first k-cups (coffee) experience [Food/Vendor]

2009 May 1
OK, finally tried these things. My new work place has a Keurig and while I will definitely not use it because it creates so much garbage, I did want to try it to form an opinion on the coffee it makes.

They use the cups from Timothy's, and I tried 2 different ones so far. One was the Kona blend (medium) and I forget what the other one was but will follow up next week. Will also try more next week too.

The Kona was your basic Maxwell House. Pretty blah and uneventful. The other one - which I do recall was a dark roast and may have been Sumatran but I will have to double check - was a bit better but not much. Neither were anywhere near good enough to make me want to purchase one of those systems even if I didn't care about the mountains of garbage they produce.

I guess that's what happens when you roast your own - everything else becomes pretty pale by comparison. Actually I have drunk Starbucks reasonably recently and find it to be a lot better than the K cups at work today.

2009 May 1
Keurig can't be that bad for waste ... they have an 'Environmental Policy' ...

see ---> www.keurig.com


2009 May 1
Um, you've heard the term "Greenwashing" have you not Captain?

Here is one of the most disgusting examples of it I've seen in a long time :

2009 May 1
You sure that's the video you intended to post?

2009 May 2
Ha, ha! That's hilarious! Had sent that to a buddy of mine. It's a funny one though :-)

Here is the one I meant :

2009 May 2
We had one of those at work for a while, it made such horrible coffee that the vendor pulled the machine because it wasn't profitable. Keurig systems make consistently horrible coffee - end of discussion!

2009 May 3
I never waste the money or the material to try out that machine. Thanks for doing it so I didn't have to. :)

2009 May 3
We have a Keurig machine at our work, and although the coffee is not good, it's not the worst we've had. It's certainly better (at least in variety) than the last machine (years ago) we had at work. I'm curious if anyone has tried the Nespresso system (aluminum cups, so more waste, but better coffee storage?) and can compare/contrast it with the Keurig system? I, like FF own the fancy dancy Nespresso frother, but have not tried their coffee...

2009 May 3
Small point of clarification, Pete: I only *aspire* to owning a Nespresso Aeroccino frother. My brother owns one and I wanna be like him.

My aunt and uncle in Switzerland shocked us all by adopting the Nespresso system. They have a reputation for environmentalism, in part because they built solar heating into their house 30 years ago. They grind their own spelt flour to make bread, make their own yogurt, keep chickens and sheep for eggs and meat. I admit that I would have expected them to be more on the home-roasting end of the spectrum rather than the disposable-cup end! However, they did their homework and were convinced that it wasn't a bad choice overall. It certainly seems to be one of the better automatic systems according to espresso snobs.

The Nespresso site advertises the sustainability of their system: www.nespresso.com

2009 May 3
"recycling" != "sustainable"

recycling is only a tiny step above throwing something into the garbage.

reduce, reuse, recycle

in that order

2009 May 3
That is not exactly correct Zym. In the end, everything that is used, is recycled in some form or other on the planet. Grass into cows, is cycled into fertilizer for the grass. All any cycle reaction really needs to be circular is energy. I am not semantically against recycling, or other forms of resource use, as you can be, but would like to evaluate each thing on it's own merits. I do quite agree with you that the consumption of raw materials from this world is entirely unsustainable, but that to me is mostly because the cost to throw things out (i.e. remove them from the useful cycle) is too low. I can imagine a future, where clean consumption is only limited by the amount of energy available to cycle the components of that consumption. If energy was cheap, and plentiful, and natural resources expensive, but recycled resources cheap, then it would all work out in the wash! I prefer this scenario to the one where the humans of the world are forced to um.. reduce, because of man made calamity... I think I need a coffee after writing all that...

2009 May 4
Our friends in Zurich have owned a Nespresso for years. It makes very good coffee. One hotel we went to even had one in the room - makes much better coffee than the pretend stuff available in hotels in North America :)

As for the waste, I know that in Switzerland, our friends save their used pods and return them to the store for recycling. North America has just not caught up to that yet. Don't blame the coffee system, blame the resellers and retailers, and of course the governments for allowing them to dump their waste.

