^^^^exactly!
Yes, you are.
I use a Rocket Espresso Giotto Premium Plus machine and I grind my own beans. It makes an excellent coffee.
Picture of the machine
https://www.baressoshop.se/7886-thickbox_default/rocket-espresso-giotto-premium-plus.jpg
With all the attendant tasks of rinsing and cleaning that comes with an Aeropress or a French Press. The only advantage a pod machine enjoys is the convenience of not having to do that (and like most convenience items, you pay the price in terms of cost and environmental consequences). Even the inventor of the Kuerig hates how popular the machines have become, link.
““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.”
Pretty telling that the guy who invented the thing doesn’t own one. The article goes into much more detail of the environmental waste and costs more deeply. For people that really like or respect the process of making coffee, a K-cup or Tassimo is something that they’ll resort to out of desperation rather than choice.
Personally, I hate the whole idolatry of convenience. I’ll take quality over convenience, and I don’t mind spending a bit more to get it. I know there is a place for fast and cheap and that a fast drink is more important than waiting ten minutes for a really good espresso, but that doesn’t mean I have to like or support it.
I wouldn’t get a Keurig machine for home, but it’s the only option where I work.
It’s not a terrible option for workplaces where only a few cups get drunk throughout the day, provided you use real coffee, not the prepackaged pods. It has some other advantages at work. No one ever gets stuck with the burnt dregs of a drip coffeepot, no one has to make a new pot because the previous person left 1/4 cup behind so they wouldn’t have to, no one grabs a cup while the pot begins brewing meaning everyone else gets watered down java, etc.
The people I know who have one at home are people who really aren’t much into coffee - maybe one cup in the morning. To each his own.
Bah. A lot of Keureg haters here I see.
I like a good coffee. I have a french press and use it occasionally. We have a drip coffee maker that grinds the beans automatically just before brewing. I have purchased expensive coffee beans like Jamaican Blue Mountain searching for the ultimate cup of coffee.
We now have.a Keureg, and love it. You have to find the right coffee, and set up the machine correctly, but if you do, you can get a surprisingly good cup of coffee from it.
Some hints: first, don’t buy the newest, V2.0 Keurig. That thing only exists because the patent expired on the original K-cups, which means the original Keureg design has oodles of 3rd party coffees available, but the new version is tightly controlled by Keureg (and more expensive).
Second, make sure you get a machine that has adjustable brewing temperature, and set it as high as it will go, which I think for ours was 195 degrees. That’s not quite the optimum temperature for brewing, but it’s close.
You can get a reusable gold foil pod for the 1.0 machine and use your own coffee in it if you are opposed to the plastic pre-filled pods. But the waste they produce is very minimal.
Adjust the cup size on the machine to give you the strength you want.
I like Timothy’s breakfast blend when buying pre-packaged pods. Is it as the best fresh coffee from a French Press? Maybe not. But it’s certainly better than an excellent pot of coffee after it’s been sitting on a heating element for an hour. And it requires no cleanup and does not create extra coffee that might eventually get poured down the drain.
These comments do not apply to the Tassimo machine. We had one for a while and gave it away, as the coffee that came out of it was horrible,
Wow, that looks pricey! French Press $24.99+tax and shipping.