a small (but growing) company with about 35-40 employees, and we are trying to decide if we can justify the cost for this small of a company when we move to a new office building in a few months.

It has nothing to do with employees or sales, it has to do with annual profits. That's how I determine success. I think at the time we had it installed, there were probably only four people involved in the business full-time but it was making so much money that the costs were a rounding error. Thus, I wanted it, we could easily afford it, so it happened.

In your situation, here is how I would think about it:

Say you spend $300 a month on coffee and supplies (the exact amount depends on how much your employees drink). That is $3,600 per year. That works out to an average of $90 to $100 per employee per year, before the tax write-off if you are providing is a part of an employee break room. Let's average the figures and call it $95.

That comes to $7.92 before tax credits, per employee, per month for effectively unlimited coffee that is available on demand.

If your company is at least reasonably successful, that works out to an after-tax cost of $5.94 per employee, per month. If you hit the higher tax brackets, it would be even lower.

Looking at it another way: The average full time worker clocks in for 2,000 hours per year. Going back to our average 37.5 employees to get in the middle of your 35-40 employee range, that is 75,000 hours clocked in payroll time per annum, assuming everyone is full time.

On an after-tax cost basis, adding the free Douwe Egberts coffee is like giving them a net pay raise of 3.6¢ per hour after tax deductions for the company.

I'm also a fan of "re-prioritizing" capital expenditures and expenses. If you wanted the coffee machine but the 3.6¢ per hour net pay raise was too much to give your employees, I would find a way to do something like switch the light bulbs to energy efficient versions then apply the cost savings towards the coffee machine. I've written about it a lot in the past, but in our case, we did things like switch from a traditional phone setup to VoIP phones, saving thousands upon thousands of dollars a year, buying some of our institutional furniture during the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting to get the owner discount at NFM, etc.

Awesome post. I, too, found "my love" in Branson, MO. I have been thinking of getting the Cafitesse 50 for my house. Crazy, I know, but I love my Joe. I have been trying to track down one here in St. Louis and it hasn't been easy. Can you make a recommendation on an equipment distributor? 

I think it is all Farmer Bros. now that Sara Lee sold the division. If it were me, I'd start by calling Farmer Bros. Coffee in Springfield at (417) 869-5523, or if you can't reach anyone there, the recording said there was an equipment repair line at 1-877-322-6898, which might be able to point you in the right direction.

Tell them that you 1.) Want to buy a machine outright so you have no minimum coffee purchase requirements (unless you are a restaurant, there is no way you will hit the minimum and it will save you money in the end), and

2. You want to setup a regular coffee delivery service for the Douwe Egberts concentrate that goes inside of the machine.

They should be able to help you. At least that is where I would start looking.

P.S. This assumes you live near Branson. Otherwise, you'd have to find your local Farmer Bros. Coffee location, but you could still call that number for help.

Thanks so much, Joshua! We'll drink the first cup to you.

Our restaurant consists of just my husband and myself. We have two of
the liquid coffee machines - one for decaf and one for regular. With
the size of your company, you should be able to find a coffee company
that will service and provide your machine at no charge. That is what
we do. We have several other types of commercial machines that we have
used over the years, but knowing that we would not sell a ton of coffee,
we opted for the on demand system so that every cup would be fresh. We
also felt that over all, we would not lose product with this system.
Pennies count in this business! Our "case" of coffee consists of a two
pack of the frozen boxes at a cost of $138 per case. Since our machine
also has the hot water spigot attached to it, I prefer a less strong
cup while you can also press the button for an additional concentrated
cup of coffee. We love the machines and would recommend them to any
company, office or restaurant.

So funny. When we moved to Sedona, AZ from St. Louis, MO in 2004, I had the most delicious cup of coffee at a local restaurant. ( The restaurant has changed hands at least twice since the Obama-recession..but that's another story.) I was delighted with the coffee and called the owner. Like you have done here, she educated me about Douwe-Egbert. Regardless, I tried. I ordered some Douwe Egbert coffee from an American soldier stationed in the Netherlands. I tried those "Douwe" pods, as well. Like you said, the coffee was okay but nothing like the restaurant's coffee. My friend's hubby is a sales manager for Green Mountain and so I have now purchased a Keurig K-cup machine. With the Douwe-perfect-cup in mind (or memory), I am hoping to find a k-cup on the market which might compare in taste. In fact, that is how I happened onto this blog. This is a difficult endeavor because my memory of the legendary Douwe-perfect-cup happens to get better with time. I attribute some of this to euphoric recall. Thank you, Mr. Kennon.

