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!