Yeah, no, totally, I grumbled and even attempted to organize against the K-cup machine for a while, but gave up. Personally, I drink tea, and just fill up my mug with water and nuke it. My boss tried to get the tea k-cups for me, but I drew the line at that. Nothing could be more convenient than a teabag. I see why my colleagues use the k-cup, though, and they’re brilliant, caring, conscientious and hardworking people, so the fact that they can’t shake this habit makes me a little hopeless about it.
I dunno man, I’ve seen the ads for those things. The guy looks Swedish, but he has this totally plummy English accent. The coffee must be very high quality!
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Make a pot and reheat, if necessary, but: recycle, reduce, reuse. 
It isn’t that bizarre. At my large University department I think I counted six different drip coffee makers in various stages of decrepitude and inoperative abandonment, likely all brought by various well intentioned graduate students or post-docs. Of unknown ownership, they get neglected, the owner moves on in their career, then they get scary. Then people end up going to the coffee shop the next building over to get their brew with a disposable paper cup, paper sleeve and plastic lid.
I can see the appeal of Keurigs.
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Thats not what happened. What happened was in the Dean’s office, where we had a drip machine connected to the water supply and hard wired in… they took that out and replaced it with a hard wired in Kcup machine. They have a coffee service that delivers all the sugar, cups, creamer, and now instead of the drip coffee and filters they bring the kcups in various “flavours”.
I can see the appeal of keurigs, but I don’t like them and I despair a little that they are so freaking popular.
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They make bodums for single cups, and you can do pour over for one cup just as easily and it tastes much better.
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But you don’t use the reusable cup… so full force condescension.
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We used to have one! But a prof broke the steamer! PhDs should not be allowed to work the photocopier or the espresso machine!
I too use an aeropress.
I am very satisfied with the coffee that comes out of the Aeropress. Plus I’m the only coffee drinker in the house so overall the impact of using the Aeropress vs just about any other method (except French Press) is probably less - as you said, only a single tiny paper filter.
Interestingly, I [re]saw Vietnamese coffee the other day, and started to buy one of the little metal drip things, and realized I can do almost the same thing with the Aeropress. So it’s multifunctional, too!
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Oddly enough, they can be washed. I didn’t learn this until I was married.
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I was thought about buying a Keurig, but bought a Moka Pot instead. The only waste is the coffee grounds. I can see using a Keurig in an office setting though,
My company has four always-on coffee machines that brew into a reservoir of endless free coffee. I made the mistake of actually smelling the company coffee after getting a cup and noticed it smelled like cigarette ashes. Not sure how that happens. Most employees walk to the Dutch Bros across the street for $4 coffee in disposable cups, plastic lids and over-sized straws (that’s the Dutch Bro way). I can’t imagine k-cups would be any more wasteful than that.
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If this is true, why are virtually all American (or 110 V for that matter) kettles really slow? Why do Japanese rice cookers (~110 V) take 3 times as long as those cheap imported Chinese ones you can buy in Europe (230 V)? You’d think the Japanese could figure this one out since every single household has a rice cooker? Are they just afraid of blowing fuses/setting their wiring on fire (more current = more heat)?
All that stuff that got thrown away generated emissions when it was manufactured, transported, and then it takes up space.
Less plastic waste means less plastic made.
Also, and this may be bunk, I was under the impression that most electric kettles don’t really have a transformer built in, meaning the heating element is more or less directly attached to the power outlet = mains voltage.
I agree with you here, Nathan. My Bodum french press makes a mess in coffee grounds and takes more time to actually maintain than my Senseo, so it gets used when I want to savour the coffee, but the Senseo reigns as the morning “make my pre-commute drink” machine. And the Senseo system with each portion in its own paper filter is only acceptable because making a full pot means more waste in the sense of coffee I brew but don’t drink.
The Nespresso and Tassimo systems are the only other two systems that I am aware of, and they seem to celebrate the waste they generate. The grounds stay within their little metal capsules, and at least with my Senseo I can put it in the organic bin or in a compost heap (if I had a garden instead of a flat in the city).
It is a calculated pain in the ass from some companies. They want to restrict you to only buying from their approved suppliers, which means you know it will be shipped more. I’ll stick to the compromises that I have now as they seem to be the best for my particular situation, and just keep hoping more consider their own situ as well.
I think nowadays the proper term is “hipster”. Unless you are an old fart like me, then it is either “grumpy bastard” for conservative or “dirty hippy” for liberal/conservationist standpoints.
I agree with you there, that for things like an office with intermittent consumption the waste might actually be balanced. For the record, my office has a midrange self-grinder, but we’re small so one of the models made for home kitchens is enough.
You can’t have one in your cubicle in UK either, health and safety they say! Who thinks having a little pot boiling at my desk, next to my laptop and the 4-way is dangerous needs to get his head examined!
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Seems to require a lot of water to clean the filter of a French press.
The disposal is only half the problem.
That’s a whole lot of plastic production for minor convenience. The kind f thing we’ll look back on in 50 years and feel sick about. Even recycling is a dirty process, it’s just better than landfill.
Not that a lot of other things don’t fall into that category, mind you.
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