Consistent, Hot, Convenient, Green
Steve is on a Quest for the Perfect Cup of Coffee. It’s been going on for about 6 years now, and I’m just here for the ride. Believe me, if it was my quest it would be more like the Quest for the Perfect Porter or the Quest for Eight Hours of Uninterrupted Sleep.
But no, it’s Steve’s quest for a home-brewed cuppa joe that’s consistent and hot from first sip to last and from first cup to last, as well as convenient to make and environmentally friendly.
It started when we switched from a regular old Mr. Coffee machine to a Krups machine with a built in carafe in order to keep the coffee hot from first cup to last. This stage also dictated the end of spoons to stir since the metal spoon created a “heat sink” that cooled the coffee to an undrinkable temperature.
After four years, this system was deemed unsatisfactory. Our second (and third) cups were too cold and we were wasting a lot of coffee and water on full pots that got thrown away. (Let it be noted that during this stage we had kids, so I only get one hot sip of coffee followed by room temperature dregs an hour later anyway.)
So now we have a Keurig single cup brewer. This meets most of the criteria — each cup starts off hot and fresh. But the k-cups are anything but environmentally friendly. When we first got the machine I had visions of a growing pile of k-cups in a landfill somewhere resulting from my caffeine addiction. So we used a filter with our own coffee. For each cup of coffee, we had to clean and fill the single use filter. Talk about inconvenient. We could use fair trade coffee and compost the grounds, but making coffee became a tedious chore and if the coffee wasn’t ground just right or filled to the optimal amount, the result was, well, less than consistent in taste from cup to cup.
Steve still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. So now we have this thing called a pod holster (yes, I’m still talking about coffee) in which we can load a coffee pod. Pods are fully compostable. So it would seem we have met all the criteria. Each cup is consistent, hot, convenient, and green.
Except, I said to Steve, we can’t get Fair Trade pods. In fact, it’s hard to even get organic pods.
So what’s next you ask? Why, a Perfect Pod of course! So now we’ll buy our own Fair Trade coffee (from Grounds for Change, by the way), make it into pods, use the pods in our pod holster, and conveniently create the perfect cup of hot coffee every time.
Hopefully.
Related Posts
- A good bag is hard to find -- I'm trying to find a new bag. Yes, a...
- Slow Food Revolution -- The Slow Food Movement is all about...
- razzberry in the Way Back Machine -- Steve sent me this cool link to...