keurig
So, I took one look at how much I was spending for two people to get daily coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and promptly decided it was time to replace my poor dead coffee machine.
One of the reasons I hadn't done this earlier is that my old coffee machine lived upstairs, in an alcove off my living room, and even before it died had fallen into disuse. The only kitchen in the house is downstairs, and I share it with my mother. (By 'share,' I mean I purchase all the food, I do all the cooking, I do most of the cleaning except when I basically *force* my mother to do dishes, and my mother ransacks/destroys/messes up whatever she can reach. Think the worst housemate you ever had, give that housemate an out-of-control six-year-old child, and that's living with mom.)
So I didn't want to deal with putting a coffee machine where mom would have access to it. And while I do have a bathroom -- two of them, in fact -- complete with sink, neither sink is well-shaped to deal with cleaning a carafe.
So, I've bought a keurig. It's got a good reservoir of water which doesn't need to be filled every day, and which doesn't need daily washing. It makes each mug of very hot coffee (temperature can be controlled if one wants less heat) in about fifteen seconds, after an initial 4-minute warm-up period which it can be programmed to do automatically (it's got a digital clock/timer.) Each pod -- thus each mug -- costs about 46¢ * (5 for $2.30, 24 for $10.99.)
There's a wide range of folks who make 'k-cup' pods: for flavour testing I've ordered 5 pods each of
• sumatran reserve organic extra bold from green mountain coffee
• dietrich coffee sumatra
• caribou coffee sumatra
• wolfgang puck sumatra kopi raya
• coffee people kona blend island style extra bold
• tully's coffee kona blend extra bold
• green mountain coffee kenyan AA extra bold
• green mountain coffee summer safari
• green mountain coffee nantucket blend
Clearly I favour indonesian / island coffees!
The sample pack which shipped with the keurig also included flavoured coffees (vanilla, hazlenut) and twinings tea (earl grey,) as well as other brands of coffee (gloria jean's, emeril, van houtte.) One can purchase coffee, tea, and hot cocoa pods.
It's possible also to buy reusable pod inserts to use if one grinds one's own beans. When I had my own kitchen to myself, I always ground my beans, but given the distance between the machine and the kitchen sink, the lack of mess is worth using the pre-packed pods, and the mug I had this morning (Green Mountain extra bold sumatran reserve) was delicious.
I did have to go looking for reasonable prices on these k-cups -- buying from Amazon generally puts the cost per cup over $1.00! -- but 46¢ per mug seems fairly reasonable. (When I was grinding my own beans, I never did the math to figure out how many 9.25oz mugs I got out of an $11 bag of beans, but 24 doesn't seem *that* far off.)
Mmmm, maybe I'll splurge today, and treat myself to a second mugful... maybe a caribou blend?
.....
* edit: with the "warranty" code at keurig, one can get 96 pods for $25.11 shipped, or about 26¢ per pod. It's a one-time only deal, but shopping carefully one seems to be able to find other deals like this. I've never seen such pricing variety in a product:
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $22 at Amazon: 92¢ each
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $13.95 at Green Mountain: 58¢ each
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $10.99 at Kenoza: 46¢ each
.....
One of the reasons I hadn't done this earlier is that my old coffee machine lived upstairs, in an alcove off my living room, and even before it died had fallen into disuse. The only kitchen in the house is downstairs, and I share it with my mother. (By 'share,' I mean I purchase all the food, I do all the cooking, I do most of the cleaning except when I basically *force* my mother to do dishes, and my mother ransacks/destroys/messes up whatever she can reach. Think the worst housemate you ever had, give that housemate an out-of-control six-year-old child, and that's living with mom.)
So I didn't want to deal with putting a coffee machine where mom would have access to it. And while I do have a bathroom -- two of them, in fact -- complete with sink, neither sink is well-shaped to deal with cleaning a carafe.
So, I've bought a keurig. It's got a good reservoir of water which doesn't need to be filled every day, and which doesn't need daily washing. It makes each mug of very hot coffee (temperature can be controlled if one wants less heat) in about fifteen seconds, after an initial 4-minute warm-up period which it can be programmed to do automatically (it's got a digital clock/timer.) Each pod -- thus each mug -- costs about 46¢ * (5 for $2.30, 24 for $10.99.)
There's a wide range of folks who make 'k-cup' pods: for flavour testing I've ordered 5 pods each of
• sumatran reserve organic extra bold from green mountain coffee
• dietrich coffee sumatra
• caribou coffee sumatra
• wolfgang puck sumatra kopi raya
• coffee people kona blend island style extra bold
• tully's coffee kona blend extra bold
• green mountain coffee kenyan AA extra bold
• green mountain coffee summer safari
• green mountain coffee nantucket blend
Clearly I favour indonesian / island coffees!
The sample pack which shipped with the keurig also included flavoured coffees (vanilla, hazlenut) and twinings tea (earl grey,) as well as other brands of coffee (gloria jean's, emeril, van houtte.) One can purchase coffee, tea, and hot cocoa pods.
It's possible also to buy reusable pod inserts to use if one grinds one's own beans. When I had my own kitchen to myself, I always ground my beans, but given the distance between the machine and the kitchen sink, the lack of mess is worth using the pre-packed pods, and the mug I had this morning (Green Mountain extra bold sumatran reserve) was delicious.
I did have to go looking for reasonable prices on these k-cups -- buying from Amazon generally puts the cost per cup over $1.00! -- but 46¢ per mug seems fairly reasonable. (When I was grinding my own beans, I never did the math to figure out how many 9.25oz mugs I got out of an $11 bag of beans, but 24 doesn't seem *that* far off.)
Mmmm, maybe I'll splurge today, and treat myself to a second mugful... maybe a caribou blend?
.....
* edit: with the "warranty" code at keurig, one can get 96 pods for $25.11 shipped, or about 26¢ per pod. It's a one-time only deal, but shopping carefully one seems to be able to find other deals like this. I've never seen such pricing variety in a product:
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $22 at Amazon: 92¢ each
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $13.95 at Green Mountain: 58¢ each
Green Mountain Nantucket Blend, box of 24 for $10.99 at Kenoza: 46¢ each
.....