Coffee For Less: Keep It Hot With Coffee Urns
Heat is good, especially when it comes from coffee. Who doesn’t get annoyed when their hot pot of java goes cold? That’s why coffee urns were created. A coffee urn is a large coffee maker and receptacle that allows you to make large batches of coffee to serve during banquets, parties, or even just a gathering of friends and family. Coffee urns come in handy when you need to serve a large quantity of coffee and don’t have time to constantly hover over your drip machine. The urn keeps the coffee warm, but avoids burning it. This helps when you need to make coffee several hours before a party or plan on having the coffee sit in the urn for an extended period of time during an occasion. Typically coffee can stay hot for about 90 minutes in an urn, so it’s ideal when you want to make coffee for a lot of people but don’t want to have to make and remake it throughout an event.
Coffee urns come in a range of sizes, each determined by the number of cups of coffee it holds. If you’re planning on hosting a large event or simply have a small office to satisfy, choose your urn according to the number of people you expect to serve. If you have an urn that fits 100 cups or more but plan on only seeing a line of 50 people for the hot brew, you can easily make just enough for your guests. Otherwise, the coffee might go stale if more is prepared than necessary. Urns also come in a range of prices, from small, family style urns priced at less than $100 to professional grade urns that can cost caterers upwards of $500.
The difference between professional class urns and cheaper versions is mainly due to the quality of its components. On large size urns used by caterers, the spigot at the bottom that pours the coffee tends to work more smoothly and has fewer malfunctions. Cheaper models have smaller spigots that can sometimes be harder to turn off, which may result in that dreaded party faux pas where you can’t stop the coffee from overflowing your cup. Good quality spigots extend the life of your coffee urn because they’re easy to operate, durable and save you from wasting coffee.
Stainless steel coffee urns are a wise choice over cardboard urns because they’re reusable – saving you money and the environment. Even if you don’t plan on using it everyday, a coffee urn is great to have on hand for those occasions when you have unexpected guests or doing daylong events, such as moving or having an open house.
