Apparently John Sylvan, inventor of the Keurig single serve coffee cups, on March 4th, just a few days ago, stated that he regrets ever inventing them. He's safely distanced himself from them of course, having sold them to Green Mountain some years back for $50,000.00, and now he thinks they're terrible. I'm wondering how you'd ever apologise enough for thoroughly messing up the world.
Keurig Green Mountain, now raking in $5 billion on their initial purchase, have obviously struck a goldmine. But far from being green, they must be one of the biggest causes of landfill waste in the world.
So I used the hokey little adapter that comes with the machine, so you can use your own coffee, and the little plastic MyKcup. I kept on thinking though that it really wasn't adequate for the purpose. There always seemed to be a lot of grounds in the bottom, and a sort of oily film on the top. And it was weak too.
It was only much later, after quite a bit of research that I discovered the adapter thingy doesn't work well, because the machine can't exert the needed pressure, as it does with the Kcups.
If you use the Kcups, a Keurig brewer machine gives off 10 times the waste that a normal carafe of coffee would. There are now so many billions of them in landfills it's become a horror story, but one that most of us don't see. It's said that if all those little Kcups were lined up, they'd circle our planet 10 times.
However, even in the most unlikely places, people are thronging to use the Keurig machine. It's a beautiful piece of equipment, sleek, shiny, and best of all, it has a number of buttons to push. College students are using them, (really? I thought they were champions of the environment) hostesses love them; they even make perfect sense for singles, or doubles, or even families, 'cause you can please everyone, with their different coffee preferences, or tea, or hot chocolate. It's magic!
My breakthrough!
I tried several quite expensive little mesh filters, hoping each would be the one. I tried the Ekobrew - expensive, still lots of oily residue. I contemplated paper filters - yes, you can get those too - but decided that was ridiculous. I still refused to use the actual Kcups. I was in "good-cup-of-coffee" mourning. Sometimes, desperate, I'd go and blow a whole lot of money at Starbucks!
And then, Eureka! I happened to be in a Canadian Tire store one day, and there, right in front of me was a package with six very low key little café cups in it. They looked cheap. They WERE inexpensive, about $14 for the six of them. So I bought the package, and I've blessed them ever since.
I've only ever used three of them, the same three, over and over, for more than six months now. I take one coffee scoop ( one is included in the pack) of my regular favorite coffee, and put it into each of three little fine mesh filter cups. That makes three delicious cups of full-bodied coffee.
The coffee tastes great. There's no waste, either of water, or of coffee. Later on I tap a couple of times on the sides of the upended little cups and collect all the grounds in a container for a few days. Then they go out onto the garden. My acid loving plants adore the copious quantity of special compost they receive. A jet of rinse water afterwards instantly cleans the non-staining little café cups.
This is what I wanted. No waste. No paper filters. No fuss. You use however many you want at one time, which is really nice when you have guests. And I still get to push the buttons!
The package of café cups has changed since I bought them. Now you only get four, and they're more expensive.
This is a comparison review of the MyKcup that comes with the machine, the Ekobrew cup, and the café cup.
I'm hoping everyone who's invested in a Keurig machine will ditch those awful little, expensive Kcups, buy your own favorite coffee, and use this economical solution to pollution.
Wishing you a safe and beautiful weekend,
Vicki