I don't get this. If this is important to you, why not use a system that didn't require recycling in the first place?
1. Turn on the espresso boiler and allow it to warm up for 20-30 minutes. 2. Grind beans at the correct setting, then tamp them into the wand with just the right amount of pressure 3. Insert wand into machine, turn it on, and perfectly time the pour 4. Dispose of hot coffee grinds, rinse, brush and clean the wand. 5. Pour milk into frothing cup and steam for 60+ seconds or until optimal temperature is reached while ensuring that the steam properly turns the milk to achieve desired froth. 6. Combine milk and espresso in cup 7. Clean espresso shot cup, clean milk frothing cup, clean up errant coffee grounds, remember to turn off machines.
The process for making a cappuccino with the Nespresso machine:
1. Pour milk into frother, press button. 2. Insert pod, press button. It will finish within about 20 seconds, and a few seconds after that the milk will also be done. 3. Pour frothed milk into the cup that the espresso was dispensed into. 4. Rinse milk frother.
I had time for the full machine routine on a Saturday morning, but not before work.
I think you're dramatically exaggerating the effort involved in DIYing it, and (done properly) you get a substantially tastier result from the real machine too.
Not to mention you're making the problem worse by making people defensive about their decisions, which just makes them go deeper and be unwilling to compromise. Try to solve the problem instead grand-standing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N2YKQ0/ref=oh_aui_sear...
Your metric for what is or isn't convenient isn't necessarily anybody else's, and other people aren't "wrong" for having different metrics than yours. Optimizing for time spent in the process of making the thing is a perfectly cromulent priority.
I just find it endlessly fascinating to watch people extrapolate from their personal preferences, in the face of a demonstrably valuable (in the "it has value to someone" sense — because people are buying the things, which, in a capitalist system is definitive of "having value") to "There's no justification ... at all".
They don't even know the alternatives exist. Marketing is king.
You're misinterpreting the point. It's not quibbling over whether the customer values the product, that's self-evident. It's "not justifiable" in the ethical sense in light of environmental impact and the alternatives available. People just don't know.
People opt for Keurig because it's quick and user friendly. Pop in a pod, hit a button, and then continue your morning routine. The entire user experience takes all of 10 seconds which has tangible value. I agree with your ethics argument, but I still don't believe that people are just buying Keurigs because they are blinded by marketing.
People are making a choice — an admittedly consequential one, yes — but they're making it based on their personal priorities, not because marketing has deluded them into thinking there's no other way. They're paying someone else to have done all the work of making their cup of coffee, except loading the pod, pushing the button, and making sure the water tank is full enough — for them, at least.
Hell, even that illustrates the point: in every environment I've ever been with a shared pod coffee machine, I've had to fill the basin, more often than not. People can't even be arsed to make sure there's enough water in the stupid thing for the next person who wants a cuppa. It's laziness.
Other than drip, that's what I'm saying. They aren't aware of convenient alternatives. Stands to reason if they did, they'd buy them.
> they're making it based on their personal priorities, not because marketing has deluded them into thinking there's no other way
I don't think you can divorce marketing impact from consumer choices. Keurig as a priority wouldn't have existed without the advertising effort a priori.
Of course they do.
I think the coffee pod idea took off because people use them at work (it's a pretty good setup for offices), liked the convenience, and end up buying a machine for home.
I have an E61 based espresso machine at home with a flat burr grinder and if it either part were to break today, I'd probably replace it with a Nespresso machine.
Query your friends and family some time.
I disagree on your second point, we can think that it's a morally wrong view to believe that our personal time is worth more than the earth's health.
I'm sure it is for some people, but status signaling is baked into our monkey brains at such a deep level, I find it a bit silly to be something we throw shade at people for doing. But even if Joe the status-signaling pod coffee drinker is status signaling, he probably also appreciate the extra five minutes in the morning, or whatever.
Also, I've never tasted an instant coffee that didn't disappoint, usually profoundly. The pods are actual, real-time brewed coffee, with the same level of convenience.
The tasteful way is to invite people to visit your home where they can see it.
The tacky way is to tell people about it.
Another excellent example. Now we have coffee which tastes awful and still takes longer.
It takes about two seconds to pop in a k-cup, maybe 20 more every N cups to fill up water. Also allows for different grounds to be used on a per cup basis.
Convenience and speed is the entire reason these things exist.
Now, I'd never get one of these machines, because it tastes like ass - I tried it at work. People at the office walk up, pick from 20 different flavors, and make their cup. What is it you suggest to replace that? 20 huge office pots that someone refills from a huge drip machine, so some are out and some get underused and tossed/refilled in a few hours?
Your comparison is what does not make sense. You are taking your use case, which does not apply to 90% of the self-brew cases. Literally the definition of a strawman. I personally think cars are a bad invention, and I don't see the use. I live across the street from work, and once a week take a lyft. Why are all these people driving?? I just can't figure it out.