2009 May 4
I've used a Nespresso at home for slightly more than two years. I had a bare-bones Essenza C100 until just recently, when I splurged on a Lattisima EN680. (Why the upgrade? The EN680 has a built-in milk steamer, which makes better foam than the Aeroccino does.)

The espresso the Nespresso machines makes tops every capsule machine I've tried, as well as every home-scale maker I've ever seen. Not only that, but it's better than at least half of all of the cafe or restaurant espressos I've had, too.

It makes fantastic crema, and there's a vast selection of espresso strengths and flavours to choose from. Since I only have 3-4 espressos a week, there's no way I could ensure that my beans are always at peak freshness without buying them 100g at a time. That's why capsules really appeal to me.

Are there any drawbacks to the Nespresso machine? Well, maybe. It doesn't make coffee: just espresso and (double-volume) lungos. And some people really like the manual feel of having to grind their own beans, tamp it down, and pull a shot.

Me, I love breech-loading a capsule, pushing a button, and receiving espresso.

This evangelistic moment has been brought to you by Nespresso.

2009 May 4
Cookie - I just read somewhere this week that reusable pods are available somewhere in Ottawa (idea being that people can use whatever coffee this wish in them).

Zym - As for the recycling arguement... you know where I stand... Ok it isn't the best solution but it is still better than the alternative (throwing everything into the landfill)... the fact that you refuse to believe that things are actually recycled is your choice, but hardly factual.

BTW, with all your mighter than thou take on "reduce, reuse, recycle" I must say that I was surprised to discover you even chose to try out this coffee machine...

Your Quote being...

"while I will definitely not use it because it creates so much garbage, I did want to try it to form an opinion on the coffee it makes."

IMO, that is a fair statement... but then when you said:

"They use the cups from Timothy's, and I tried 2 different ones so far. One was the Kona blend (medium) and I forget what the other one was but will follow up next week. Will also try more next week too."

Totally laughable, when you have on more than one occasion put others here down for the choices they make (myself included). I dare say, you can't stand on your soap-box one minute and chastise other OF's the next, all the while doing whatever it is "suits" you at any given moment!

Actually, you can do that... but then be prepared to be called a hypocrite!

2009 May 4
Monty - popcorn?

2009 May 4
Extra butter please...

2009 May 4
F&T, first of all, when and where did I say I refuse to believe that stuff gets recycled?

And if you think recycling is "better than the alternative (throwing everything into the landfill)", then you are closing your eyes to other alternatives. Like for example, not using a resource in the first place! Recycling is not better than this alternative. Back to my "reduce" option. THAT is the BEST alternative. And that goes to PiO as well in reply to his 2nd last comment in the thread. Anyone who thinks that recycling is the only alternative to garbage is part of the reason our grandchildren are probably going to have a very tough time surviving on this planet.

As for my using the pod system at work - you say "fair statement" but then lambaste me for it! WTF? So which is it? A fair statement or not? Yup, I tried it again - French Roast this time. It was probably the best of the 3. Not because I wanted a coffee, but because I plan to try each one of the 5 or 6 varieties they have so that I can develop an informed opinion on the system. After that I would not go near it with a 10 foot pole. Believe me, I cringe every time I use it. If I want coffee at work (which I almost never do), I'll buy myself another Aeropress and take it in. How is this in any way laughable? If I'm going to be critical of the system for the garbage it creates, is it not at least fair of me to judge the product on its own merits as a food product? That is what I am doing. I am biting my tongue and trying the product so that I'll know if it is at least a decent product. Which I can now authoritatively say, "not really". What is laughable about that? I think it is the most fair-minded thing a person could do. If I criticized the product for the garbage creates without trying the product, then you'd probably lambaste me for that, too.

2009 May 4
Chimi ... Please pass the popcorn.

2009 May 4
Oh I'm just getting started Captain! Now I actually have a bit of time to say what I really have in mind.

First back to PiO's post about "cheap" energy and "recyling is the natural order of things".

