I agree, but I do use the Keurig without a pod to add water to my hot chocolate mix. Much easier than heating water on the stove or microwave.
I like Keurig coffee, using almost any brand of pod, better than drip coffee, but not nearly as good as coffee made in a percolator.
This! Fresh coffee in refillable pods is world’s better than prepackaged pods! It’s much better than drip, and only just under French press. You really wouldn’t believe the difference without trying it. My favorite this month is Peet’s Major Dickason blend, but tastes are pretty personal. Actually, their pre-filled pods are a lot better than most pods, but fresh coffee in refillable pods are the way to go.
I’m sorry but I’m laughing at the idea that you think stale grounds can make a decent cup of coffee. Sure, I’ll drink any kind of coffee occasionally for convenience, but solely for convenience.
Beans that have been ground in a factory, packaged, and stored on a shelf for who knows how long cannot make good coffee. Period. If you aren’t grinding it just before brewing, then you’re not making good coffee. You might get to “good enough,” but never “good.”
Show me a pod that is date stamped for roasting and grinding and I’ll consider it.
You know you can brew a single cup of fresh coffee right? No one has to brew a drop of coffee they’re not going to drink.
Thanks for noting this.
My starting position is that I would never use pods, because they seem horrible for the environment. However, it seemed kind of thread-shitty to say so in this thread. You’ve provided a positive spin on this particular concern.
Ignoring any possible environmental issues, I probably wouldn’t use pods for freshness or taste concerns (I use up coffee quite quickly, and I’m not a snob, I’m content with the taste of Costco or even Signature brand), but convenience - that I could go for.
I believe they are compostable for me because we have a municipal compost service. I would not use the cup kind, and if my municipality told me not put the compostable ones in the compost, I’d probably switch back to a French press, which is a pain (for me).
I’ve always said that I’m not a coffee snob – kind of the opposite. I don’t like coffee enough to drink bad coffee.
I got the Keurig when I went back to work after being at home full-time with twins for their first 2.5 years. I needed simple, no mess coffee, quickly. It’s worked great for that, but I could make a switch now if I needed to. It’s also what we have at work, so whenever I head back to the office, I wouldn’t be likely to get away from it completely.
So, I agree with the concern about the environment, and compostable pods are not a perfect solution, but I use them to mitigate the impact, I guess.
Oh, also, I drink exactly one cup per day. I don’t know that I’d stick with pods if I were tossing multiple ones per day.
I’m far from a coffee connoisseur, but the pod coffee I’ve tasted from a Keurig compared unfavorably to instant. If pod coffee was all that was available I think I’d pass entirely.
Each to their own, though.
As for composting coffee, I do that with grounds from our drip coffeemaker, using a composting barrel. There’s some evidence that uncomposted grounds added directly to the garden may harm plants.
Why does everyone seem to have such an aversion to buying a refillable plastic pod and putting fresh coffee in it?
I did that at work for a while. It still made crappy coffee. IMHO
^What kind of coffee beans did you use?
I wanted something easier and quicker than a French press. If I have to grind, fill, and clean, I’d rather have French press coffee.
Also, my spouse can’t seem to put the plastic pod in the right way, so it keeps getting extra holes punched in it, and then I get grounds in my coffee.
I used stuff I ground at home in my Burr grinder, recently roasted by my fave coffee roaster.
All the Keurig machine does is heat up water and pump it through. Some machines even let you set the temperature. They all let you choose the amount of water you use per cup. It’s hard to see what the problem was. It’s basically a forced-drip coffee.
I’d had high hopes for it, but it made crappy coffee out of decent coffee grounds. So I moved on. But I did and do endorse using reusable pods. I even bought a bunch for the office, for others to use. stupid people kept punching holes in them by not aligning them right, of course
Communal office coffee appliances of any stripe are rarely if ever cleaned, and the pod-based ones particularly, I’d imagine. That could be a contributing factor to people not liking the coffee it produces.
I don’t want to deal with the inconvenience of another appliance that needs to be cleaned and maintained.
No matter what you use to make coffee will have to be cleaned. Nespressos and Keurigs can be used for several servings before thorough cleaning, But then you have to get the special cleaning supplies.
French presses are easy to clean but you have to clean them every time. I have found a great compromise by using filter bags in French presses. Much faster cleaning. Much neater and actually a much cleaner cup of coffee because the paper filter is much better than the reusable metal mesh filter on the plunger.
Lately I’ve been using the Clever Coffee Dripper, which is a breeze to clean and easy to use and makes exactly one cup of coffee. It’s like the perfect compromise between French press and pour over, with the advantages of both, and without the drawbacks of either.
If you want some kind of electrical system, there are probably a dozen good choices, variations on the old Mr. Coffee style automatic dripper, and all capable of making a single cup.
There are a few dozen ways to make coffee these days.
As I said, the pod-based machines can be used to make decent coffee, BUT ONLY IF you fill the pod with fresh coffee yourself.
Best K-cup coffee pod I’ve found is Cafe Bustelo. I buy a box of 12 whenever I go on a road trip as many of the hotels I stay in have Keurig machines for in-room coffee.
If you don’t like espresso-style coffee then I don’t think there’s a way to make it do what you want to do. Frankly, I don’t like espresso, so I don’t like what comes out of those machines.
I want real, brewed coffee. You can’t pressurise and speed up brewing to make coffee that I will like. You’ve got to let it steep for five minutes, like tea.
A question for all you Keurig users…did the continuous generation of mainly non-recyclable garbage enter into your thoughts about the product before you bought it?