6 ms·

Nobody should be promoting this inferior, environmentally disastrous product on this site, really. Makes terrible coffee, the pod design is not recyclable, and

by Bud 12y ago

Nobody should be promoting this inferior, environmentally disastrous product on this site, really. Makes terrible coffee, the pod design is not recyclable, and hot water + plastic is a bad equation both for coffee quality and for human health. Edit to add: I do of course concede that DRM is evil regardless of context and must be defeated.

Dylan16807 12y ago
Inferior to what? What's wrong with the biodegradable pods used as an example?
- cmurf 12y ago
  It'll be inferior to any closely fresh (brewed within a week of grinding, let alone same day) coffee with normal tap water in a standard issue glass press pot (French press). These pods still take energy to extract, produce, ship, decompose/recycle this waste of convenience. The coffee inside will be more oxidized, less fresh, brewed at incorrect time and temperature. The point of coffee is the flavor, but all too often it's merely a delivery system for caffeine.
  - gonewest 12y ago
    +1
- Bud 12y ago
  Inferior to basically any other method of brewing coffee. Even among pod systems, for instance, it's markedly inferior in quality and environmental impact to, say, Nespresso, which uses all-aluminum pods which are fully recyclable (Nespresso even composts the coffee inside the pods). Nothing's wrong with the biodegradable pods, although those aren't going to be ideal for quality either, and those are a tiny slice of the market. The simple fact is that this is an awful product that is doing vast amounts of environmental damage. Read up a bit yourself and you will see what I mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_K-Cups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_K-Cups
  - freshyill 12y ago
    Inferior except in convenience. All of your other points are still completely valid.
  - morganvachon 12y ago
    I have a Keurig at home, and I exclusively use the reusable metal mesh filters you can find right next to the machines themselves at the supermarket. The only thing that gets "thrown out" when using those are old coffee grounds, and I don't throw those away, they get added to my garden soil for extra nutrients[1]. I realize that I'm probably in the minority among Keurig owners, and I certainly wish the company itself would be more responsible and make 100% recyclable pods. The way I see it though, the machines themselves are nearly loss-leaders; Green Mountain (parent company of Keurig) makes almost all of its money on the throwaway pods, and they aren't getting a dime out of me. [1] http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/starbucks-coffee-compost-test http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/starbucks-coffee...
    - daxelrod 12y ago
      At that point, why do you use a Keurig at all? What's the benefit besides the convenience of the pre-measured, pre-ground pods?
      - VLM 12y ago
        Instant hot. You can buy a instant hot water dispenser for your sink, and decades ago they were really cool and lasted for a decade, but the modern ones are all precision engineered for maximum profit to fail in less than a year, requiring plumbing work to replace. There are desktop hot water dispenser products but they cost about as much as a loss leader k-cup machine. Also my wife has one of those re-usable coffee grounds things but sometimes you just want a quick cup and don't want to fool around. Today I'm running late and if I had an extra 5 minutes I'd stop at starbucks and blow $5 instead of 0.50 on this disposable cup or $0.005 on home ground. I drink black tea and I have an emergency stash of tea kcups. I think it slightly inferior but not that bad. It is much more bitter than my looseleaf home brewed. Obviously my kcup tea always tastes kinda coffee-ish which is a little gross.
- abcd_f 12y ago
  Nespresso pods are aluminum and they have a recycling program in place if you don't feel like going to the aluminum recycling depot yourself.
shaftoe 12y ago
Are you going to come clean the office coffee pot when it's been left stewing for 16 hours?
- Bud 12y ago
  You might want to read about the really nasty bacterial films that grow inside Keurig machines, and which can't be removed. The office coffee pot can at least be cleaned. And so can all the various hipster drip systems that are en vogue right now.
  - freshyill 12y ago
    When I had a Keurig, there were two little blue LEDs under the water tank. Every once in a while, I would notice some little green bits of algae (or something) would grow on the bottom of the tank, directly above the lights. They kept coming back even after I would thoroughly clean it.
colordrops 12y ago
I can definitely taste the plastic from the hot water on those cups. I started drinking from the barista in our office even though it meant walking a couple flights of stairs and waiting in line, but it's definitely worth it.
jamessb 12y ago
I agree, but wanted to point out that "hot water + plastic" is not necessarily "a bad equation for coffee quality": the aeropress is polypropylene and produces very good coffee.
Normati 12y ago
Next, I hope somebody hacks the Tesla Model S low-battery-capacity model to provide full battery capacity without having to pay for it. After all Tesla is using evil DRM to force people to pay a premium to use what they already have. Edit: I see they don't offer that option anymore. Problem solved :)
the_ancient 12y ago
You do understand this site sell Biodegradable Cups that are not authorized by Kuerig thus the need for the Freedom Clip
failed_ideas 12y ago
Sure they should. I have 3 and they make pretty good coffee. I grind my own beans in a burr-mill grinder, fill a little paper filter that fits in an EZ-cup cup, and presto, a good cup of coffee that pops into the trash. It allows me to have a maker upstairs in my den and at my desk in the office. I want a tasty bit of convenient caffeine. I'm not looking to be a coffee snob, and the environmental impact is no net carbon greater than any other method. It's actually significantly better than Starbucks, which would be the alternative where I work.

