To Keurig Or NOT To Keurig, That IS The Question!

How we start our day!

     I have been a coffee drinker most of my life. I guess you could say I started in college because of the all nighters I would pull for my various Journalism classes and a memorable Philosophy 101 class where the dean finding out there were so many graduating seniors made us work like we were getting our masters! At least I didn't learn to smoke. I can remember editors at the student newspaper with a cigarette in their mouths and another in the nearby ashtray.

     And, at the good old age of 74 I watched the rise of Starbucks, Peet's and who knows who else. I never liked Starbucks, the regular coffee was too bitter, the lines went on forever and the cost was high and kept on increasing. I would marvel the few times I would go, usually at an airport, and be flabbergasted at the orders of the loyal patrons. I would ask myself, "How did they learn to order all that stuff? And all in one cup? Five bucks? Really?" Usually I would hunt down the McDonald's that actually had pretty good coffee that was faster to get and far cheaper. I don't want to buy the store!!!

I tried it again. It takes forever on an electric stove.

     Coffee though does evoke many emotions. People I've known over the years have all kinds of rituals in the storage and preparation of coffee. I can remember my grandmother always had a pot on the stove, drank it black and there was always pieces of eggshell in the grounds. Why? Who knows. That's the way they did it in South Dakota.

   For many years we had a Faberware percolator that could make 12 cups. It actually make good coffee, nothing fancy but strong enough to make you realize you were drinking a good, smooth, strong cup of coffee. I guess in around the 80's we got our first drip coffee maker. It was a bit faster and the coffee was ok. When I had my own business and often worked at home, I could easily drink half a pot and maybe more. It kept me going between taking the kids to school, calling on accounts, working on graphic design projects, picking up the kids and finally around 8 each night, running out of steam

Good old Mr. Coffee. You could even set it
to have the coffee ready when you woke up!

     I never needed an alarm. I just woke up at 4:00 am, made coffee, worked a bit, walked the dog, then got ready for the day. A cup would follow me in the truck as I took the kids to school and the ritual started all over again.

      I first became aware of the Keurig device from friends. It was a quantum design change in coffee delivery. There is always a childless couple in everyone's life and they were the first to have one. It was simple ... make sure there was water in the reservoir, put in one of the little white cups, select an ounce size for your cup and wait. It isn't fast. In fact I could make a 12 cup pot in about the same time this thing makes one cup.

     It sounds like a great deal until you look at the prices. They begin to approach Starbuck prices! I compared prices for Folgers that at a cost of (hopefully) $9.99 at Costco gives you about 260 cups of coffee per the pod price at the same store. Folgers runs you about 4¢ a cup depending on the current cost of coffee beans and can be more for fancier coffees including Starbucks in either ground or unground bags. The cheapest K-cup I have seen was 31¢ a cup with prices climbing to $1.61 each! If you don't believe me, go look at Costco. They have thoughtfully done the price comparisons for you.

Keurig B-2000

     Then there's the cost of the Keurig. It was originally developed for offices as a replacement for the dreaded pot of coffee that lingered all day on some burner that by 3:00 pm was strong enough to grow hair on the bald. However, it's one advantage, a good fresh cup of coffee also had a disadvantage, it took several minutes to brew a cup.

Early home use Keurig.
K-cups were part of the system.

       At some point people that used them at work began to agitate for coffeemakers they could use at home. The company was started in 1990 by Peter Dragone and John Sylvan. At one point they were a division of the Green Mountain Coffee bean company. It took until 2004 to create a machine that would be used at home. However, the K-cup was developed for offices in 1998 but became an integral part of the Keurig coffee system everywhere it was used.

     The patent for the K-cup expired in 2012 and the stampede was on. Unable to make the fat profits of before Green Mountain sold the company to an investor group that then sold it to Dr. Pepper for $18.7 billion. Keurig is such an important part of this company they changed the same to Keurig Dr.Pepper. In fact it was so lucrative Keurig tried in 2015 to introduce Keurig 2.0 that could only use licensed K-cups shutting out anyone that wouldn't pay royalties. There were so many complaints and threatened boycotts that it was soon withdrawn.

Take your choice. Everybody is making K-cups in every price range.

     But, I digress. I have used the Keurig at friends but being a coffeeholic I didn't want one. If I drank say 5 cups a day, my old totals, it would cost me $2.50 a day, each and every day, something I wasn't able to afford when I first moved to Palm Springs. However, after the move I realized that I was only drinking one or two cups a day, usually my first cup talking to a friend overseas. The need for and even the desire for more coffee seemed to have dissipated. I found that I was leaving more than half of the pot left each day. I would heat some up the next day in the microwave but as we all know it was well past it's prime.