Cheap energy? Hmmm. Best I can tell the cheap energy - i.e. oil - is half gone now. And it ain't coming back for about 200 million years. Yup, solar is cheap, but we cannot generate enough of it to meet our needs. The fact of the matter is that once oil, then coal are gone, there will be no way on this earth to generate nearly the amount of energy we need to meet our current needs, let alone any "needs" based on the almighty "growth".

That's one of our basic problems though - there are "needs", and there are "wants", and precious few of us are able to distinguish between the two. The problem is that over the last 50 or 60 years we've turned our everyday lives into an orgy of consumption. And very little of it is sustainable. What does that mean? It means that if we have not changed in 100 years, we'll pretty much be dead or dying as a species. And we may well take out a whole crapload of other species with us before we go.

Now back to the "natural order" comment. The problem with this is that also over the last 50 or 60 years we have progressively separated ourselves from nature in our food chain, and also in most of the rest of what we do. So it is rather ridiculous to take a tiny portion of what we are doing on this earth and hold it up as some kind of example of the natural order, when 95% of what we do flies in the face of the natural order. In the natural order, everything is a cycle, and one cycle it intricately intertwined with the rest of them. But we in our arrogance believe that by understanding one or two of these cycles, that we understand them all. To grow our food we literally poison the earth and kill just about every living thing in it except for the one species we are growing. This is not sustainable, and it is a major kick in the b**ls to the "natural order". We cannot cherry pick 2 seconds out of a week and say "aha, but this 2 seconds of what we do is the natural order at work"! By definition, the "natural order" works 24x7x365 ...

And what I really find laughable - since we are using that word - is how everyone gets all up-in-arms about the "nanny state" when it comes to letting us buy beer at the corner store, but then we turn around and curse that same state for not regulating us enough when it comes to regulations around companies being allowed to produce this stuff in the first place, as though not a single one of us had an iota of self-control that we could exercise.

And that is the basic problem. Yes, what coookie said is very true that government really has to step in and create far greater regulations on this stuff. But in the mean time for goodness sakes we are human beings and we do have self control, and it is up to us to exercise it.

And for the record, yes I'm a hypocrite because I commit the 2 biggest environmental sins : I drive a car and I eat meat. So I'm penny-wise and pound foolish with the environment. But these are facts that actually weigh on me, and I'm actively seeking to change them. I already buy most of my meat from local farmers who use sustainable methods, so yes, I still consume 3x the resources as a vegetarian, but I consume 5x less than the average carnivore. And I'm not supporting very much unsustainable practices. As for the car - I had converted myself over to public transit, and once I get settled into my new job I hope to get myself back to it. And ultimately I want to get myself over to using Vrtucar but that is a longer term goal. So where most people are trying to figure out how to get from 0 to 1 to 2 cars, I'm trying to figure out how to get from 1 to 0. But at very least, while I am indeed a hypocrite - I KNOW THAT I AM AND WILL ADMIT IT. And more importantly, I know exactly where I need to improve myself, and I am actively trying to do so. And I am actively looking harder and closer at everything I do to discover where there is more room for improvement. Instead of just throwing up my arms and blaming everyone else, I point the finger first-and-foremost at ME, because that is the only person I can really do anything about. But at the same time I believe it helps to educate others.

The simple fact of the matter is that most of our current lifestyle is not the least bit sustainable. If we really have so little self-control that we refuse to give it up, then we are dead as a species and possibly as a planet. Which brings me back to the "natural order". In the natural order, Pete, there is daily hardship to survive. Not a single one of us on this site probably have the slightest clue what that is. Finger pointing first at me. Maybe one way to get back to the natural order is to experience that hardship in knowingly fighting hard against ones "wants" and not giving into them, and being completely satisfied that we meet our "needs". Wantonly giving into our wants will be our destruction as a species. There is no magic "cheap energy" or technology to save us from ourselves.

