Recently
a good friend surprised me with the gift of a Keurig coffee maker.
Very nice!
For
those of you not familiar with the Keurig system, coffee for the
Keurig is contained in K-cups – small plastic cups containing a
single serving of ground coffee and sealed with an aluminum foil top.
It's a great system. The Keurig machine rumbles around a bit,
coughs, and pours out freshly brewed coffee in about 90 seconds. There is a large variety
of coffee types, flavors, strengths, including decaf. Many teas are
available as well. I like the sweet Chai tea latte (sweet being the
operative word.) Each morning I select a coffee or tea, depending on
my mood, the amount of sunshine, the depth of snow, the work ahead of
me, the cleanliness/neatness of my condo, etc. So far, in my cabinet
are three regular coffees, one decaf, and one tea.
Being
a former, mostly recovered engineer, I calculated the cost of a K-cup
versus a regular cup of coffee, brewed from ground premium/gourmet
beans (not including the cost of electricity to grind them.) Depending on K-cup brand and flavor, and where purchased, the K-cup
cost per cup ranges from a penny or two up to $0.20 more than my home ground coffee.
Essentially, using K-cups can cost (me) about $150 a year. I can
deal with it.
Summarizing,
K-cups are convenient, offer many choices, do not spill grounds on
the kitchen counter like my grinder, require no external filter and
seem generally wonderful.
Next
time I will write about the somewhat less than wonderful
environmental aspect of K-cups, and discuss the dilemma posed.