by Bud 12y ago

Dylan16807 12y ago

Inferior to what? What's wrong with the biodegradable pods used as an example?

cmurf 12y ago
It'll be inferior to any closely fresh (brewed within a week of grinding, let alone same day) coffee with normal tap water in a standard issue glass press pot (French press). These pods still take energy to extract, produce, ship, decompose/recycle this waste of convenience. The coffee inside will be more oxidized, less fresh, brewed at incorrect time and temperature. The point of coffee is the flavor, but all too often it's merely a delivery system for caffeine.
- gonewest 12y ago
  +1
Bud 12y ago
Inferior to basically any other method of brewing coffee. Even among pod systems, for instance, it's markedly inferior in quality and environmental impact to, say, Nespresso, which uses all-aluminum pods which are fully recyclable (Nespresso even composts the coffee inside the pods). Nothing's wrong with the biodegradable pods, although those aren't going to be ideal for quality either, and those are a tiny slice of the market. The simple fact is that this is an awful product that is doing vast amounts of environmental damage. Read up a bit yourself and you will see what I mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_K-Cups http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_K-Cups
- freshyill 12y ago
  Inferior except in convenience. All of your other points are still completely valid.
- morganvachon 12y ago
  I have a Keurig at home, and I exclusively use the reusable metal mesh filters you can find right next to the machines themselves at the supermarket. The only thing that gets "thrown out" when using those are old coffee grounds, and I don't throw those away, they get added to my garden soil for extra nutrients[1]. I realize that I'm probably in the minority among Keurig owners, and I certainly wish the company itself would be more responsible and make 100% recyclable pods. The way I see it though, the machines themselves are nearly loss-leaders; Green Mountain (parent company of Keurig) makes almost all of its money on the throwaway pods, and they aren't getting a dime out of me. [1] http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/starbucks-coffee-compost-test http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/starbucks-coffee...
  - daxelrod 12y ago
    At that point, why do you use a Keurig at all? What's the benefit besides the convenience of the pre-measured, pre-ground pods?
    - VLM 12y ago
      Instant hot. You can buy a instant hot water dispenser for your sink, and decades ago they were really cool and lasted for a decade, but the modern ones are all precision engineered for maximum profit to fail in less than a year, requiring plumbing work to replace. There are desktop hot water dispenser products but they cost about as much as a loss leader k-cup machine. Also my wife has one of those re-usable coffee grounds things but sometimes you just want a quick cup and don't want to fool around. Today I'm running late and if I had an extra 5 minutes I'd stop at starbucks and blow $5 instead of 0.50 on this disposable cup or $0.005 on home ground. I drink black tea and I have an emergency stash of tea kcups. I think it slightly inferior but not that bad. It is much more bitter than my looseleaf home brewed. Obviously my kcup tea always tastes kinda coffee-ish which is a little gross.
abcd_f 12y ago
Nespresso pods are aluminum and they have a recycling program in place if you don't feel like going to the aluminum recycling depot yourself.

shaftoe 12y ago

Are you going to come clean the office coffee pot when it's been left stewing for 16 hours?

Bud 12y ago
You might want to read about the really nasty bacterial films that grow inside Keurig machines, and which can't be removed. The office coffee pot can at least be cleaned. And so can all the various hipster drip systems that are en vogue right now.
- freshyill 12y ago
  When I had a Keurig, there were two little blue LEDs under the water tank. Every once in a while, I would notice some little green bits of algae (or something) would grow on the bottom of the tank, directly above the lights. They kept coming back even after I would thoroughly clean it.

colordrops 12y ago

I can definitely taste the plastic from the hot water on those cups. I started drinking from the barista in our office even though it meant walking a couple flights of stairs and waiting in line, but it's definitely worth it.

jamessb 12y ago

I agree, but wanted to point out that "hot water + plastic" is not necessarily "a bad equation for coffee quality": the aeropress is polypropylene and produces very good coffee.

Normati 12y ago

Next, I hope somebody hacks the Tesla Model S low-battery-capacity model to provide full battery capacity without having to pay for it. After all Tesla is using evil DRM to force people to pay a premium to use what they already have. Edit: I see they don't offer that option anymore. Problem solved :)

the_ancient 12y ago

You do understand this site sell Biodegradable Cups that are not authorized by Kuerig thus the need for the Freedom Clip

failed_ideas 12y ago

Sure they should. I have 3 and they make pretty good coffee. I grind my own beans in a burr-mill grinder, fill a little paper filter that fits in an EZ-cup cup, and presto, a good cup of coffee that pops into the trash. It allows me to have a maker upstairs in my den and at my desk in the office. I want a tasty bit of convenient caffeine. I'm not looking to be a coffee snob, and the environmental impact is no net carbon greater than any other method. It's actually significantly better than Starbucks, which would be the alternative where I work.