I started this blog because I was on a search to learn how to make the best coffee at home that I possible could and hopefully take others along on this journey with me. After all, just as it says on my Twitter account @IslandMikeJava, “Life is too short to drink bad coffee.” (Please come and follow me!!)
Over the last few years single cup coffee makers have become almost ubiquitous it seems in just about 
home. These can range from those coffee makers that use coffee pods to the coffee makers that use the plastic type containers for their single serve coffee. (For purposes of this post, I will focus on the later) I honestly can only think of just a few folks who don’t have at least one single serve coffee maker in their home somewhere. And with that in mind, I thought I would do this next post on a tool that I have started using to make my coffee a single cup at a time. This tool is called the Java Jig.
Pro et Contra….Aka the Pro’s and Con’s
But before we get started discussing the Java Jig though, I thought I would first talk about the pro’s and con’s of single serve coffee making. I’m sure this list will not be comprehensive, so please feel free to share your thoughts as well and do my best to get them posted on the blog.
The Pro’s
Convenience – Now for many (most?) folks coffee making at home is not all that hard. Automatic drip coffee makers are still very popular, and pre-ground coffee still sells extremely well in supermarkets everywhere. But what is even more convenient? Single serve coffee makers. Just add water, drop in your coffee pod and press the start button and a few seconds later you have a piping hot cup of coffee. (As I’m writing this, I just tested this with our Keurig – and it takes about 1 minute and 4 seconds if the water is already warm). This is really great if you’re on the go, which it’s seems most of us are!
What others are saying
When I asked the folks who are part of my twitter following (@islandmikejava) what they said the positives were with pod coffee makers, Liliana at @Lillynilly331, said that “Time Efficiency” was a “pro” and Keaton Forsythe @Kforce92 said “not having to clean out a filter” I agree with both of these folks as these are both good advantages of K-cup style coffee makers.
Sampler pack of Keurig K-Cups Photo by Mike Prosser
Variety/Flexibility – Since pod coffee makers were first introduced, the variety of the different types of coffee you can get has grown tremendously. For example when I went to one specific seller of K-Cups, Cross Country Café, (also found here on my blog) there were 12 different types of coffee in their “what’s new” section – how crazy is that?? The point here is that one of the advantages that K-cup type coffee makers provide is that you can “sample” many different types of coffees that you may otherwise try as you would have to purchase a whole bag of beans so as to see if you might like it.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, from my experience, single serve coffee makers can’t make same great tasting coffee or experience that you can get from pour over coffee maker using your best, perfectly roasted and perfectly ground coffee beans. But when you’re in a hurry, and would like to try something different that than your normal routine, honesty they fit the bill pretty well.
The Cons
The Environment – With convenience there is often times a cost in one way or another. In this case, at least one cost is the impact K-cup style coffee pods are having on the environment. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a “tree hugger” by any shape form or fashion. I think God has given us this earth to use and manage for our purposes and to glorify Him. However I do think we need to be smart and protect the resources God has given us to use. If we develop a new or better “widget” then it seems to me that we should develop a “widget” that won’t destroy the environment we all live in. I’ve seen too many parts of our environment damaged in name of progress/convenience, when we should have thought through the life cycle of the “widget” from the creation of it, to the end of its usable life……..but I’m getting on my soap box here and getting a little off track.
But I’m not the only one who thinks this way – one of the guys who follows me on Twitter, Michael Hale @bikerphoto said, “All those cups in the land fill, what a waste!”
According to “Mother Jones” there have been enough K-cups produced to wrap around the equator 10.5 times – Folks that’s a butt load of K-cups! Interesting, not only were a lot of these K-Cups produced, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to recycle them. Take a look at this video from CNBC -“Spent Keurig K-Cups Filling Up U.S. Landfills“.
Now, do I think K-Cups will be the end of the world as we know it…no. Given their size, I don’t think we’re talking about massive amounts of space in our landfills. In addition, there are many, many other things that we throw out every day that can’t be recycled for one reason or another. In the case of the K-cup, you have to wonder if the problem is with the K-cup or if our current methods of recycling has not caught up with our current methods of manufacturing.
In the end though, it does seem logical to me that if someone is going to create something, then they also should include in their development how their new creation will be disposed of. And oh, by the way, for you folks who are coming up with new ideas for new products, the disposal method can’t be more onerous than the actual use of the product.
A Pro and a Con……??? Yep!
The Cost – One of the followers on Twitter Sara DeCavit @SaraD1972 said that she thought the cost of K-cup style coffee was a real issue. Well Sara, in some ways you are correct! But there is another way to look at this as well. As it turns out, this is really not a pro or a con, but rather is a matter of your personal coffee drinking habit. Now when we talk about a making one pot of coffee, we’re going to compare an automatic drip brewer versus a single cup maker, like a Keurig. According to thesimpledollar.com, it takes about 44 cents to make a 16 ounce cup of coffee – which is the size of a travel mug/cup. And according to Ask.com, the average cup size is 8 ounces. Thus a cup of good coffee will cost about 22 cents per cup to make at home. But here’s the thing- how many folks actually make 1 cup of coffee in their auto drip coffee maker – what about 2 cups or even 3 cups?? I’m guessing here, but I’m thinking that a lot of people on any given typical day make half a pot of coffee and then drink half of that and then the rest is poured out. Thus a 22 cent cup of coffee now cost 44 cents. And when you consider the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee and the clean up afterwards, the cost might actually be a little higher.
Interestingly, I found an article that addresses this exact issue that was written by an economist for the Boston Globe – and I will put a link here to that article here. – K-Cup Conundrum . Essentially, as I’ve alluded above, it really depends on a variety of different factors. This article has a link to handy calculator which can help you make the comparison between a single serve k-style cup and a drip style coffee maker.
So that’s it for this post. I’d really appreciate your thoughts. Please let me know what you think, It would be great to hear from you.