For fast easy machine single-serve, get a machine that takes beans. They cost about three pod-machines but they're worth it. The pod-machines are cheaper because they come with vendor lock-in for the pods, and they just profit more on those instead.
It's not as convenient, but a moka pot makes the best single serving coffee I've experienced. You can get a small version for less than $30. It takes me less than 5 minutes to make a barista level cup, and even the more expensive coffee is going to cost less than 50 cents per serving.
The only downside is the coffee is highly caffeinated--nearly espresso levels. So you're forced to add water if you just want a "cup" of coffee and it's more of an Americano-style. But the taste beats the shit out of drip or Keurig cups...imo.
Ah a fellow moka pot enthusiast! You tell 'em!
I just use the resuable pods. Can throw any coffee grounds in them, dump them in the compost when done, rinse, and use again. Have used these for at least 5 years.
The biggest area this will be a win in is offices. Areas where groups of different people with different tastes gather and can pick a coffee that’s better suited to their taste. Having reusable k pods is nice, but when people don’t frequently work in there, or don’t realize a keurig is available they might not have one. Although I V60 everyday so this has no real personal impact.
Areas where groups of different people with different tastes gather and can pick a coffee that’s better suited to their taste.
Also places where people have different concepts of cleanliness
True. In my office, they provided a Keurig but you had to bring your own pods. I'd just fill up 2 or 3 of my reusable ones and bring those with me, but your point is definitely valid (especially for offices that provide coffee pods).
This might be a really stupid question, but if you're going to use reusable pods, why not just... Use a classic Mr. Coffee-style coffee maker that has been around for decades?
Because Jill in accounting has no clue how to make coffee, yet always gets to the coffee pot first.
This see-through abomination was the final straw before I switched to using the office keurig.
That's some sparkling coffee if I've ever seen it lmao, did they throw out 3 pots first before using the same grounds for that pot?
Cause a k cup is pretty convenient if you just want a cup and don't want to clean the pot regularly. The main drawback is the actual leftover k cup, if it was made out of some thing that would decompose it would be a lot better for the environment. Not saying that the Mr. Coffee isn't cheaper, but I'm not paying for the coffee, so convenience ranks higher on most priority lists.
I've got two: One Keurig which was a gift and an off-brand single-cup coffee maker that uses pods. I'm the only coffee drinker in the house, so one cup at a time is about right (and uses less energy than keeping a carafe warm all morning).
I used to love my coffee maker (One of the ones with the thermos built in as the carafe) but my daughter wanted a Keurig. I was hesitant at first but I really like them now that I'm used to it.
We use reusable pods so making coffee is as cheap as before, and there's little wasted coffee that sat too long. If I want coffee I get one without worrying if my daughter might want one later, and visa versa. It's always fresh and never has to sit. And since we both don't really have regular schedules this way makes it easier than planning how much to make. It also works just as well if one of us wants tea or hot chocolate instead.
If you are on a fixed schedule and always drink the exact same amount of coffee then it's not as big of a deal though. The only real downside is if you have friends over then sometimes being able to brew a pot is less of a hassle than individually making multiple cups at the same time, but in our case that doesn't happen often enough to keep the old coffee maker out.
So that's just using a normal coffeemaker basically - putting ground coffee in a filter.
I just use a normal coffeemaker, with good coffee. Keurigs are a scam IMO. It's really not hard to learn how much water to pour in and coffee scoops to put into the filter to make a small pot of coffee. Cone filter style is better than the basket style for that and for taste
When you say “normal coffee maker“ are you just referring to a drip/pot? Because honestly, Keurigs take up less space and require less work so if you’re going to do the drip coffee route, then you may as well just do Keurig (sustainably). The results are basically the same.
Lol, basically. But it lets me fill up the pods and use it in either my single-cup coffee maker or take it to the office and put it into the Keurig there.
I guess there's the benefit that it doesn't require a disposable paper filter, though.
Just to be clear, it was always "finally" able to be sustainable - it just wasn't profitable.
Now that they've saturated the market with makers they can "finally" keep the profits rolling with something that kills the planet less.
Yes! We can finally buy our way out of unnecessary waste, and ultimately climate change, with this new thing that keeps us buying. Just gotta buy the ecological things and everything will be good.
I hear you and ultimately we all have our own versions of utopia. But it doesn't stop us celebrating small steps in the right direction just because we're not at our destination.
Is it a step in the right direction, or is it a refinement to the sinister system that is sending us down the drain?
Or we could stop putting the onus on consumers and demand manufacturers/producers actually do the right thing. Even Keurig said they're still making the plastic pods. The actual answer is regulation.
We need to stop excusing the "it's too expensive to be green" bullshit. If it's too expensive not to poison the planet then it's not economically feasible.
It's like saying "it's too expensive to not put poison in our food", then you shouldn't be making food.
Team Aeropress here.
Good to see Keurig try to cut down on plastic waste, but if they really wanted to make an impact, they could open-source the design of the pods so all the alt-cup manufacturers could switch as well. It may be counter-intuitive, but the more options customers have, the more machine sales and goodwill Keurig will create.
“Sustainable”
Coffee can, single piece of packaging for months on end.
Vs.
K-cups, paper, dyes, increased packaging volumes, increased energy in production, increased raw materials, 6 month shelf life = increased trips to the store to purchase more. Sustainable /s
If you're playing that game, you don't need any coffee at all, so none of it is sustainable.
I mean, it's a plant. You can grow it, and plenty of it is grown. It is objectively more sustainable than, say, coal or helium.
Make it sustainable in pod form specifically. Pour over, drip, French/aeropress seem pretty sustainable. Especially of you use a mesh filter.
Everything in context though. Even if you use a paper filter for coffee every day, the overall paper usage in a year is like the equivalent of what, maybe 2-3 print NYTimes Sunday editions?
An here I've been making single serve coffee in a French press my whole life.
Ah finally a sane person. Why is normal coffee no longer an option? It doesn't even take any longer unless you grind it by hand.
And it's so much better.
In Switzerland we got something similar, it's little balls though. It comes packaged in cardboard and you can compost the remains https://www.coffeeb.com/en-ch
Oh, cool! How's the coffee?
It's actually pretty good, don't own a machine but have tried it a couple times. It's also comparable in cost to normal capsules.
I solved this problem by not drinking coffee. I know, it's blasphemy I don't need daily caffeine to function.
Edit: I feel like the people downvoting this have muttered the words "I can't start my day without coffee" and least once in their life.
Awesome. I wonder why it wasn't like this in the first place. Disposable plastics are too cheap I guess
ESE pods have been around for quite a while now, and they've been a great alternative to Keurig.
Would like to see this for more than just coffee. Although, the knock off Keurig I have came with a filter cup thing that acts like a reusable pod, so I don't really need the single serve plastic cup pods anyway. I can just put tea, coffee, hot cocoa, etc in that mesh cup and then clean it afterward.
Do official Keurigs not have that?
Noone else is using Senseo dosettes ?
I think I've only seen these in France, which is crazy because it's such a simple and elegant solution to this "problem".
Senseo is everywhere in the EU. Personally, I rank it below homemade filter coffee though.
All coffee pods are garbage.
Especially espresso pods. There's a place around here that has a 20,000 dollar espresso machine, that serves over-extracted espresso because the owner felt pods were easier or something.
Good. Not gonna get me to buy one but good.
I was surprised to learn that the store brand k-cups around here are already fully compostable. It’s just a biodegradable plastic ring with half a sphere of coffee filter on the bottom and a paper disc on top.
Technology for a Solar-Punk future.
Airships and hydroponic farms...