9 years ago
16
A Brewing Problem - How Bad Are K-Cups For The Environment?
“I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use,” John Sylvan told me frankly, of Keurig K-Cups, the single-serve brewing pods that have fundamentally changed the coffee experience in recent years. “Plus it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make.” Which would seem like a pretty banal sentiment, were Sylvan not the inventor of the K-Cup.
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http://www.theatlantic.com
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I always wondered why Nespresso made a big thing of recycling their pods. Never knew K-cups weren't.
Seems like a pretty damning article, kind of like that video and hashtag seemed like they might hurt. However... I guess the convenience factor trumps all. It would be nice if something like this would cause the company to go into panic mode.
A lot of money made in convenience. Just look at 7-eleven selling things at 3x the price and thriving in sales.
Some people just don't give a shit about what they are doing to the planet. For them, there are K-cups.
Those assholes. What's wrong with a french press and freshly ground coffee... It literally takes an extra 3 minutes of effort.
French press definitely takes more than 3 minutes from boiling the water to cleanup. Also, you either have to use a plastic French press or worry about breaking glass in morning (RIP my old French press) and there's no guarantee of a consistent cup of coffee. A refillable K-cup is a very small price for mother earth - it'd take 30 seconds at most to refill a cup and stick in the machine. Then you have slightly less crappy coffee than a K-cup, convenience, and mother earth is happy.
In my experience, the quickest good cup of coffee is Aeropress. It's similar to a French press in some ways, but the coffee brews a much shorter time thanks to the added pressure. I've found I can brew a cup in about 2-3 minutes from grind to finished brew and cleanup. Cleanup is easier than French press because of the multiple parts, just rinse each with water and place on a drying towel. Its design also allows for thicker plastic pieces than a plastic French press and there almost no cases of it cracking (like plastic French presses tend to do).
What I meant by 3 minutes is the actual work/engagement that goes into it. But yeah, total time from grinding to finished cup and cleanup is definitely not 3 minutes.
BTW - I was being sarcastic with the above comment, I really need to put /sarcasm tags on those. I keep forgetting!
For personal use I agree, but in an office situation nobody's going to grind their coffee or bring a french press. Seems like one of those fully automatic coffee makers would be ideal in that situation, same convenience, better taste, less waste, definitely more expensive at first but cheaper over time.
Indeed, for office situations I absolutely agree that a french press would be out of the question.
Convenience usually comes at a big price.
I don't really understand the appeal of these machines. The coffee isn't even that good.
I think it's quite clear the appeal - convenience, time, and no cleanup. A disposable K-cup makes it a tiny less bit convenient and makes a small possibility of a mess, but if that 20 seconds it takes to fill a K-cup is too much for someone, then I don't know what to say.
Last time I checked Keurig tried to kill the disposable k-cup with their 2.0 machine. Seems like they really don't care about the viability of their business model, especially from an environmental perspective.
Neither do I really
What he really feels bad about is selling his entire stake for 50 grand. Ouch.
Now worth billions...