     The other hindrance was the cost of the Keurig. Even the cheapest model with basically nothing to do but make one cup of coffee cost $100. You could buy a fancy Mr. Coffee for half and on Black Friday Sales a quarter of that. It was a little messier, yes, you had to dump the grounds each day but the cost was much, MUCH cheaper. And the grounds could be composted.

The Ambiano system:
K-cup holder, coffee filter

There is a lot of
coffee splatter 

     About a month ago, Aldi, the German grocery chain that has taken America by storm had a sale on a Keurig knockoff. For $30 you got the maker, the ability to use your own coffee or use a K-pod and a reservoir to hold enough water for several cups of coffee. You could chose 8 oz. and 16 oz. cup sizes. I bought one.

     It has actually been a fun adventure. You can get K-cups for every imaginable coffee, tea and even hot chocolate. But I also have noticed that it is a bit messy. As the water drips into the cup it splashes both in the cup and around the machine onto the counter. The cheapest K-cups I found after comparing prices at Costco, Aldi, Walmart and Amazon is about 20¢ a cup. And that coffee would be considered marginal by dedicated coffee drinkers. Each cup takes about 2 minutes set at 16 oz. and fills my cups at least to the brim. It's good I guess and other than wiping the counter each time, is simple.

9 billion a year end up in the dump.

     The downside to the K-cup however, is that it is estimated over 9 billion cups are sold each year. They consist of a plastic tub, coffee and a foil top that is punctured to release the coffee. It goes into the trash, then the landfill where it will live forever ... well, not maybe forever but for a long long time. It is so far not environmentally friendly by any stretch of the imagination. Sylvan, the inventor was quoted as saying that he wished now he had never invented the cup because it was terrible on the environment.

     So ... right now I have several drip coffee machines, an on the stove percolator that easily takes f  o  r  e  v  e  r, a French press in two sizes, an electric kettle for instant coffee and the Ambiaco K-cup coffee maker. I have only been using the Ambiaco for a few weeks now ... actually since the shelter in place order from the California governor. That though is another story! There really is no winner and I use one of these when the mood strikes me. Instant coffee is quite good these days (some) and the K-cup is a simple alternative as well. I do like that I can use any coffee I buy at a substantially cheaper cost though I admit it's not as simple as popping a cup in the holder, selecting the cup size and letting it rip ... actually drip.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!

   

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...."

 

   The opening words of THE TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens have ricocheted through my thoughts since about the beginning of the the COVID-19 crisis.

French Revolution

     Describing "the terror" of the French Revolution in 1789, a sad and far more violent revolution than the American version that spawned, it nevertheless offers words to address our current 21st Century.

     The 21st Century has not been kind to humankind. Starting with the great computer blackout in 2000 because no one thought to consider a new century of date counting with millions of Microsoft Window Computers, the soon to follow Internet crash of 2001-2002, a kind of new age Ponzi scheme, to the effects of 9/11 that changed the way we viewed travel and ourselves forever. The iPhone in 2007, a device David Pogue said would change everything and we, at Macworld in January of 2007 thought Steve Jobs and crew had smoked too much something in Silicon Valley. (Pogue was right, the iPhone and Android DID change everything in ways we still don't understand now). From China we had SARS, and MERS and H1N1, and now of course, COVID-19. Global warming became a reality from the scientists abstract as vast changes in weather and climate stalked the earth. Huge swathes of industry quit camp at home and went to China and other places in search of cheaper labor and more profits. Because of the ensuing pandemic world trade is coming to a standstill. Stock market exchanges around the world have crashed and so far 1/3 of all wealth has vanished overnight.

Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans under water

     We had terrible hurricanes and blizzards, historic floods, the population of the world seemed to be on the move, never-ending wars, democratic governments increasingly seem to fall before strongmen, some letting go and others holding on at a terrible human price, one economic rupture that nearly brought the world down in 2008-2009 and is now being brought down again by a pandemic. And to think, all this in only 20 years.

     Christians will find many words in their Bible about change. And let there be NO doubt, we are witnessing one of the biggest changes in humankind's history. One portion of the Bible that comes to mind to me is Ecclestiastes 3:1-8: For everything there is a season, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. (NIV).

See No Evil!

     Wise words but hardly comforting. Of soberer thought are Lincoln's words during the Civil War: "Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good."

