That the K-cup is no longer exclusive to Keurig, and that you can get a reusable K-cup is beside the point. The whole thing, like this week’s shaving system and Swiffers, is to get you to pay a premium price from a controlled source for something that was formerly somewhere between free and open-market cheap.
It really isn’t about quality, or selection, or convenience - it’s about a manufacturer/marketing machine having found a way to sell a $20 machine for $100 and then suck another $500 out of the lucky buyer.
This post makes no sense. We grind our own coffee at home and run it through the reusable cup…it costs the same as running it through any other coffee maker.
It’s ideal for workplaces so there’s never dregs left burning in the pot when you go to get a cup. Or for office waiting rooms. Otherwise, I really dislike them, as I prefer to brew my own. But I can see the appeal for someone who drinks very little coffee now that the coffee selection isn’t so limited anymore.
I could see liking it if you only drink a cup of coffee now and again. I don’t drink coffee every day, but when I do, I’m in it for the long haul, meaning 4-6 8 oz servings. I got one of the Senseo pod machines for free back when they were marketing it heavily and looking for people who answered their online survey in whatever way they were looking for. (I’m assuming they were looking for “tastemakers” or something similar. People who would market the product for them.)
Anyhow, I got it, and it did the job fine. But the pods were fucking expensive, and the hacks I Googled to make it accept your own grind of coffee wasn’t worth the time or effort, I never got the grind just right so the coffee that came out tasted right, and I didn’t like having to go to the machine every time I finished my cup of coffee. I just went back to using a French press which could at least give me two or three servings at a time.
But if I’m at a friend’s house and want a single cup of coffee, it’s really convenient. Put the pod in, and within a minute or so, you have hot brewed coffee. I definitely see the appeal. Doesn’t work for me, unfortunately.
The expense bothers me, but surely it’s understandable that the convenience appeals to people, particularly not having to throw away the wet stinky grounds.
the taste is far superior and you can put in as much grinds as you want. and if you drink coffee every day, why the hell do you need to measure the grinds? you should be able to eyeball it.
The vast number of Keurig buyers will never use a refillable cup, and will thus keep buying the packaged units at a greatly inflated price, and with less selection of quality brew, and without getting the genuine quality improvement of freshly ground beans. They’re paying more (probably a lot more) to get less, and being convinced it’s a better way.
Just like 5-blade razors, mop wipes and all the other new! improved! things whose primary purpose is to sell overpriced disposable components.
Sorta. My company is involved in manufacturing, and we have some contracts with similar coffee companies (but not Keurig). Some (many? most? maybe) of these companies are looking to embed RFIDs in the cups - if you get a machine that detects these tags, and you’re using a “generic” cup that doesn’t have the RFID, the machine won’t work.
So yeah, they’re definitely looking to lock you into buying a proprietary disposable. I’m sure someone will find a way around it, should the tagged cups really be implemented, but they’re definitely looking for these types of solutions.
I have one of those too. It’s far easier to make one cup’s worth of coffee in a full size coffee maker than go through the painful process of scooping a tiny amount of coffee into the reusable pod; making coffee, then having to clean up the pod.
I’ve long maintained that if people would make coffee at home with a measuring cup instead of a measuring spoon they’d see how easy it really is. At home I use 1/2 cup, 1/4, and 1/8 cup of coffee grounds to make a full pot, half pot and quarter pot of coffee. I never need smaller than that.
Keurig pods cost roughly $.40 apiece. That’s 40 cents for a 6 oz cup of coffee. Yes, some Keurig models can brew 6, 8, or 10 ozs; but it’s still 40 cents apiece. I just did a quick search on Amazon and found some coffee for less that $20 for 48 ozs; which will make 380 cups of coffee. That comes out to about 6 cents per cup. So, paying 6 times as much for a cup of coffee that tastes worse than what I can make at home with store brand coffee, is one of many reasons why I don’t like Keurigs.
That’s crazy math. The jump from home brewed pot coffee to Keurig is roughly 6X; the jump from Keurig to Dunkin Donuts is what, 2-4X at most? If your option was truly to save money there’s a lot bigger savings by brewing it in the pot.
I’ve heard that some people pay others to brew coffee, and pay even more than a K-Cup costs. Can you believe it!? Apparently there are shops for this all over the place. :eek:
A brewed pot of coffee ounces costs less than one dollar (actually closer to 60 cents). The same amount of brewed Keuring coffee would be over $4.00. Other than a small amount of convenience, I don’t see any other reason to pick Keurig over a fresh brewed pot.
Haha, Why that’s just CRAZY I tell you! Going to a Charbucks is actually the same reasons to use a Keurig. Convenience. In the olden days you’d have to go inside a restaurant and get a cup of coffee To-Go.
Just tape one with the RFID to the front of the machine and Bob’s your Uncle.
My problem with Keurig and the like is that I want a really strong cup of coffee. Not a bitter one, like what they put in those “Bold” labeled k-cups, but a cup made with lots of smooth delicious coffee grounds. Even the reusable pod doesn’t have enough room in it for the amount of grounds I’d want. When I worked in an office with a Keurig machine I kept instant coffee at my desk and added some to every cup.
I also like caffeine in my coffee. Call me crazy, but that’s largely the point in my book. The Keurig process (like espresso, incidentally) pushes very hot water through the grounds quickly, which is good for releasing flavor, but doesn’t give the caffeine time to soak out.The length of time the hot water is in contact with the grounds defintiely drives the percentage of available caffeine which makes it’s way into your cup.
Even though my company provides coffee to the masses (and cola too); my group always kept our own coffee pot because we wanted good coffee. Our VP would occasionally swing around in the afternoon hope we had the after lunch pot brewing; but frequently we didn’t make it that day or we already polished it off. So last December, he bought us a Keurig. Which really meant he bought himself one, so he could come by at the odd hour of the day and get a fresh hot cup. We bitched about the cost but our office services department happened to have two gigantic boxes of K Cups that were given to them by a local distributor; and they were going to throw them out since we were a Non Keurig office. Bingo; we had free coffee (and tea, and several other products) for the better part of a year. Now that we exhausted our supply, our VP is allowing our Admin Asst to expense K Cups. Newman’s special blend isn’t bad.
That being said; I still prefer a brewed pot of coffee for the taste; but free Keurig isn’t too bad. I bought the reusable KCup when we first ran out of the free stuff. It’s only a marginal pain in the ass to use… but still a pain in the ass.
Newman’s special blend isn’t bad.