I'm so glad your post came up when I googled. I too was initiated down in Branson to the perfect coffee, Douwe Egberts. And as you were, I was not able to brew it at home successfully. Thanks to you, I won't order more and continue to try. I did call local coffee providers that sell it trying to find out who they provide to locally, they couldn't tell me. I was willing to drive to a gas station or restaurant to get it regularly. My quest continues. Have a cup for me!

You might also look into the Nescafe food service coffee machines. The flavor is very, very close as it is the same process as the Douwe Egberts system.

You could always just wait for a delivery truck to leave and follow it on the first couple stops. It would take less than an hour. Also, our local Sonic Franchise recently switched to Douwe Egberts, but they put a different cover on the machine so you don't know that is what it is. I'm not sure if it is a system-wide change or just the person who owns our local franchise locations, but you might look into it. I think the change happened 12-18 months back. It's at least worth a look!

I hope you find it!!! Good luck on your search!

DE Liquid Coffee comes either in a 2/2L or a 2/1.25L.

2/1.25L
35:1 ratio
1521oz per box
217 cups (7oz in a 8oz cup)

2/2L
35:1 ratio
2434oz per box
348 cups (7oz in a 8oz cup)

Your cost is usually around $.25 per cup
(based on your supplier, this would be @ $120 per case of 2/1.25L)

I have a Burrito delivery service and discovered DE at one of the locations i go to twice a week, I DON'T want any other coffee now. It has come down to my taking containers with me to that stop so I can have another day with the best coffee I have ever had. Do you know if the Pillow Packets they offer taste anything like the flow that comes from the system this office has installed, they use the 100% Columbian Frozen. I consume 2 cups a day and do not think that that would fulfill the requirements to have the system installed at my home at no charge. Any suggestions at all or knowledge of where there is free flowing cups of DE in the Denver/ Aurora Colorado area? It really is delicious , when I called the company the gentleman described it as having a caramel flavor with a nutty note at the end. MMMMMMM I wish I had a container in hand right now on Sunday morning.

The ground Douwe Egberts beans don't fully capture the flavor of the office system. To me, they are not even close so I don't even bother with things like the pillow packs because they aren't the same.

Your best bet would be to find a gas station in Denver that uses the Douwe Egberts machines. Sometimes, they are rebranded and don't say Douwe Egberts on them so you should call the delivery people in your area who control the territory, explain that you don't have a big enough office to justify a machine, but want to find where you can get the coffee. They deliver refills to their clients so they should be able to give you a list of gas stations in your area that have the machine installed. I'll take detours if I'm out and about, just to get a cup of Douwe Egberts coffee from a handful of locations I know use the machine.

Is the Nescafe really as good as DE?

DE is available through Sysco, If you know a restaurant owner you can purchase through them, There are a few different flavors, Prestige which is arabica, 100% columbian, Kona blend, decaf, and they just added dunkin donuts ( I haven't been able to get my hands on that yet ). The caffinated come in a case of two 2 liter boxes and the decaf come in a case of two 1.25 liter boxes. The last time I bought the prestige and columbian were $140.00 for a case, the Kona was $160 for a case and the decaf was $113.00 for a case. The machines are hard to come by and expensive, I have the craftissse 110 which is the 110 volt model that burger king used in the drive thru, but if you do not have a machine you can simply open the box and cut off a corner of the bag and pour the concentrate into a bottle ( we used a water bottle with the spout on top that you have to squeeze th bottle to get the contents out ) then just mix the concentrate with hot water. the ratio that burger king used was 28:1 for regular and 20:1 for turbo. So here is what I did while my machine was broke down, I have a 20 OZ travel mug, I would put two tablespoons of concentrate in the mug and then fill with hot water from the instant hot dispenser I had installed on my kitchen sink, and I had great tasting cup of coffee in about 20 seconds. The price for me was about $1.05 for a 20 Oz cup or prestige or 100% columbian, $1.20 for Kona and $1.35 for decaf. I think DE is now owned by Smuckers foodservice

This is priceless information! On three occasions-- in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles-- I have had coffee at dinner that knocked me out. All three times it was Douwe Egbert. I've been trying to replicate the magic elixir at home but have fallen short. Until now! I'm on the hunt! Thanks!

