A well-made hot drink might seem like a small detail in the daily running of a care home, but for residents, visitors and staff alike, it can be one of the most reliable moments of comfort in the day. JDE Professional, a NACC Premier Partner explains what care providers should consider when reviewing their beverage offering.
Across the UK’s care homes, mealtimes and the rituals that surround them carry weight far beyond nutrition. A cup of tea offered on arrival, a coffee shared with a visiting relative, or the first hot drink of a night shift: these small exchanges shape how a home feels to the people in it. Yet beverage provision is rarely given the same scrutiny as catering more broadly, despite sitting at the intersection of hospitality, hygiene, and staff time.
That gap is worth closing. Food and beverage services form part of daily life in every one of the country’s care settings, and expectations have shifted. Residents, visitors and staff increasingly compare the coffee on offer in a care home to what they would get in a café or workplace elsewhere. Meeting that expectation, however, means solving problems that have little to do with taste.
Where the pressure sits
For most operators, the barriers to a better beverage offer are practical rather than aspirational. Staff time is scarce, and any equipment that demands close supervision, complicated cleaning routines or specialist barista skill quickly becomes a burden rather than an amenity. A machine that breaks down mid-shift, or that takes several minutes to clean between uses, creates exactly the kind of friction that busy teams cannot absorb.
Space presents a second constraint. Many care homes were not designed with high-volume beverage service in mind, and reception areas, lounges and staff rooms often have to accommodate equipment within a limited footprint. A solution that works well in a large hospital canteen will not necessarily translate to a care home reception desk.
Choice is the third factor, and arguably the one most likely to be overlooked. Residents and visitors span a wide range of tastes and needs, from those who want a straightforward, familiar cup to those seeking decaffeinated options or a wider variety of drinks. A single, inflexible offer risks leaving a significant proportion of people underserved.
Matching equipment to the setting
JDE Professional, a NACC Premier Partner, has built its care-sector offer around these three pressures: efficiency, space and choice. Its Cafitesse Excellence Touch machine is aimed specifically at high-throughput areas such as onsite breakfast areas and communal lounges, where speed and reliability matter without having to compromise on a varied drinks menu. The machine dispenses an Americano in about seven seconds and a cappuccino in about fourteen, which reduces queuing at busy times of day, such as visiting hours or shift changeovers. The machine serves a wide array of popular beverages, from classic black coffee and rich cappuccinos to comforting hot lattes and everyday flat whites using high-quality Douwe Egberts coffee.
The appeal for care settings lies less in speed for its own sake than in what that speed frees up. A touchscreen interface is designed to be usable without training, meaning staff, residents and visitors can each operate it independently in either a served or self-service format. Cleaning, meanwhile, is built around a routine of around six minutes, twice a week, rather than a daily task that competes with care duties. For homes weighing up new equipment, this solution provides a combination of low supervision and consistent output whilst maintaining a range of drinks on offer.
The instant coffee question
Not every space in a care home suits a machine-based solution, and instant coffee remains a mainstay in many settings, particularly in resident rooms, visitor lounges, and on catering trolleys, where portability matters more than variety. Kenco, part of the JDE portfolio, has been delivering delicious instant coffee blends and bringing people together since 1923, and its range illustrates how far the category has moved from a single, undifferentiated jar.
Kenco Smooth offers a balanced, everyday cup and is supplied in a 750g tin, while Kenco Rich provides a fuller-bodied alternative for those who prefer a stronger flavour. Kenco Decaf, supplied in a 500g tin, addresses a genuine and growing need among residents who manage their caffeine intake for health reasons, without asking them to sacrifice the ritual of a hot drink. Individually portioned coffee sticks, supplied in cases of two hundred, offer a further option for homes that want consistent strength from cup to cup and simpler portion control across multiple service points.
A question of consistency, not just quality
What links the equipment and product ranges is a single underlying issue for care operators: consistency. A resident who receives a strong, well-made coffee one day and a weak, over-diluted one the next is likely to notice, even if they cannot always articulate what has changed. Staff turnover, variable training, and the sheer pace of care work all make it harder to guarantee consistency without the right systems in place.
This is where the case for reviewing a beverage offer becomes an operational one rather than a cosmetic one. Getting it right removes a small but recurring source of friction from staff routines, while getting it wrong adds one. For homes weighing up their catering and hospitality budgets, a beverage service that is simple to run and dependable in quality is arguably as important as one that is simply premium in name.
As with any area of hospitality in care, the goal is not novelty but reliability delivered warmly and without fuss, so that a good cup of coffee remains what it should be: one of the more dependable comforts in a resident’s day.
jacobsdouweegbertsprofessional.co.uk