2009 May 4
p.s. to Pete : I think I finally just now understood this comment of yours : "I prefer this scenario to the one where the humans of the world are forced to um.. reduce, because of man made calamity... "

When I first read it I thought you were saying that you did not personally want to "reduce" as in "reduce, reuse, recycle". But now I clearly see that you are talking about "reducing" the number of people i.e. dying out as I rant about above. So I think I owe you a bit of an apology.

2009 May 4
No problem Zym. You're allowed to rephrase, and don't have to apologize. In fact, say anything you want, as you are the only one here who has ever invited me to a BBQ at his house (still sorry I couldn't make it...) I was just trying to inject a little utopian balance into the dystopian (albeit realistic) portrayals that were being thrown around.

2009 May 4
d@mn, I guess we ran out of popcorn?

2009 May 4
Zym,

Some Ottawa Foodies would like a Perfect(CHEO)Kitchen, some may want a Perfect(CHEO)Kitchen while others NEED a Perfect(CHEO)Kitchen or they will be haunted their whole lives .... and become sad when that kitchen goes to someone else.

ottawafoodies.com

I wonder what one would do when the red island and chairs go 'out-of-style'.

A wise person once told me "We may not be responsible for the world we find ourselves in ... but we will surely be held accountable for the one we leave behind."


2009 May 5
"Uhh, chim-eh, we pop popcorn today?" DAMN RIGHT WE DO!

2009 May 5
Monty - You win at life.

I enjoy the healthy discourse that we have over sensitive topics like this. From what I gather we're all thick-skinned enough that we don't take it personally when other people disagree.

But let us not forget the true goal of this specific forum topic, which is to tell the world that K-Cups taste terrible and Nespresso tastes awesome ;)

Once Ottawa gets its green-box program in gear I will be more than happy to cut open my capsules to compost the grounds, and then recycle the capsule. Until that time I'm far too lazy and unmotivated!

2009 May 5
Mont-eh - DAMN RIGHT WE DO!

2009 May 6
these are entertaining threads to read... oh, and i'm sipping my jura americano as i read it...and loving it...

2013 Aug 6
I started liking espresso in France. I'm pretty much addicted to it now.

And I found I actually enjoy immensely the coffee from a Bialetti Moka Pot.

At work we have no hot plate in the kitchen. But we do have a keurig or tassimo or whatever thing.

So I was thinking I would just settle for that and find a good brand of the cups to go in the machine.

Ugh ! UGH ! They are so outrageously priced, nearly a dollar per (70 cents plus tax)? I'm outraged.

This represents everything wrong with our society - needless packaging, waste, consumption, environmental rape, all the ills of Capitalism ! Did I mention outrageously priced? And for a mediocre cup of coffee to boot.

I'm going to bring in a hot plate and my moka pot and use that . . . and enjoy a great moka coffee for pennies.


2013 Aug 7
Francis : Totally agree. Just want to point out that there are plenty of reusable filters that can be used. This allows you to use your grounds of choice. I hated how much the regular kcups cost and now that my family is using the reusable cups more my hatred of the machine has lessened.

2013 Aug 7
I found even with the reusable basket the coffee was pretty crappy, and that was using my own home-roasted coffee (in my mother-in-law's machine last summer). It can't make a coffee of any decent strength - it is just watered down.

2013 Aug 7
That's true. You need to fill the k-cup and use the small cup setting for a decent cup. It's a machine of convenience...but the Nespresso is a magical machine, aside from pod costs. Totally different experience.

2013 Aug 7
Yes, seconded: Nespresso is magic. Completely different from the K-Cup experience. It makes a fantastic crema.

2013 Aug 7
There will be a nespresso store opening up soon at the Rideau Center. I work right by there and will check it out. Heard good things but hesitant to get yet another appliance. I Kinda miss the days when maxwell house was good enough in the morning. Ignorance is bliss.

2013 Aug 7
Well it turns out that one of those two abominations in the lunch room at work is a Nespresso ... so I'll try it and let you know what I think. The other one is a Bosch. I'll try both.