Thank you, Mr. Kennon and those that have replied to this post. You simply have no idea how grateful I am to this information. I spent hours and hours trying to figure out best way to recreate DE coffee, after having my first cup last month. This post and replies completely helps. A treat for you all, in light of the most recent posts about the liquid concentrate: a link. I hope it works out for all of you. There are several varieties, and to me, worth the price.
http://www.foodservicedirect.com/product.cfm/p/2975307/Douwe-Egbert-100-percent-Prestige-Arabica.htm

Tim Bergsma
I happen to have a Douwe Egberts C-60 machine I am looking to sell. It's about 4 1/2 years old and hasn't been used in about 2 years. Very low usage for a machine that age. Is anyone interested in making an offer?

I would be interested in your coffee machine Tim Bergsma. Do you still have it?

Yes it is still available and would be happy to sell it for a fair price.

Hi Tim - it's Jean. I apparently had signed up to this forum before and didn't remember because it wouldn't let me sign up because it said my email address was already on file - hence the username change.

Is the C-60 the one that has about 5 options on the machine? I'm thinking it might be too big for my needs. What do you think you want for it? Feel free to email me back directly at [email protected]

Thanks!

Do you know if one has to use all the options when dispensing for the C-60? I see that is the same model Joshua uses so maybe he will answer me. I'm wondering how many slots for the boxes of coffee - and am I able to just put one regular coffee in there and leave the others without anything? I just don't think I could use that much before it goes bad but one 1.25 liter box I could use up. Thanks for any input! Again - feel free to email me at [email protected]

Thanks!

Hi Tim - I am still interested in the coffee machine. Are you still interested in selling it?

Hi Tim. Do you still have your c-60 Machine for sale?

Joshua - thank you for the great info on this blog! I am a coffee fanatic too - and I can't believe I just discovered DE coffee at my local hospital. I took a sip and immediately KNEW I had to have this coffee whatever it was! So before I found your blog, I ordered DE coffee beans. Ok - now I know I wasted my money before I even get the order! 🙂 I had a suspicion that might be the case but I thought i would give it a whirl. I wasn't surprised to learn that the DE coffee I fell in love with was a liquid concentrate because I currently use a cold brew system at home (Filtron) and it reminded me of that - only 100 times better! So now I'm in the market for a DE machine. I called my local Farmers Brothers and the lady I spoke to didn't really even want to give me the time of day because she said it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to think I could use up a box of coffee in a home setting before it expired. She said they only last about two weeks?? I was shocked to hear this. I expected it to last 6 weeks anyway. What are your thoughts? Also what is the name of your favorite coffee concentrate? I don't know what the hospital uses here but I am going to go back and snoop! How many cups does one get from a 1.25 liter I wonder? Also, if I bought some liquid concentrate before I get a machine, would I be able to pour it in a carafe or something and just dispense it from there? Just wondering if that will work short term? Thanks again for all your great info!

I received the Douwe Egberts ground coffee today that I ordered (I ordered it before I found this blog). When I ordered it I hoped I would be able to produce coffee that was somewhat similar to the Douwe Egberts coffee I tried out of the machine - although I had my doubts. Then I found this blog and I knew I probably just wasted $50. I opened the coffee and thought what the heck - I might as well make a pot. I can honestly tell you - that was the worst tasting coffee I have had since I tried a French roast at Starbucks. This was actually worse I think! Ok I knew it wasn't going to be like the liquid concentrate, but I thought it would be ok. It's not even close to ok. So if you are a coffee lover, don't bother going this route. There isn't a substitute for the DE liquid coffee concentrate. Joshua is right!

