Via, Instapundit we learn that Keurig is going to use tech to restrict what coffee pod manufacturers will work in their machine. I’m sure the licensing agreements will be impressive. More power to Keurig for trying to increase their revenue. It will fail though, as IBM learned in the 90’s, proprietary assembly of commodity items doesn’t work. There are enough “Keurig compatible” machines to make using Keurig’s machines redundant.
I don’t mind the coffee out of the single cup machines, it’s way better than a drip machine, but have you run the numbers?
A 900g bag of roasted coffee beans is between 11 and 14 dollars. That’s about the same as a 16 pack of pods. In a french press, 45g of beans, ground, makes about 4 cups of comparable coffee. So, for the same price, you get 80 cups. This isn’t rocket science.
Addendum: I would be very remiss in not mentioning the Areopress. One was sent to us by a concerned reader after the attempt to float the van in the slew last summer. This thing is awesome, following the directions and you only need a cup of that in the morning and you’re set for the day.
Monopolistic practices are viewed as damage, and worked around.
Sure, but in reality don’t you want that coffee for your lil’ ol’ self? Why should you be sharing such a beverage with the great unwashed? Anyone can have a coffee, but, you see, this coffee was brewed just for you… because you’re precious. And we at COFFCOR PLC CONGLOMERATE intend to market this to you in this very way. Snowflake, you are unique!
Sarc:off
You need to include the cost of drip filters, waste, water costs for washing up and in an office environment the time wasted brewing and cleaning up and the problem of serving clients stale/burnt coffee.
The difference is more like 400% than 2000%.
And the a ability to have three or four clients to all have what they want. And that far outweighs the cost differential.
Lots of precedence for this failing, such as Betavision and Sony Dat Tape.Those that do not study history are due to repeat it!
It’s like printer ink that costs thousands of dollars a gallon when you buy it by the cartridge.
All they are doing is screwing themselves as the market is already saturated with machines that take re-usable and re fillable pods. Instead of adapting to a changing market they are doubling down on the presumption that their name has value. It doesn’t.
Where do you get GOOD tasting beans?
I’ve tried all kinds, and beans that I grind still taste shitty.
Or is the water that bad…
Yeah, Sony in particular doesn’t learn from their own history, it must be a Japanese thing.
Back to the coffee issue, I’ve noticed that some pods only working in certain machines was built in from the beginning of this beverage pod machine trend. In fact some companies have been marketing ‘only-for-business-use’ machines that take one dimension of pod and a ‘for-home-use’ machine that use a different dimension of pod to prevent employees from stealing the pods at work and using them at home.
I use a Breville espresso machine at my home/office and only run Kicking Horse Cliffhanger espresso beans through it.
We have a Keurig just because The Wife and I like two different types of coffee. We each have a reloadable filter thingy and use it with our ground beans. Loading up the filter pod one day, I was reminded a little bit about reloading ammunition, what with “weighing the charge” and all.
Well, one morning I was not all that awake and that little thought about how loading the filter pod is like reloading must have really stuck. The Wife got a big steaming cup of Varget, and I got a mug of Winchester 760.
With double cream and sugar, they actually weren’t all that bad.
That said, no more reloading on the kitchen table for me.
I’m no coffee expert, EP, but water certainly may have something to do with it. Do you make satisfactory coffee using other methods with the same water? If so, then it probably isn’t the water.
This may help.
tldr; Use enough beans (my numbers posted are less than recommended, but we like it), not too fine a grind, clean your press, make sure it steeps long enough, stir/shake the press prior to pressing.
We just buy the Malita beans in the grocery store. Works for us.
You might want to try these (but they may also taste shitty). 😉
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/12/17/elephant-dung-coffee-black-ivory-becomes-worlds-most-expensive-brew/
Time also costs money, Lance. Pop in a cup, let ‘er pour, and you have great-tasting coffee in no time. Who wants to mess with a french press?
Get with the times, Luddite!