 Many wise men and women have predicted these times. Eric Toffler predicted in the 1990's that the 21st Century would have the biggest migration of people than ever before in the history of the world. The great philosopher Santana wisely said, "Those who forget history are condemned to relive it. Even Gladstone in 1795 said, "The only thing necessary for evil to persist is for good men to do nothing."

Border issues are far greater than the US and Mexico.
Here immigrants try to get into Hungary!

     As I sit writing, sheltered in place, it is hard to accept the changes that are daily changing my life. Blame and counter blame is thrown around the world. Can we call it a Chinese pandemic? Is that racist? A Chinese friend, no less, noted when this started by asking, "why do all these terrible illnesses come from China and not, well, India?" Why? In this century four have erupted there and started to spread. This recent outbreak has been fast and devastating.

 XI: Pooh Bear No More

Even if the Chinese government doesn't accept blame for poor sanitary conditions is its many outdoor markets, I find it interesting that today, finally, the government gave a formal apology to both the family and co-workers of Dr. Li, the young eye doctor who blew the whistle about a new virus and paid for it with his life. Police who were involved in the attempted coverup are being punished but as the saying goes, too little too late! When I asked another Chinese friend about how this can happen he noted that there are many laws, even more than here but rather then enforcing them it's more of a Mafia style shakedown.

Is this our future of staying in place?
Wuhan interchange in a city of 11 million.

     WIRED magazine had a fascinating article years ago telling how a pandemic would spread. They said it would reach the entire world in 48 hours because, well, too many people travel around the world at any one time. While not exactly following the predicted path it has reached the entire world. And in places where it shouldn't.

China is already bailing out banks

     The blame, if there is really any to be had, is that we have all become interdependent, just as the breakdown in supply chains has clearly shown. While the west has cheerfully moved all it's production to China to let them deal with the smog and political fallout there, they have given up the right to call the shots in search of the cheapest price. Only it's not so cheap anymore if you can't get it. 
    The rise of far more aggressive governments, the rising cost of labor and transportation already had some looking for a new nest to roost in, places like Viet Nam, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, even countries in the Middle East. After this, it will most likely go from a trickle to a stampede. Companies simply cannot let themselves be caught again without an alternative source.

     And it isn't only the United States that has been living beyond it's means. China has a banking and real estate problem so deep that should it fail, as it clearly could in this crisis, Wall Street will have seen nothing yet. We might be glad of "only" losing a third of our wealth. Consider this, it took the stock of General Motors (GM) until 1953 to regain the value it had when Wall Street crashed in 1929. That's right, 24 years. 

Christmas? No, hoarding.

   What is even more inexcusable is the hoarding of important things the very doctors and medical people need are being hoarded just like the toilet paper we clearly do not need. Despite assurances that there is food, more than ample supplies, try to find milk, eggs, flour, spaghetti, and many canned goods. I went to four stores to get eggs, milk and flour. I got eggs in one, milk in another and never found flour of any normal kind.

     We are scared and we have a right to be. However, we also need to keep level heads and follow the guidelines given to us by the CDC. Sadly our present administration, like the Chinese decided to ignore it, then say it was a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats before the numbers of infected and death tolls started to rise and could not be ignored any longer.

     Could it have been avoided? Many health officials say yes. China should have jumped on it at the first reports. President Xi it turns out knew about it two weeks before publicly acknowledging it. As America watched passengers get picked off one by one in the marooned cruise ship in Japan, with many Americans aboard, where one case ballooned to over 700, our government also did nothing. A friend in the shipping business said get them off! Ships have some of the worst filtration systems in the world. If one passenger had it, their virus got sucked into the ducts and was redistributed through the entire ship. It was, in effect a petri dish for the virus. As I write this cruise ships all over the world are being denied docks, even if there are no cases onboard for fear of it coming there.

San Francisco with all sheltering in place

       I do know one thing though, the blame game is not going to heal the sick or create a vaccine or treatments to save either the dying or prevent us from getting it. However this turns out, with the entire world working for this one virus it may open the pathway to cure all viruses in ways individually we have been unable to do in the past. United we stand, divided we fall.

     And yes,  we have "designed" the dilemma that we are in today. Supply chains, shipping, trade and manufacturing are all manmade events. They have thoughtfully been designed for the greatest profit. However, events have shown that not all contingencies have been thought out. I suspect that this will change. One thing is for sure though, the world will never be the same again.

     Shelter in place and wash those hands. We must all do what we can to stop a pandemic that cares not for race, or religion, sexual orientation, rich or poor. It is an equal opportunity killer at worst and has the potential to stop the world.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!