Before I bought my machines, I used to get the boxes of "expired" DE coffee from my neighbor. I was lucky enough to have a local DE rep and service guy living next door. This was how I discovered Douwe Egberts coffee. He also told me that I could never get service at home because of low volume. He had suggested eBay, which is where I picked up my machines. I can tell you that the expiration date on this stuff is more of a suggestion. "Best if used by" its very misleading. I've used the concentrate before I had my machine, by pouring it in my cup and adding hot water. Even 6 months beyond the date, the coffee flavor did not change at all. Unfortunately my neighbors have divorced and my source is gone but I still get all I need from eBay. Don't settle for anything less.. this stuff is great and having a machine in my home with Douwe Egberts on tap 24/7 make me feel like royalty.

I had to laugh Kevin when I read your review because you sound JUST like me when you talk about your coffee! ? I have said on several occasions, "Oh my gosh I am so spoiled - I feel like royalty!" And that is how blessed I feel every cup I drink. I got a great deal on my machine too. In fact, the guy had more to sell and I could have gotten more for $100 each. I'm kicking myself for not getting a few more!

according to Douwe Egberts liquid coffee website, they are not related to Douwe Egberts coffee (grounds). Amazingly weird coincidence I know. But after having the best coffee of my life, I searched out what it was. It was DE liquid conc. Just ordered some. I love coffee. I hate bitter.

We have a Douwe Egberts coffee maker at work and it is AMAZING!!!! I have searched the internet countless times trying to purchase the coffee or even the machine. We always wondered if we could take some of the liquid and add hot water at home? I'm sure it is not quite the same but a close replica would be acceptable! My coworkers are desperate! haha It is truly the smoothest, best cup of coffee ever!

This is probably the most disgusting coffee i've ever tasted. More than 95% of our (3000) employees hate it. After all, it is freeze dried coffee concentrate. What's to like?

Tony - it's the smooth, no acid taste that everyone likes. It tastes pure - no heavy musty taste. If people like that dark bitter flavor, they won't like this. I can honestly say I haven't had one person say they don't like it. I've had people that don't drink coffee at all say they love this and want to get a machine. So to each their own - I'm glad they have different kinds so we can all be happy! ?

I cant believe all these people, this is the worst coffee i've ever had, It tastes like mop water and has a discusting layer of oil in every cup. Do all of you work for this company or something?

Kosta - if there's a disgusting layer of oil in every cup, wherever you're getting it from had better get their water checked and pronto. Bad tasting coffee would be the least of your worries or whoever has the machine. If it's not the water, then the machine hasn't been flushed or cleaned - probably ever. I know good coffee - and this is unlike any I've ever tasted. Now if you purchased the Douwe Egberts coffee beans - then I agree with you! When I first tasted the DE coffee in the machine, I didn't know that THAT coffee comes from a frozen concentrated syrup, and when thawed, it goes inside of the machine. I thought I would just order me up some DE beans and get the same thing. WRONG. THAT was the worst tasting coffee I've had to date. Is there a chance you had coffee from the beans and not from a DE machine?

I'm with @Lipstickinnd on this. Neither I, nor anyone I know, who has spent money on having these machines installed have ever encountered anything like this.

You need to have your water checked immediately as well as make sure the machine is being flushed daily as required in the manual. What you are describing is not normal. At all. Something isn't right. You have much bigger problems and need to figure out what is going on before you take another drink.

I bought my mini-van for purely emotional reasons, and it is the direct cause of my completely fulfilled life, where I'm not unhappy no matter what type of coffee you place in front of me. You would have to drag me by my short-hairs across a bed of coals while thistles were being shoved under my eyelids, and hot nitric acid poured into my ears, before I would consider your final paragraph to be anything but a satirical farce.

I bought my mini-van for purely emotional reasons, and it is the direct cause of my completely fulfilled life, where I'm not unhappy no matter what type of coffee you place in front of me.

Then I would say you made a very intelligent, wise purchase based on your own personal opportunity cost, which was exactly the point of what I wrote.