2013 Aug 7
You know what makes a fantastic crema? My $140 Breville Café Roma espresso machine. We use it daily. K-cups are nasty. Nespresso is good - my last two trips to Milan were interesting, these Nespresso bars are actually sort of popular, and this is in the land of cheap espresso (<1 euro for a shot of espresso)! They are wasteful if you drink a lot of espresso based drinks - this is why we avoided it. On the other hand, we did buy a Nespresso Aeroccino frother/steamed milk machine... perfect foam every time!

2013 Aug 7
Scott Y: That's fantastic news! Now I can drop my capsules off for recycling without cutting them open and dumping the grounds out myself!

2013 Aug 7
Chimichimi, because I'm pedantic and own both an Aeroccino and an espresso machine with steam wand, I have to counter your description of the Aeroccino as a frother/steamed milk machine. :-)

While the Aeroccino does froth and warm milk quickly and effectively, it does not steam it. The only way to steam milk is with steam. The Aeroccino is great for restaurant style cappuccinos and lattes but it cannot produce the silky and supple microfoam necessary for coffee house drinks.

2013 Aug 7
FF - all I heard was blah blah blah - I haven't had enough caffeine to make much sense this AM. ;)

2013 Aug 7
FF - speaking of microfoam, I picked up a few cool techniques to achieve super silky foam from the steam wand. I WILL NEVER REVEAL MY SECRETS!!! (go to Italy)

2013 Aug 7
Keurig mediocre, Nespresso good, Breville machine@home BEST.

Microfoam is easy with 2%+ milk. Show me you can make microfoam with skim milk and i'll bow in your general direction.

2013 Aug 7
OSM - Trust me, your foam is not micro enough :)

2013 Aug 7
We have a Keurig at work - and my boss bought me a packet of green tea, Tazo - not too bad. But to be drinkable, I have to first run the machine on empty on small cup to drain the remaining grounds, then make a small cup to waste the first brew which is way too bitter, _then_ make a large cup. Waste waste waste, but it's alreay bought. I'll decline next time he offers.

(Making good green tea at work would need me to bring my good teapot and still-nice Japanese leaves from Camellia Sinensis... best to keep those at home.)

2013 Aug 7
Chimichimi, don't make me resort to fisticuffs as I am a mild-mannered individual. Our next meeting will likely see me throttling you cervically with a convenient bean curd roll until you have no recourse but to dispense with the clandestine nanofoam intelligence you hold so dear. Italy is so, so far away.

2013 Aug 7
FFoodie: Chimi is all talk, no bubbles. Don't believe the hype.... probably uses half-n-half!

2013 Aug 7
On another note, for vegan coffee lovers, where can I find barrista soy and/or another soy that will make micro foam in Ottawa ? I've never seen it.

Soy milk "froth off" on youtube:



p.s. I had a look at the Keurig discards and it had one tiny hole in the bottom and one in the top . . . aside from the quality of the coffee inside, I really question how well water flows through the volume of the coffee puck.

2013 Aug 7
There is a Nespresso store near Billings Bridge Plaza on Bank St., just north of the Riverside Dr. It might be where CA Paradis is or was.

The Pixie D60 is on sale on amazon.ca, maybe at the same price as the nespresso website, but amazon will give free shipping.

www.amazon.ca

Not that I condone this system . . . . no, no, not . . . :-)

2013 Aug 8
Francis, a few places in Ottawa are authorized to sell Nesspresso machines, but there's no official Nesspresso Boutique here -yet.

I just checked the app and there aren't even any collecting points in Ottawa, while there are 3 in Montreal...I'm hoping once the boutique opens in Ottawa a few retailers might start collecting pods and not have me offset the benefit of recycling them by driving to Rideau to turn them in.

2013 Aug 8
Also, I hate to be so uncouth, but I start my day with a cup of Timothy's Columbian blend out of my Keurig machine at home. It's 50 cents a cup and while its not he best coffee I've ever had, it's good enough to drink when I'm trying to get my ass going in the morning.

