I found a Pyrex 4 cup coffee percolator at my dad’s house. It makes a great cup of coffee and it is neat to watch the percolation happening.
Edit: Added link to YouTube video.
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You can use the phrase " (Person) who invented __________ regrets it" with pretty much every popular consumer item. Usually what happens is, one guy has a great idea, makes a prototype, shows it to a group of investors and developers, who then screw him out of the real profits with some shady contract and limited residuals. I think the guy who invented the wheel died alone in a ditch. The sliced bread guy? Died of starvation.
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Or your local independently owned hardware store. There’s tons of places to drop them off for recycling. Or, as you say, you can quite easily strip them down and toss the foil bits into the recycling, which I’ve done as well. In either case, if one is looking for pretty decent espresso in a pod format that’s easily recycled, you could do worse with Nespresso. I’m glad we agree.
We’re literally saying the same thing. There’s nothing to “prove in a quantitative fashion”.
No, it means I think you’re wrong, you’ve admitted that you were ill-informed, and judging people on their coffee-pod purchases in such a roundabout way (and then swearing at the mods) is not a great look.
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You know people can see when your account was created by clicking on your name, right?
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Dropping them off at your “independent hardware store” is no different than anywhere else. They get picked up by UPS and shipped somewhere far away. That doesn’t abate the wastefulness of the very concept of coffee pods.
Yes there is, it took about five minutes to find out specifically how inefficient the logistical infrastructure for the pod drop off is. You’re just giving money back to Nestle, you’re not helping the environment at all. It’s not hard to figure out from just that one link.
You can think whatever you want, I really don’t care and frankly I’m done thrashing you over this. I’m not judging you, just asking you and other coffee pod users to be realistic about the impact that convenience has on the environment rather than going to war to defend… a nespresso machine. Seriously.
I’m not tilting at Rob as a mod. He’s a professional journalist. It’s not just okay to call journalists out for inconsistent journalism, it’s kind of our job as news consumers to do that, otherwise shit goes off the rails. A lot of times that’s hard to do, but here at BB we have a community that allows us to interact directly with journalists, and we can point out what appears to be biased or incomplete reporting.
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I did a some experimenting on K-cups and stuff and am certain many brands include instant to fortify the flavor and strength. For example, compare any given Starbucks pod with the same-brand Starbucks roast, ground to the same fineness, in a “universal” pod. The Starbucks ground will taste like you put them through a hotel room drip machine, a but weak and bitter. Byt the pod will taste more like what you get served in Starbucks, just in an uncanny way with that indefinite K-cup bleurgh to it.
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I found the perfect solution! It’s called Senseo and it produces perfect Crema foamy topped coffee. The coffee makers are inexpensive and the best part is no plastic in the pods. In fact I used my used java pods to start some seeds for my vegetables. They work perfectly. Or, directly compost them. Zero plastic.
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Yes, I am. As I said, this is not my first account, and there was a period in between where I wasn’t terribly active in the forums. I created my current account in an effort to both be more anonymous, as well as because I was no longer using the email address that I had set the account you see the confirmation for below.
Here’s a screenshot from when I created my original account from my old gmail address. I created my first account in June of 2008.
Pass muster?
Before Keurig really took off, Senseo and Folgers Home Cafe were both trying hard to be the dominant pod coffeemaker and both used essentially the same standard ESE pod (basically just coffee in a paper filter pod) that were easily compostable. I worked on the Home Cafe for a few years and its hardware was truly awful, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the pods were, well, Folgers. In terms of environmental impact, Senseo is a great choice.
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I buy the Senseo Java pods on Amazon and they come in marked in Dutch bags 48 pods to a bag. Really fresh package dates and it’s delicious coffee from Douwe Egberts in Holland. Not folgers. Cheap too.
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Huh. Hadn’t heard that. Probably buy one now even though I don’t need it.
I heard that Keurig bought Senseo and deliberately killed it to avoid the competition. So I was surprised to see them reappear last year. Maybe they just bought the licensing for a specific term. Either way I have great Dutch coffee with no plastic.
Weird, I get the opposite effect. When I use my blank pod insert with Starbucks French Roast, I get a stronger cup of coffee than with the Starbucks French Roast commercial pod.
