I had a Keurig and the guilt of throwing away all the plastic made me get a regular coffee pot. I also don't like that a Keurig never seems to brew strong enough for me. But since I live alone and don't have a lot of time in the morning, the idea of getting out the grinder, filling the pot, and waiting for 4 cups to brew is boring.
We have a Keurig at work and I bought an expensive box of boidegradable k-cups but the coffee was awful.
Anyone have some brands that don't suck?
Since this is the Internet and you naturally expect someone to give you an answer to a question that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the question you actually asked.... :)
I don't think I have any experience with biodegradable K-cups, however, we almost exclusively use the re-usable pods in our house and it makes a pretty good cup of coffee. Now, I'm not as picky about my coffee as a lot of people are, but we'll typically just use Folgers Black Silk and fill the reusable cup with a couple scoops of coffee to make a "large" and a "small" to fill one of the Hammer Store Yeti clones.
I'll check when I get home. My wife bought biodegradable k cups for me from a company called San Francisco something or other.
I have their breakfast blend and donut shop blend. It is MUCH more potent than the regular k cups...
We have keruigs at work too. I keep a plastic re-usable k cup and some ground beans in my drawer. Works good enough for who its for.
I could never get the re-usable ones to make a decent cup. When I make coffee at home, I use 6 tbsp of espresso roast coffee ground powder fine for four cups (marked on the carafe) of water. I like my coffee opaque and cloudy. It's one of the reasons I felt so warm and fuzzy buying Duke's LeMans... I walked in and he offered me a cup of black caffeine syrup and had a half-gallon of half and half in the fridge. I was like "this guy is my kind of people."
That also kinda doesn't get around the whole prep-time issue, but you're right, it's an option.
A programmable coffee pot means you can "make" it the night before and have it ready in the morning. Makes a great alarm clock too.
I have extreme doubts that they're actually biodegradable, much like those "compostable plastic" utensils. You want a biodegradable single-serve coffee solution? #2 filter, small pot or pour-overs.
Curtis said:I could never get the re-usable ones to make a decent cup. When I make coffee at home, I use 6 tbsp of espresso roast coffee ground powder fine for four cups (marked on the carafe) of water. I like my coffee opaque and cloudy. It's one of the reasons I felt so warm and fuzzy buying Duke's LeMans... I walked in and he offered me a cup of black caffeine syrup and had a half-gallon of half and half in the fridge. I was like "this guy is my kind of people."
That also kinda doesn't get around the whole prep-time issue, but you're right, it's an option.
make mine Cafe' Bustelo. 10 scoops/ 10 cups, Sweet and Creamy.
Nespresso.
Coffee is great and the pods are aluminum and can be recycled.
Not biodegradable, but Wegmans K cups peel apart and are recyclable.
We were having good success using the plastic re-useable k cup with fine ground espresso beans. I would go to a local coffee grinder and talk to them about your needs. There is an incredible variety of coffee beans and grinds, something will be perfect for you.
A commercial Bunn machine means you can have whatever coffee you want in <3 minutes. And no K cup thingies. I actually question if there exists any K cup thingie that doesn't suck. And a whole pot of coffee in the Bunn is cheaper than a single K cup thingie.
I too use the re-usable K-cup thing. I have tried several different types and found the Keurig brand one that came with my machine to be the best. The trick is to grind your own whole bean coffee quite fine. I get a full mug of nice strong coffee that has a lovely bit of brown coffee sludge on the bottom. Perfect!
I have a drip machine that has the grinder in the basket. No filter. It also has the timer, so I wake up to freshly ground coffee in the morning; no waiting! It will brew a cup or two nicely.
My next grind/drip machine will be one that has a filter.
I bought a nesspresso.. It makes my wife happy.
Trans_Maro said:Nespresso.
Coffee is great and the pods are aluminum and can be recycled.
Oooo... hadn't thought about that route.
Fueled by Caffeine said:I bought a nesspresso.. It makes my wife happy.
Make sure you one that isn't bottom of the line. In general I greatly dislike these coffee pod systems, but a cheap Nespresso machine made the worst coffee I've ever had, and kept breaking down requiring a cleaning/reassembly, and was in general a time suck that I didn't need at all--but it was free at work, so...
The $100 machine that I've had some from made an ok cup.
Dr. Hess said:A commercial Bunn machine means you can have whatever coffee you want in <3 minutes. And no K cup thingies. I actually question if there exists any K cup thingie that doesn't suck. And a whole pot of coffee in the Bunn is cheaper than a single K cup thing
Loosecannon wrote:
We were having good success using the plastic re-useable k cup with fine ground espresso beans. I would go to a local coffee grinder and talk to them about your needs. There is an incredible variety of coffee beans and grinds, something will be perfect for you.
I do have to get a little coffee snob here. I started years ago down this wormhole of coffee chemistry when I watched the episode of Good Eats where Alton talks all about the science behind it. I went deep.
The problem with both of these methods (bunn and reusable k-cup) is that the water doesn't spend enough time with the coffee. It doesn't really brew the coffee, it kinda rinses off some coffee-like brown water. There is a theory that some of the "better" k-cup flavors included a good dose of instant coffee to improve flavor. In that case, the coffee was properly brewed to capture the chemicals you want, then dried so that it could be instantly re-created when in contact with water.
It's one of the reasons I think "real" coffee is either a slow drip at 181F where the water stays in contact with the grounds for no less than 1 minute and no more than 3, OR a french press at 175F as a compromise. The french press I prefer the 175F to start so it pulls less tannic acid and dissolves less of the starches and fibers given its longer exposure.
I think this thread boils down to this: I want world-class, coffee-snob, elitist, perfect coffee, but I'm the laziest MF I know, so I want it in 12 seconds by pushing a button. Sound about right? 
I still think what you actually want is a grind/brew drip machine. I got ours at department store; it's a Black and Decker.
Here's an ugly red one $12 cheaper than the black one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M01OEPO/ref=twister_B00MCKXRBA?_encoding=UTF8&th=1
Don't wait for your freshly ground and drip coffee. Have it wake you up. 
There again, the coffee snob in me doesn't like the idea of grinding coffee and then letting it sit in the filter for 9 hours. Precious aromatics, man. But you are right. That would solve a lot of issues.
It grinds the beans in the basket wire filter just before it starts the brew process. The fun is waking up early and forgetting about the coffee maker and have the grinder go off will definitely wake you up!
Ohhh.... I didn't look closely enough at the link. It grinds it for you? For $50? And its red like the other small appliances in my kitchen? AND FREE SHIPPING?
That seems worth a shot. Thanks.
Have you tried cold brew? With cold brew you get all the deliciousness of the coffee and something like 30% of normal coffee acidity. If you don't want to enjoy it cold you can throw it in the microwave to have hot coffee. I like it cold and concentrated. My wife loves hot coffee because she's some sort of lizard people that is always cold so she warms hers in the microwave before adding her cream and sugar.
What’s it say when at first glance of this thread title I thought it was going to be about a biodegradable K-car?
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