You have to know yourself, and what you value, to allocate your dollars. There is no right or wrong answer, it's all about what makes you happiest because you are the one who worked for the funds. For some people, spending $4,400 on a Hustler Raptor zero-turn lawn mower is a waste of money while, for others, spending $100 a year on a cell phone is insanity. For some families, it's worth it to spend a higher percentage of their budget living in a state where they can get outdoors a lot, for others, they'd rather save cash and live somewhere inexpensive so they have more money to travel or put reserves aside for college.

You should never look to others to validate your purchasing decisions for the reason I constantly harp on in my writing: Money is a tool. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's a tool, just like a screwdriver or a tape measure. You should never get upset that other people don't value the same things you do because they have different goals, needs, wants, ideals, and sources of happiness than you do, therefore the tool must be used differently. Life is interesting precisely because people are diverse. Do you get upset that we don't share the same favorite color? The same taste in music? How about the same sense of style in clothing? What about how we take our coffee or tea?

I'm guessing not. My question, then, is why you seem to be reacting emotionally to the fact that I, personally, based on my own life experience coming from a huge family where nearly everyone at some point owned a mini-van, would never buy one myself since I find them unwieldy, inefficient, and far less comfortable than their more expensive four-door sedan or SUV counterparts?

Why does it offend you so deeply that I won't spend my money the same way you spend yours?

Why do you care that I'd rather put a carseat in the back of a pickup truck or a crossover? That I find it no more inconvenient while retaining the primary utility of the other vehicle model?

To be honest, it seems as random as if you came up to me upset that I were wearing a pair of cherry red oxfords instead of brown because the brown version gave you a sense of - in your words - a "completely fulfilled life".

It is just such an ... odd ... reaction, I'm not sure what to do with it.

Joshua, your employees are so lucky you installed this coffee machine in your office! That has GOT to make even the worst work days so much better! I too, I'm in love, and addicted to this coffee, and I thought I was crazy trying to research how to get the machine at home! But every time I tried I ran into dead ends...and had come to the conclusion these machines are only for commercial establishments. But every few months I try again and this time I ran into your post, and I'm so glad I did. I learned a lot and also feel better to see I'm not alone! 🙂 What's awesome is that I have *two* places right around the block from (one of them makes great bagels, too!) that serve coffee from these machines.

So I have now started scouring Ebay for used Douwe Egberts machines for my house 🙂 (I can't even begin to imagine the feeling of having access to this coffee any time I want!) So far I've only seen them at top $, like $1,000 so I need to keep looking...but I have a couple of questions for you:

1. All things being equal, and I know you said the Nescafe is very close in flavor...but if you could buy either the Douwe Egberts/Farmer Brothers or the Nescafe - would you prefer one over the other?

2. When purchasing one of these used liquid machines - what would you ask/want to know to make sure it's in good shape?

Thank you again for writing this post and bringing us all together! haha

OK, so I'm 6 years late to this blog party, but I've been one with you in DE-loving spirit since 1996. I will go way out of my way if I know I can get a cup of DE. What's both interesting and unfortunate is that it seems these days to be more common in small diners and even cheap hotels. For instance, every Econolodge breakfast area has a DE machine (though they seem to make it too weak), yet the better Hilton-brand hotels serve some pretty nasty stuff.

I have a question or two, but first an update. Smucker's now owns Douwe Egbert liquid coffees. They bought it in 2014. They talked about renaming it to - don't have a conniption! - Folgers Gourmet! I think they backtracked on that. There's an article on the purchase here, along with my rant (I lived in Orrville, OH where they are HQ'd):
http://dailycoffeenews.com/2013/06/07/j-m-smucker-ditching-bulk-coffee-in-favor-of-k-cups-and-new-brands/

My questions:
1. Can you tell me the specific flavor of DE liquid that is most common in restaurants? The flavor that Burger King used to serve before they lost my business too and got a letter of dissatisfaction from me?

2. A website sells the liquids and suggests ways to fix it at home without a machine. I rent and can't modify my home, so this may be the perfect solution. Their prices look typical. They have a few flavors and I want to buy the one I'm used to first. Here's the site (I have no affiliation with them, don't know anyone there, and have never even bought from them): http://douweegbertsliquidcoffee.com.