I have a Melitta type drip machine that’s been just perfect for me, along with a burr grinder and a french press for use sometimes. I can’t imagine being restricted to one type of coffee / one manufacturer.
My kids have one of these types of one coffee pack only, possibly a Bosch unit that makes sub-standard coffee. Which is the equal of the Keurig type, meaning sub-standard.
Check the local Kijiji ads for the number of these units that are for sale by folks fed up with them and their 2x price points.
I haven’t had better coffee at a reasonable price than the dark President’s Choice stuff from Superstore, and sometimes buy whichever Melitta brand that’s meeting their price point.
yum. black please, the fresher the better.
https://twitter.com/coffee_dad
*not me, but we’re soul mates, kinda.
*the basket type drip filter coffee makers are sub standard as well. We’ve had a few different brands over the years, always returning to Braun. I never make 10 cups, almost always just enough to fill the stainless coffee unit, about 3 cups.
I am probably dating myself, but I still use a percolator. The smell in the morning is to die for. I use an old Proctor-Silex (Bought new in 1972) attached to a timer on the wall so it is ready at 5 am. It also must be said that I am notoriously cheap.
Eastern Paul:
Try a local roaster and make sure the beans are freshly roasted. If this isn’t possible, I’ve found Kicking Horse coffee beans are consistently good and available across Canada in most grocery stores. Whatever you do, buy beans and grind your own. We have switched to using a french press while travelling around the continent.
I’m with you. Bought a Cuisinart electric percolator back in 2010 for around 100 bucks at Home Hardware. Love the smell of coffee perking in the morning. Have a couple cups and then shut it off. Nuke it after that. Taste doesn’t seem to change and 10 cups usually gets me through the day.
First World problems can be so overwhelming for hipsters.
Best home coffee I’ve ever had, and still have, is brewed by a Krupps Moka brew.
Google it: there’s even a video of a full brew cycle.
But it has been discontinued for some reason.
Perhaps because of its unconventional appearance.
Breville burr grinder. Has to be burr.
I buy espresso beans from a Yaletown Vancouver Italian Bakery/cafe and grind fresh for each brew.
And I go there most days for a break and drink the best Americano in the city which now rings in at $2.90 the medium cup.
I quit alcohol about 10 years ago and in compensation have become a total PITA coffee snob.
Grocery store coffee? Melita?
Quelle horreur! (Sp?).
We had a Tassimo that we got as a gift. We liked espresso and cappuccino. We used it for about a year then did the math and bought real espresso maker that also steams milk to make cappuccino. We figured the 500 dollar machine paid for itself in less than a year.
Then I quit drinking coffee. I had head aches if I didn’t get it, so I figured I should probably stop all together. After about a week of feeling like death warmed over I feel way better. I sleep better, don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and a chronic heartburn issue went away completely.
Kick the coffee habit. It’s hard, but worth it.
The water could be that bad. Try something as simple as a Brita jug filter to see if you are on to something.
And anyway, it doesn’t take good beans to beat these pods for taste, no name supermarket whole beans freshly ground will be better.
I sometimes use a French press but I also use a Keurig. Most often I grind my own beans. Mystic Monk coffee, available only on line, is really good. Monks in Wyoming roast the beans and offer lots of choices. Not only is the coffee great but it’s a way to support the monks.
Coffee is oily stuff, and as most here know, stale bean oil goes rancid.
What that means is you have to periodically clean your burr grinder thoroughly. I break the business end of mine down to parts about four times a year and clean out all the oily ground coffee debris using a sharp object and then blow it out with compressed air.
The same goes for the coffeemaker basket and coffee pot. I bleach these parts occasionally in the sink. Finally I run diluted white vinegar through the works for a couple of passes followed by a few cycles of water.
This effectively cleans out the accumulated calcium as well as the coffee residue(plastic is surprisingly porous). Let it air dry overnight to clean up the bleach smell and you’re good for a few months of great tasting coffee.
