Almost every home and some offices I visited in Canada had one of these coffee makers. How handy can life be - drop in a little sealed cup prefilled with any number of different coffees, push a button and voila a cup of very good coffee. They call them K-cups, however that conjures up an interesting visual image I would rather not dwell on so I will just call them cups. Throw away the used cup and you are ready to start over. No fuss, no muss, no feathers.
Ay, there's the rub. According to a recent article in the Grope and Maul, some 10 billion of these little non-degradable cups are filling nations' refuse heaps annually. Fortunately the article goes on to announce a company has begun making biodegradable cups.
The second rub is the cost of these little cups. Best deal seems to be fifty cents per. Which is fine for one person drinking one cup per day. However if you are a multi-person household, drinking multi-cups per day, it adds up. Keeping costs down while maintaining convenience becomes an earnest objective.
There is lots of "coffee" left in the cup after only one use. The recommendation is to shake it before using it again to loosen the grounds. Let me know if that works.
There are also all kinds of ways of reusing the cups with replacement lids or filling your own disposable cups. Amazon carries a number of these here. A second rubber seal is recommended so there is no leakage around the flimsy replacement tops.
There are refillable K-Cups complete with filter but there goes convenience. You could buy a couple dozen, fill them and keep them in the freezer but at $16 to $20 per, the initial investment might be a bit steep.Then there is something called the EZ-Cup which used a disposable filter. Only $35 on Amazon with filters available from Wal-Mart at $5 for 50.
These coffee makers may be available in Ukraine in Kyiv where people might have the money to afford the little cups but it will be a very long time before they hit the small towns and villages. I will stick to my 12 cup coffee maker with paper-towel filters that makes four mugs of good coffee.
Mother Jones had an article that mentioned the trash problem with the Keurig pods not long ago. Personally, I don't get it. If a person wants just one cup of coffee what's wrong with using a French press or or a single cup drip filter?
ReplyDeleteThe S.O. and I were in Target earlier this year in the coffee aisle. A Target peon told us that when the Keurig and its special little pods came out everyone working there was sure that they weren't going to be around very long -- they were just too expensive for people to fall for the marketing. Turned out consumers are remarkably gullible. The Keurig annoys the heck out of me because the boxes with the pods in a gazillion different flavor combos are starting to crowd out all the traditional beverages in that section of grocery stores -- there are fewer and fewer traditional teas, hot chocolate mixes, ground coffee, etc., to pick from. Shelf space is limited so when boxes of Keurig pods get added something else has to vanish.
I know there's no way the S.O. and I will ever end up with a Keurig. One cup of coffee at a time in a two person household where both people drink multiple cups of coffee every day? That's more like a sick joke than it is a coffee pot. There's enough pushing and shoving in the kitchen now if we realize at the same time that the coffee is done.
Actually it is VERY fast and handles many coffee drinkers at a time almost as fast as you can pour a pot into different cups. I did not realize the pods were taking over the store shelves, though.
DeleteA French Press is a great way to make one or two mugs of coffee at a time. But the glass seems very fragile - I broke several while washing before giving it up
The old percolator made the best coffee - and the smell was great.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Bizzard
I too miss the old metal perc bubbling away, yes, and the smell of fresh coffee permeating the house in the morning. But it was slow and as Homer Simpson said about the microwave that could flash fry a buffalo in 30 seconds, "But I want it NOW".
DeleteWe aren't caught up in this affliction at all. I only drink tea; Janet doesn't drink either. Makes life much simpler.
ReplyDeleteAbout what you would expect from this old Bear.
ReplyDeleteKeurig is great for my every morning, very convenient and I can preserve used coffee.
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My keurig not working brewing the amount of coffee you expect, the chances are that debris and coffee grounds
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