I hope everyone takes your caution that buying the beans or grounds will not give you anything like the same experience. The coffee will be very good, but not at all like the restaurant concentrate.

I no longer live in Ohio. I live in Iowa, and I can't find anyplace that dispenses DE around me.

Please help!

~N

So agree. That was the only reason I stopped at Burger King. Haven't been back since they switched to seattles best.

Just bought a Douwe Egberts coffee machine and had plumbers install water line in my home. Now my friends and family want to stop by for coffee.

What do you think of this first automatic manual coffee machine by an Australian brand?
http://www.breville.com.au/the-oracle.html

I agree it is great coffee. We have a machine at the catering company I'm a chef at. I'm confused however because Burger King coffee is absolutely shite.

The Best coffee ever. There isn’t anything I would like more but to purchase a DE machine for home but do they actually make a machine for home use? I usually drink coffe with sugar. When I go home to MI to visit I always stop at a restraunt called Clifford Lake Inn in Stanton MI, where I came across the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had, DE, I drink it black…it’s amazing!!! Never would I do that unless I’m drinking theirs. I have bought the liquid DE concentrate and have tried different methods but it just doesn’t come close to the way it tasted from that restaurant.

Hi! Just ran across your post as I was looking up Douwe Egberts coffee on a whim. Since we share a passion for this coffee I thought I would share my story. My hubby was in the hospital (it was about 13 years ago or more) for a few days and I sipped some of the coffee that was delivered with his meal. We both like black coffee and when I tasted it I was floored! I'm like "this is the best coffee I've ever had", and he agreed. We enjoyed that coffee until his discharge and then I was obsessed with finding out what it was. I can't tell you how many times I called that hospital to find someone that could tell me the brand. So after discovering that it was a 'system' and not something I could have at home I was pretty bummed. Then, one day when visiting my grandmother at her assisted living home we went to the dining cafe where I was delighted to find a Douwe Egberts machine. I visited much more frequently until the machine disappeared and I was heartbroken (that sounds dramatic but it's true). I kept telling people about that coffee for YEARS until someone suggested I 'cold brew' my coffee. We have been doing that for many years using an 8 o'clock 100% Columbian and we have been happy with it, but still not anywhere near DE. So NOW I see I can buy a bag of ground DE and I am beside myself with excitement! I'm just wondering if you or anyone else has tried to cold brew it (letting the grounds sit for 12 or so hours in cold water and draining to create the concentrate) then adding the hot water to a shot of concentrate? I'm pretty sure that is pretty close to what the system itself does, except the coffee arrives in the concentrate form. I can't believe I'm so excited about finding this coffee in a ground form. Do you know how long it's been available this way? Thanks for listening to my Douwe Egberts love story, and if you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it!

Thank you for sharing your story!

The timing of this is funny. We are having the system installed at the new building we just bought for the wealth management group in New Albany, Ohio. Literally a few hours ago I had a commercial plumber in the building we bought who put in a new waterline specifically for this coffee system.

Douwe Egberts sold their business in the U.S. to J.M. Smucker's, which rebranded it as Folger's. The coffee is the same, the machine is the just a newer version ... the coffee is just labeled as either Folger's or 1850. In Europe, it's still sold as Douwe Egberts. The new machines are called the "Excllence Touch" and "Excellent Touch Compact" or "Excellent Touch Compact + Instant" (which can do cocoa). The old Douwe Egberts Colombia coffee is now Folger's Colombia coffee and the old Douwe Egberts Kona coffee was discontinued and replaced with something very similar called Folger's Signature Reserve.

I'm having Smucker's send me the unbranded version, which is all black.

The equipment is now found at https://www.smuckerawayfromhome.com/equipment ...

Hope that helps!

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https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4acfed599b1a7a1ea85d70f989d97e9368fd55b902da15760d66c9ae721f678c.jpg
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I just left a comment above - they don't make a home machine but now you can buy the commercial machine for your house. The business was sold to J.M. Smucker and they have a direct-equipment purchase option.