What Is Single Serve Coffee?
Pretend you are sitting around on a calm Sunday afternoon. The steady gentle wind soothes your face as you sit back into your front porch chair. You take a deep breath in. You start to muse about life, love, the amazing weekend that has sucked up much of your vigor. You deliberate to yourself, "Man, a warm cup of coffee would be ideal right about now." Your brain runs through the steps of grinding the coffee beans, filling the filter with the ground coffee beans, waiting for the brew cycle. "N'ah, that's a great deal of labor for just a single cup of coffee."
If you owned a Single Serve Coffee Machine here is how that experience would go. Grab a coffee pod, k-cup, etc (more on the three choices shortly) and place it in the single serve coffee machine. Fill the reservoir with water and push a button. Bam, a single mug of coffee in about a minute. You come back to your front porch chair, the gentle wind, the cool Sunday afternoon, only now you have a nice warm mug of coffee to energize your thoughts and lift you through the conclusion of the weekend.
Find A Type
First and foremost we must find the answer to the essential question, how do I prefer my coffee packaged? As soon as we've determined this, we can effortlessly filter our single serve coffee machine research down to several machines. Let us take a look at the varieties. Do not worry! Single serve coffee simply comes in three packaging's (types). These are Coffee pod, K-Cup or T Disc. Let's examine the pros and cons of each. To begin, the K-Cup.
K-Cup
Pros:
-Huge selection. The Green Mountain Coffee Roasters fully support K-Cups with popular brands like Caribou, Tully's, Newman's Own and a large number of others. (For a complete directory visit the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters homepage).
-Availability in local stores such as supermarkets and Wal-Mart. K-Cups tend to have more variety of brands at your local store. If you do not purchase on the internet often and are uncomfortable doing so, this might have a large impact on your single serve coffee machine choice!
Cons:
-Bigger environment-footprint. K-Cups are typically manufactured with non recyclable plastic and tin foil. These go straight into the trash and cannot be used for compost like coffee pods. A group of people have reported success with re-using cups, however, this can be time consuming.
-Although you can create your own K-Cups, a specific K-Cup Refillable Coffee filter is needed (usually the cost for this is about fifteen dollars), in comparison to just the price of a filter for assembling your own coffee pod.
-Cost. As of writing this (February 15, 2011), the smallest cost for a K-Cup (Van Houtte) is 47 cents per k-cup. The cheapest per coffee pod (Melitta - Love at First Sip) is 24 cents per pod. While the lowest price for a t disc (Starbucks - Breakfast Blend) is 58 cents per disc.
Coffee Pod
Pros:
- More Environmentally-friendly (Green) when compared to K-Cups or T Discs. Coffee Pods are usually manufactured with filter paper consisting of all natural fibers, while K-Cups and T Discs are manufactured of plastic. Because coffee pods are made from filter paper, they can be discarded as compost instead of trash.
- You can create your own coffee pods without the use of any unique equipment. All that is required is a coffee filter and ground coffee. (Check out YouTube for instructional videos)
- Price. As of writing this (February 15, 2011), the lowest price per coffee pod I have discovered (Melitta - Love at First Sip) is 24 cents per pod. In comparison, the lowest price for a K-Cup (Van Houtte) is 47 cents per k-cup and the cheapest price for a t disc (Starbucks - Breakfast Blend) is fifty eight cents per disc.
Cons:
-Limited variety, comparatively speaking. The primary supporters manufacturing coffee pods are Senseo, Baronet and Melitta, while K-Cups have access to a large assortment of Green Mountain Coffee brands.
-Smaller accessibility in grocery stores. As of this writing (February 15, 2011), the lone brand carried at most local supermarkets, Wal-Marts, etc are Senseo brand, however, a large number of other brands can be purchased online.
T Disc
Pros:
-Brand name recognition. The single way to acquire single serve pre packaged Starbucks coffee is using the T Disc and Tassimo line of single serve coffee machine. Also available in T-Discs are Maxwell House products.
Cons:
-Smaller selection and availability. Because coffee pods and K-Cups will not work in the Tassimo brewer, you are limited to mainly Starbucks, Maxwell House, and Tassimo varieties of coffee. Also, the accessibility in local stores is typically lesser than K-Cups, however, just like coffee pods (typically one or two varieties).
-Currently no easy way known to make your own T Disc at home.
-Cost. As of writing this (02/15/2011), the smallest price for a t disc (Starbucks - Breakfast Blend) is 58 cents per disc. The cheapest cost for a K-Cup (Van Houtte) is forty seven cents per k-cup. The lowest per coffee pod (Melitta - Love at First Sip) is twenty four cents per pod.
Consider the pros and cons for each type of single serve coffee carefully, as once you make the selection and spend money into the brewer you're stuck with it (unless you purchase a different brewer). In conclusion, all single serve coffee brewers create a great mug of coffee in one to 2 minutes so make certain to choose the format that accommodates your personality in addition to personal wishes. Coffee pod, K-Cup or T Disc?