I'll use the Nesspresso later in the day when I have time...but I don't think there's anything wrong with the old k-cup.

2013 Aug 9
I have Keurig at work, and while it is not the best coffee in the world, I have two other options: instant, or the stuff in the cafeteria that sits in the big urns for $175.

There is no way to clean out a french press, and not allowed to have a hotplate. I think Keurig is okay. Suits me fine anyways!

2013 Aug 9
I had Nesspresso machine in my room at the Hyatt and it does make a good cup of coffee. I like the stronger strength pods...

But would not get enough use out of it when I am at home since I like to go out for coffee sometime.


2013 Aug 9
I would never pay $175 for a cup of sub-standard coffee.

When I move to our new office layout in December, I'll have to get rid of my Keurig. We aren't allowed ANY kind of personal electric/electronic devices in the office including kettles, coffee machines, mini-fridges, fans, heaters, etc. Our computers will be locked down Windows7 machines (yes, 7) that we don't have admin rights to 4' high walls all around, no privacy and 4 workers to a pod.

So, I guess I'll be bringing in a thermos of home-brew every day.

Anyone need a gently used Keurig Platinum model?

2013 Aug 9
Francis: I seem to recall the Herb & Spice on Wellington carrying the Barista soy.

2013 Aug 9
@ChrisB, it's really not hard to clean out a moka pot, just tap the filter basket and the coffee falls out. Rise the top and filter basket (bathroom sink if no kitchen sink) and it's good to go. You're not supposed to use soap on it anyway.

As for no hot plate, there are electric versions of the moka pot.

Here:
www.amazon.ca

and:
www.amazon.ca

2013 Sep 12
Found yet another coffee gadget. Cafejo . . . hybrid of aeropress and keurig ?

www.amazon.ca

or

www.amazon.ca

Reviews here:

www.amazon.com

and here:

www.amazon.ca

Quote:

MY FRENCH-PRESS by CAFÉJO

My French-Press by Caféjo is the only manual, French-press style, single-cup brewing system that brews cups, pods, caplets, and ground coffee. The easy to use My French-Press’ engineered design uses pressure and turbulence when brewing coffee. Its microwave safe pitcher allows you to heat water to the ideal brewing temperature of 195° to 205° Fahrenheit for the optimum extraction of your coffee. Brew with hot milk and make lattes, cappuccinos and hot chocolate too. Plus it makes a great gift. Just press...and enjoy.

FEATURES:

BPA Free
Saves energy
Dishwasher Safe
Microwavable pitcher
Brews up to 10 ounces
Brews with Hot Water or Milk
Includes:
Cup Holder
Pod Adaptor*
Ground Coffee Adaptor*
*Also can be used in Keurig machines
WHY CHOOSE MY FRENCH-PRESS?

The My French-Press will consistently brew a better cup of coffee than a costly single-cup machine, plus save counter space and electricity. Independent studies show My French-Press will give you a 15% better extraction. Better extraction equals better coffee. The My French-Press is great for small kitchens, dorm rooms, travel, camping, boating, RVs and the home or office.

2013 Sep 13
Funny that it's pretty much a combination of everything *but* a French press, given its name. ;-)

2013 Sep 14
I look at that and I ask "why?" An aeropress would create less garbage and brew better coffee, but then again I don't tend to make dairy-heavy coffee drinks.

2013 Sep 15
I'm mostly using a moka pot, actually drinking too much coffee, which is why I'm on here at 2:30 am. :-)

The kc/pods are taking up more and more shelf space in the stores. I hope those plastic shells are recyclable. This system really does nothing to address the garbage problem with the kc/pods.

But from the reviews on amazon.com, the system must make good coffee. Just move water at 90C through coffee grounds and I guess you will get a good cup of joe. :-) It must be cheaper to manufacture than the keurig or other machines, and uses no electricity. It's about the same price as the aeropress, but perhaps more versatile.

