Posted on 03/04/2015 10:10:35 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
For one, 'they're kind of expensive,' John Sylvan says
(Newser) If anyone would brew his morning joe using K-Cups, you'd think it would be the inventor of the K-Cup himself. But John Sylvan, whose single-serve pods revolutionized the coffee landscape, sticks with making coffee the old-fashioned way. "I don't have [pods]. They're kind of expensive to use," John Sylvan tells James Hamblin, writing for the Atlantic. "Plus it's not like drip coffee is tough to make." But besides being steeper in cost, the plastic-and-foil pods that made up most of Keurig Green Mountain's $4.7 billion in revenue last year have been called out for being environmentally unfriendly. According to a 2014 article in Mother Jones, Green Mountain made 8.3 billion of the non-biodegradeable, mostly non-recyclable K-Cups in 2013—"enough to wrap around the equator 10.5 times." "I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it," Sylvan admits to Hamblin about his invention.
The Green Mountain K-Cups' lack of, well, green-ness has led to environmental advocate backlash: A 2010 New York Times article said Green Mountain's sales growth, boosted by the K-Cup, ran "counter to its reputation" as an "eco-friendly" company; more recently, a Canadian production company created a "Kill the K-Cup" video that went viral on YouTube. Keurig promised in its 2014 "Sustainability Report" that by the year 2020, "100% of K-Cup packs will be recyclable." But that's five years away—and Green Mountain's competitors are already using reusable, biodegradable pods. The company's chief sustainability officer tells Hamblin, "I gotta be honest with you, we're not happy with where we are, either." Sylvan, who sold his share of the company in 1997 for $50,000, says he has come up with a "much better way" of packaging and transporting the coffee, but that the powers-that-be at Keurig "don't want to listen." (Someday you'll be able to make Coke via something similar to a K-Cup.)
In the grand scheme of things, K-cups are among the least of our worries.
My husband and I drink different types of coffee, plus we prefer it freshly brewed. K-Cups work for us. They are more expensive, but we’re not dumping out brewed coffee either.
I notice he didn’t complain about company profits from the sale of them.
True. I try to use the pot, but that second cup of coffee never tastes like the first.
There’s a market for every conceivable type of coffee delivery system, it seems. We prefer it from a percolator for our 2-3 morning jolts, still have the electric one from 1958 my Dad got with Domino cigarette coupons - just for holidays.
I bought the K-cup thingie and it was the worst ever — I took it back and gave the cups to my brother.
I have a auto-grinder that has a pot that keeps coffee hot for about 10 hours.
The K-cup is too dang small and whole bean coffee still tastes much better.
I agree with him but hey, it’s a (somewhat) free country...
He sold the company in 97 for 50K (at least that’s what I read).
I love old coffee my mom would make a pot for herself in the am and would keep it going all day i would come by to say hi most days on my way home made Great ice coffee
Damn! I thought they were thimbles.
i only need one cup. so it’d be a waste if i don’t use k-cup.
I like k-cups. I drink one everyday before I get ready for work. My wife doesn’t drink coffee. I am happy to cough up the $0.40 per day for the ease and convenience. Before we got the Kuerig Christmas 2013, I never used the pot, but instead wound up getting a cup at 7-Eleven for $1.79 on the way to work so the way I see it, the k-cups are actually saving me money.
-PJ
Do the reusable pods work well for you?
I worked at a gourmet dessertery some years ago. Owner wouldn’t let us leave a pot of coffee over 30 minutes on the eye. He was right. The flavor ‘burns’.
I’ll take my french press with some freshly ground beans over every other delivery system, thank you very much.
I have yet to have a decent (and strong!) cup of coffee out a keurig.
Gross description....and unnecessary.
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