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Who doesn’t love a hot cup of java in the morning? But is it just the caffeine in the beans that helps to wake you up?
A couple of years ago, my colleague Sam and I worked with a client who had installed a café area in a highly reverberant atrium and was looking at options to reduce the noise levels.
Sam measured the noise levels of coffee-related activities at 1m from the espresso machine as part of our work. In order of loudness, the results were as follows:
- Making the Coffee: The quietest of all the activities, this came in at a calming 52 dB.
- The Grind: The sound of grinding the beans in preparation for a brew came in at 67 dB.
- Steamer: If you’re after a cappuccino*, frothing your milk will set you back 69 dB.
- Banging out the coffee grounds: Unsurprisingly, banging the previously used coffee grounds out of what Google tells me is called the Portafilter (every day’s a school day) was the loudest activity and came in at 82 dB. If that doesn’t wake you up, I don’t know what will.
Worth noting that the juice blender came in at 77 dB, so give that some thought when you’re next ordering your “Beets & Berries”.
As an aside, if you enjoy the sound of coffee shops, you might enjoy Coffitivity, which recreates the ambient sounds of a café to boost your creativity and help you work better.
*Since you asked, I’ll have a strong, black americano, thanks.