Technology for a Solar-Punk future.
Airships and hydroponic farms...
Team Aeropress here.
Good to see Keurig try to cut down on plastic waste, but if they really wanted to make an impact, they could open-source the design of the pods so all the alt-cup manufacturers could switch as well. It may be counter-intuitive, but the more options customers have, the more machine sales and goodwill Keurig will create.
Do you use a new paper filter every time or do you use some reusable filter for your aeropress?
Unbleached, round paper filters. Come in 300 packs. Goes into compost bin along with grounds.
Had metal, reusable ones, but accidentally tossed them out.
How did the metal ones compare? Mind you, the paper rounds are really small and compossible.
Same size as paper ones. Thin, perforated metal. Came in two gradations. Taste-wise, couldn't tell the difference. When opening to clean, it slid off so you could wash it, then compost the coffee as usual.
Pretty handy. But somehow, I managed to dump them away. Went back to paper.
I just use the resuable pods. Can throw any coffee grounds in them, dump them in the compost when done, rinse, and use again. Have used these for at least 5 years.
The biggest area this will be a win in is offices. Areas where groups of different people with different tastes gather and can pick a coffee that’s better suited to their taste. Having reusable k pods is nice, but when people don’t frequently work in there, or don’t realize a keurig is available they might not have one. Although I V60 everyday so this has no real personal impact.
This might be a really stupid question, but if you're going to use reusable pods, why not just... Use a classic Mr. Coffee-style coffee maker that has been around for decades?
Because Jill in accounting has no clue how to make coffee, yet always gets to the coffee pot first.
This see-through abomination was the final straw before I switched to using the office keurig.
Yes! We can finally buy our way out of unnecessary waste, and ultimately climate change, with this new thing that keeps us buying. Just gotta buy the ecological things and everything will be good.
In Switzerland we got something similar, it's little balls though. It comes packaged in cardboard and you can compost the remains https://www.coffeeb.com/en-ch
“Sustainable”
Coffee can, single piece of packaging for months on end.
Vs.
K-cups, paper, dyes, increased packaging volumes, increased energy in production, increased raw materials, 6 month shelf life = increased trips to the store to purchase more. Sustainable /s
If you're playing that game, you don't need any coffee at all, so none of it is sustainable.
I mean, it's a plant. You can grow it, and plenty of it is grown. It is objectively more sustainable than, say, coal or helium.
How does the coffee get from where it's grown and into the can? Where does the space to grow it come from?
Also, what are you talking about? Helium's uses are largely medical, which is pretty far up there on the list of things we can't do without.
Also, so what? These new coffee pods are also more sustainable than both helium and coal when you use whatever definition of sustainability you're using
Make it sustainable in pod form specifically. Pour over, drip, French/aeropress seem pretty sustainable. Especially of you use a mesh filter.
Everything in context though. Even if you use a paper filter for coffee every day, the overall paper usage in a year is like the equivalent of what, maybe 2-3 print NYTimes Sunday editions?
Just to be clear, it was always "finally" able to be sustainable - it just wasn't profitable.
Now that they've saturated the market with makers they can "finally" keep the profits rolling with something that kills the planet less.
For fast easy machine single-serve, get a machine that takes beans. They cost about three pod-machines but they're worth it. The pod-machines are cheaper because they come with vendor lock-in for the pods, and they just profit more on those instead.
It's not as convenient, but a moka pot makes the best single serving coffee I've experienced. You can get a small version for less than $30. It takes me less than 5 minutes to make a barista level cup, and even the more expensive coffee is going to cost less than 50 cents per serving.
The only downside is the coffee is highly caffeinated--nearly espresso levels. So you're forced to add water if you just want a "cup" of coffee and it's more of an Americano-style. But the taste beats the shit out of drip or Keurig cups...imo.
I’ve never been able to get good moka pot coffee, but I’ve gotten good aeropress and french press coffee. I’ve got friends who swear by their moka pot and they’ve served me some excellent coffee.
French press, aeropress, and moka are all good ways to get single servings of coffee. It will always beat kuerig coffee, even freshly ground kuerig coffee.
Unfortunately, french press coffee is often silty, but if you are drinking kuerig coffee, you are probably also drinking silty coffee.
FYI, espresso has roughly the same level of caffeine as a cup of coffee per serving, granted a serving of espresso is a lot smaller than a cup of coffee.
If you want some good coffee you can get somewhat cheaply in bulk, Cafe Zapatista is great, ethical, and you are supporting indigenous mayan communities in Chiapas 😊. I get 3 pound bags every other month. Just know the bag isn’t resealable.
Do you have any recommendations for a specific brand?
You should check out getting an Aeropress. They’re cheap, easy to use, and fast.
French presses also make good coffee on the cheap, but I find it is a bit harder to tune in and get going. I got a generic press for about 30$, but they are annoying to clean.
If you are willing to spend 100-200$ on a good grinder you will get really good consistent grinds with minimal effort.