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Or, perhaps, blind like some of my clients and relatives, who find it difficult to make “real coffee” and still keep an tidy kitchen.
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here’s one article about it, but google yields many more:
https://cremacoffeegarage.com.au/blog/italian-icon-bialetti-company-facing-bankruptcy
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The last time I checked, for licensed K-Cups, the breakdown for the amount of coffee in a pod was something like:
Starbucks has more than Extra Bold has more than Regular pods.
For unlicensed pods, their could be anything in them. Some will be better, some will be worse depending on supplier. (Price is frequently a good indication of what you’re getting, but not always.)
But, it’s not fair to compare a Keurig machine to another machine type or method of making a cup. At least not they way we typically compare the quality of a cup. The goals of the two systems are not the same.
It’s also what makes the Keurig Carafe full pot of coffee stupid. Once you’ve done that, unless you’re brewing the entire thing into a travel mug, you’ve defeated all the reasons for a Keurig and might as well use a different method.
I own Keurig, multiple pour overs, Aeropress, french press, automatic drip machine. Each has a different use case and different goal. Some of them prioritize the final product and some of them prioritize other things.
Most days, I make 30 oz of coffee with a pour over into a thermal carafe using fresh ground beans. Give half to my wife in a travel mug and drink the other half. If we have company, use the bigger filter and carafe for 60 oz of coffee instead. I’ve prioritized the freshness and the quantity, but it takes 5-10 minutes for the entire process from start to end and involves a small amount of clean up.
If I’m in a more espresso like mood, the Aeropress comes out instead. It takes about the same time, but now I have to clean up 2 Aeropresses or do 2 cups in sequence extending the time.
For just 1 cup, I might still do pour over or Aeropress if I have the 5 minutes. But, if I’m in a hurry, the 40 seconds of Keurig can’t be beat. If the machine is off, the start up time might eliminate this advantage completely and push me to the single pour over instead.
If my wife wants a cup before I get up and make the “good” coffee, she’ll make a K-Cup as filler cup that doesn’t require any effort.
I rarely use the french press. It feels like a bigger pain to clean than the pour over for about the same output.
Since I’ve started using the different size pour overs, the automatic machine has been in storage. It’s big advantage was just the timer function, that I never really liked. But, none of the other methods let you set it up the night before and automatically start if that’s your priority.
But, none of those are really the scenario where a Keurig comes out ahead. It’s lots of different types of coffee served to different individuals over time without any prep or cleanup time, AND without having to have anything sitting already made on standby. Basically an office environment. Where eliminating any chance of spilled water, burnt coffee, hot plates holding glass carafes, and making the entire process automated are the goal. The coffee only needs to be “good enough”, since all the rest are the priority items.
Offices, car dealerships, doctors offices, basically any waiting room where people come and go. Those are the target area. Same reason it works in a hotel room, where they want to minimize the chance of spilled water, coffee grounds and don’t want a hot plate left on.
If someone’s house works like one of those places, it’s probably a good fit. Or, if someone’s personal scenario values the process more than the output.
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I think you might have solved the US government shutdown problem. That is a serious WALL of text.
Totally my bad.
It didn’t start that way, but kind of got out of hand… For others, just stop after the third line. 
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It ain’t no worse than the blog posts where there is no jump and I have to scroll through pages of text to get to the next post. (Which a lot of times is 3 sentences and a jump, so I zip right past it.)
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You could be right – I’ve never owned one of these machines – but it is hard to compare like for like. For example, Starbucks probably grinds their coffee for these pods with a roller mill, which is impossible to duplicate at home, even with a $1000 burr grinder.
I meant the tea.
I didn’t realize Keurig claimed their machines can make tea, that’s just bizarre. I feel like I’m cheating when I use bags.
This piques my curiosity. I have some Bewley’s en route from Ireland, if it arrives before I forget this topic I’ll try grinding it finer and running it through our espresso machine. (It is a commercial machine, and I have a triple basket somewhere I can use to beef up the quantity.) I don’t want to tea-up my burr grinders, but I have a blade whacker somewhere that I mainly use to grind shellac. I don’t suppose a little shellac residue will hurt the tea?