2014 Mar 6
hummm . . .

www.motherjones.com

6. Keurig cups—those little disposable, single-serve cups of coffee with a special dispenser—are here to stay. As Carpenter writes in Caffeinated: "The 2011 production of K-Cups, lined up end to end, would encircle the equator six times—a foot-wide belt of plastic, foil, and coffee around the planet."
"At the time I did a story for the New York Times about the environmental impacts of K-cups, Green Mountain was in the middle of doing an environmental analysis of the entire flow of coffee through K-cup through landfill to see if it was indeed more wasteful. It's probably not as cut-and-dried as we first think. You're able to extract the coffee more efficiently than, say, through a cone in your house. If you do a full like cycle analysis, it probably doesn't look as bad as you would think.

"But certainly on the waste end, like downstream from your house, it doesn't look good. And I think people have been pretty critical of the single-serving phenomenon for that reason. They experimented with different things: looked at renewable plastics, K-cups with paper tops and stuff like that. But it's really difficult to make it impermeable. The thing you have to do is keep oxygen out, and it's really hard to do that with any ecofriendly product. At least at the time I did that story, Newman's Own Organics' single top selling product was K-cups. Nell Newman has been a very forceful advocate of minimizing packaging. So some interesting questions there."

2014 Mar 6
And now K-cups are introducing what amounts to DRM so you can't use 3rd party cups anymore.

ca.news.yahoo.com

2014 Mar 6
Illicit adapter thingy shipping from China in 10... 9... 8...

... and in related news, seven websites with step by step videos on how to jailbreak your Keurig device should be online any minute now.

2014 Mar 7
I think K-Cups are horrible.

Same way I think about www.motherjones.com/

both are freaking terrible approximates of what they claim to be!
---

Best to avoid both imnsho!

2014 Mar 9
Agreed. Pretty terrible. I have one, but it's a last resort. Inferior coffee, costly, not all that much faster, and extra counter space...ya, i wonder why I still have it as well. Yet, I do find that when I have a stock of k-cups that I use it quite often and probably take in more coffee than when I'm out of k-cups....

2014 Mar 17
If you look for coffee at Walmart (ok my bad, but there is a Walmart near my work), it's mostly K-cups. You can hardly get beans anymore.

2014 Mar 17
Is caffeine a drug and what do we know about it?

www.salon.com

2014 Mar 17
Francis, I suspect any beans you got at Walmart would not be any better anyway ...

2014 Mar 22
I tried some coffee from the dollar store though, "Columbian", and it was excellent.

2014 Mar 22
I hate those 'little garbage cup' makers, they should be outlawed! The waste produced is amazing. And the coffee for the most part sucks. And, they are very expensive, twice as expensive as regular makers on a per cup basis. If you want one cup, get an old fashioned Melita cone over cup filter setup. Cheap and excellent results.
BTW....Food Basics decaf in their brand (can) is 100% arabica, and cheap. It's excellent. Just a little coarse for filter. I regrind it in my Braun.

2014 Mar 23
You can also sew a cloth filter for drip that will let through more flavor oils than a paper filter would.

2014 Mar 24
With a quick nod to the post above and before I do much internet surfing (yes, I am that lazy) does anyone know of a filter I can purchase that I can insert into a K-cup filled with my own coffee? I just moved into a new office with one of these machines. I usually bring my own (superior) coffee in a thermos, but the occasional desparate afternoon coffee that I could construct myself would be great. I also am not keen on learning to sew even for such a worthy cause as coffee.

Thanks in advance.

2014 Mar 24
There is a insert that comes with the Keurig that you use for your own coffee. You should be able to order one online.

2014 Mar 24
I bought mine at C.A.Paradis (now Chef's Paradise) on Bank St when I bought my Keurig.

2014 Mar 27
Some dollar stores have reusable keurig filters . . .

amazon.ca has them too


2014 Oct 1
Fight, fight, fight . . .

business.financialpost.com

"Coffee pod wars: Canada’s Club Coffee sues Keurig for $600M, alleging unfair competition"