Also coffee is one of those things that is at its peak flavor when all the water has run its course through the grounds so it pays to remove the filter basket when you pour your 1st cup as its all downhill from there.
simon
Meh. Timmie’s coffee into a washable stainless steel cone filter in the now-ancient Phillips cone filter coffee maker. Three scoops of coffee gives me 5 porcelain mugs full. And it’s good coffee. Not impressed with the French press. Not at all. Coffee is less than hot enough; it’s murky, and if you want a refill, you have to start all over from Square One.
Timmie’s coffee is my everyday choice, but for extra-special caffeine goodness, I buy Community Coffee’s Traditional Dark Roast. Made in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it is, and it’s what gets served on all the offshore rigs in the Gulf, and the food on board those rigs is first-rate, as is the coffee. You can order it by way of the Internet, too. I have recommended it to friends, and those who tried it, like it.
Yes. “grocery store coffee” … 😉
Starting to sound like the printer/ink cartridge thing coming around again. I’m convinced that – excluding their other tech offerings – Epson & its cohorts are not so much in the printer business as they are the ink business. How else to explain that a set of ink replacement cartridges costs the same as a new printer that includes the ink cartridges?
Perhaps Keurig’s brewers will just be the delivery system for their burgeoning “pod” empire in the same way that Gillette developed its “safety razor” innovation at the turn of the 20th century.
Speaking of which, does anyone else remember the slot in the back of the medicine chest that allowed you to dispose of blunt blades into the void between the studs of the bathroom wall?
Old style filter coffee, grind my own. Beans are Van Houte Dark Colombian. Thermos carafe. One heaping teaspoon for two cups, then “one for the pot”. Never fails. This is just Starbucks snobbery, like “I drive a Lexus”. Keurig is for people who just can’t brew good coffee and want an Easy Button for their “fast paced lifestyle”.
Actually, I prefer Diamond Driller Joe, best of all. Percolator, meet Tiger torch. Add a bit of salt.
I think Kodak made that mistake when the digital camera market emerged. How did that work out for them, eh?
I have been reading about cold brew coffee. You brew it as a kind of concentrate. 67% less acid, plus you can use cheap coffee. Goggle it if you want to know more.
One heaping teaspoon for two cups, then “one for the pot”.
One for the pot is a tea thing, no?
The international standard is 2 tablespoons per 6 oz of ground coffee. I know, it sounded like a lot the first time I heard it.
Beethoven, btw, was so particular that he actually counted the number of beans for his brew.
And of course no one here actually puts — gasp! — milk or sugar in, right!?
It takes about two weeks to train yourself to drink it neat (black).
Most restaurant coffee I find too weak. Even fine dining establishments.
marc, you and I do EXACTLY the same thing!! Melitta drip, PC extra fine grind usually, some nabob or Melitta and then hazelnut cream ground beans the odd time.
I rarely drink Timmy’s or any other coffee.
That should have read:
2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 oz of water.
That sounds like my coffee routine. Extra-fine ground myself from medium grind, then refrigerated in a sealed jar. A nice ceramic filter cone holder; no plastic touches my coffee. 3/4ths PC “Great Canadian”, 1/4th something different…
Pre-packaged coffee. Store-bought beans, especially in bulk bins. Ugh.
That stuff may make tolerable drip coffee (more or less), but if you’re into making espresso, you might as well drink pulls from your crankcase as your espresso machine using that raw product.
There is no substitute – none – for the flavor of fresh-roasted coffee. And hot air roasters are pretty convenient; you can roast enough for a couple of pots and keep the beans in an airtight container for a day or so (I roast for the week and vacuum seal in mason jars with my Food Saver). Even with my old Fresh Roast Plus, it only added about 10 minutes to go from green to roasted beans before I ground/brewed, and the results were always worth it. Espresso from fresh roasted beans is magic, and you can find sooo many different subtle flavors within. Beans are a matter of taste; I prefer Sumatran or India Monsoon Malabar.
The problem with pre-packaged coffee or beans is you have no idea how long they’ve been exposed to air; stale coffee beans/grinds = bitter coffee. I tend to shy away from percolated coffee for much the same reason; the repeated extraction of oils from the grounds (over-extraction) tends to bring out more bitterness than a 1-time drip filter, or a French Press (if you’ve not left the water too long in the press). A year or so back I bought an Aeropress, and that makes some of the smoothest brews possible; it’s great for camping or taking with you on the road. And for those concerned with water quality, carbon filtering is the least you can do (Brita). A better alternative for coffee is the BWT filter system, which is much the same method (or you can spend more and plumb it in) to eliminate chlorine and allows pass-through of magnesium for a better brew. Many espresso makers have internal softeners to reduce scaling; I recharge mine weekly depending on number of brews to keep the scaling manageable.
I’ve not tried cold-brewed coffee, but it seems interesting, if at odds with learnings from making espresso, where a colder brew temperature makes a pulled shot more acidic/sour (and a hotter shot increases bitterness). There are some interesting pieces of cold brew kit at the mecca of coffee, coffeegeek d0t calm.
Not that you need to do any of this to get a cup of java, of course. When I’ve not enough time to roast/brew, I’ll go to Starbucks or Hortons when necessary for a caffeine infusion. I’ve gone full Coffee Geek on the espresso scene; I’ll not buy espresso from the commercial vendors (Starbucks, Second Cup) because I can make far better shots on much cheaper equipment at home. The learning curve was steep and fraught with many horrid shots before I got the hang of my espresso kit, but the results are worth it, if the number of visitors requesting cappucinos and espressos is any indication.
Coffee Über Alles !
Jan, Eastman-Kodak actually invented the digital camera.
Considering their empire was largely built on film and photo paper, I wonder how they thought it would fit into their business model.
If you get a coffee maker pre “some stupid bitch doesn’t know coffee should be hot” and get what ever coffee turns crank – all’s fine … and the coffee is hot.
I’m sold on Death Wish Coffee. super strong but not bitter.
Aeropress is a viable alternate to Kuerig and Amazon Prime can get you one fast.
Melitta “ready set joe” for $5 much better
– Coffee Direct whole beans from Amazon, 5lb bag usually fresh roasted (Italian Espresso and Brazilian Santos)
– Costco Kirkland Espresso
– Even Loblaw/Superstore Colombian beans on sale.
Never pay more than $5-$7/lb
Grind in a $35 Kyocera burr handgrinder powered by a $10 rechargeable B&D screwdriver (takes about 90 seconds for the 24 grams that make 2 cups)
Heat water to 180-190°C in any kettle that lets you set the temp.
Brew with Aeropress fitted with a permanent stainless mesh filter that doesn’t block the oils like a paper filter does.
Froth milk in stainless frother (creates an insulating blanket of foam to keep coffee hot), sprinkle with cinnamon and vanilla sugar.
Heaven on the cheap. Works for us.
How can you expect anyone to take you seriously if you don’t grow your own beans?
The Kurig machines make decent coffee, and I used one for about a year, mostly with the reusable filter pod. In the end, we decided to go to a middle-range espresso machine. Decided that if we had to deal with the mess of the filter-pod, we might as well deal with portafilter mess instead, and get a much better brew (an Americano – double shot, topped off with piping hot water from the sink dispenser).
The Aeropress is awesome, by the way. It currently sits with a manual grinder as our reserve coffee-making system to use during power outages. When the espresso machine finally gives up it’s magic blue smoke (ya’ know, the stuff that makes all those electric gismos actually run), the Aeropress will become the primary coffee-maker.
Best/strongest coffee is Turkish style, boiled in a plain old pot on the plain old stove, ground by hand in the armstrong grinder. But its fiddly, and it takes a while. And the grounds get in your cup etc. etc. so the chicks complain.
You will, however, be AWAKE.
Best/strongest non-fiddly coffee is cappuccino made in a proper Italian machine like a Faema. No consumables, no waste, just straight up Heavenly goodness first thing in the morning. yeahhhhhh… I can move my limbs again!
“If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.” Ferris Bueller.