Now, here's what I do actually do. I have Kona green cherry and Peaberry light roast. I take a cup of green and grind it fine in my conical grinder. I double-filter tap water, boil it, then filter it again the next day once cool. I use that to boil the green for about 10min in a large steel pot. I drink half of that mixed with fairlife fat free milk. Good for 1st drink of the morning. While that's going on, I grind 2 cups of peaberry, and dump it into the pot, adding a lot more boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes, let sit for 10. Now it's mixed light roast peaberry and green, for that lightly charred lawnmowerbag taste. It's naturally quite sweet, but sometimes I'll add a splenda.
I spend more than an hour per day on coffee. The process is relaxing. When I'm at work running from one meeting to the next, I pop in a cup with some weird flavor and go on my way. If I had to do what you do, I wouldn't do it at all. That's the price of your 6-7 minutes - a barrier to entry that's just too damn high.
People like to virtue-signal but when they really want something all convictions go out the window.
Ours is a small UK city, larger cities the traffic is slower still.
Somehow, I don't think that's were "most" of the people live.
And as I wrote that last bit, I realized that I should not have said "in the _world_".
For the vast majority of people in the parts of the world where using pod coffee machines is a meaningful thing to talk about, your commute is a driving or transit kind of thing, not walking or biking.
Not only does Nestlé put above average coffee in those capsules – the aluminum encasing ensures that the aroma doesn't evaporate. It's not espresso, but it is by far the best taste at an reasonable price.
And don't forget the space a serious espresso machine usually takes up (10k €). Grinder not included.
Not only were developers given fewer reasons to leave the office, but the non-men on staff weren't stuck with maintaining a coffee service.
Now that I’m thinking I don’t actually understand what your hang up is. You’re asking why if recycling is important, didn’t OP use something that didn’t require recycling. He values recycling and being green so he selected a proprietor that reflected that.
And our food squeamishness also exists on a sliding scale: we will always accumulate more and more layers of plastic around our food, even though it's already packaged in a way that's totally safe and durable and sanitary. Remember when cereal just came in the cardboard box? This process is cumulative and will never end. We will never say no to another layer of plastic around our products at some point in the journey from factory to consumption.
I'd like to know exactly how recyclable those Nestle pods are. I suppose they refill and reuse them? What about if you toss them into a standard recycling system instead of mailing them to Nestle, which will never be a commitment that a significant number of consumers make. Sorry, it's just not going to happen at scale and they know it. The program is likely just PR. I doubt they are recyclable in a single-stream system because they're full of coffee grounds / whatever else.
It's astounding how much of the stuff we think we're sending to be recycled is just rejected and tossed anyway. It's an enormous percentage.
However prices are over thirty cents each. Now on my watch I get 4 cups from 1oz(28g) of coffee brewed with the Bonavita I can buy some really expensive coffee before I get back to the price of k-cups. filters are trivial cost and free if you use a washable. even making one cup isn't bad but I find the brew to be better with three or four cups. Work involved is really hardly any extra effort, at least not to be noticeable
Fortunately for me they pretty much removed me as a customer when the v2 came out which scanned lids to validate it was approved to brew. My original unit had been acting up but when confronted with a box or two of coffee and reusable pods being not valid I just skipped out.
Second, that sounds like a heinously inefficient recycling program that relies on the goodwill of consumers... an extremely weak attempt at addressing the problem.
What about an automated version of Aeropress that forced the same amount of hot water and hot air/steam through a Nespresso-like pod? It could have adjustable temperature and press times, and should make coffee indistinguishable from an Aeropress. This would eliminate the one disadvantage of the Aeropress: it's quite easy but not quite as convenient as putting in a pod and pressing a button.
My experience in Tuscany in the mid 2000's, was that random corner store espresso wasn't bad or was pretty good and rarely had any bitterness. So if the pods are filled and sealed correctly, there should be a way of getting a result far superior to what Keurig machines typically yield.
If one is really a smart and self-aware person, it pays to be aware of how clueless one can still be, especially if it has to do with cultural or sub-cultural knowledge. It's the ability to see beyond groupthink which is the actual "reality distortion field." It's actually the ability to see past the existing reality distortion fields, which is the key.
Just how subject to groupthink are Bay Area folks? They are so subject to groupthink, they will spend lots of time and money for inferior product, in ignorance of cheaper, superior existing solutions.
it takes a 5-7 minutes total but i've developed a routine where i do other things (feed pets, make breakfast, etc) during the wait times so the marginal cost is really only an extra minute or two. cleanup is just rinsing out the dripper (and washed once a week). even this drip coffee tastes better to me than nespresso and only takes a few extra seconds.
Last Christmas I was on the fence about whether to get a Nespresso or a Keurig. I ended up with the Keurig because it came in a color that matched the other appliances on my counter, while Nespresso only came in black, or somewhat-less-black.
If I'd known about the recyclable aluminum pods, I would have gone with Nespresso in spite of the limited color options.
Something I was surprised to learn is that many high-end (read: Michelin recommended or higher) use Nespresso. The reason? Absolute consistency. When they need espresso for a dish, or dessert, or even to serve (espresso/cappuccino) they know that it's the same result, every time. [1]
1- https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/ap...
Although I like to point out, that when drinking Espresso out of home I'm with what the layman's bible of modern haute cuisine (modernist cuisine) promotes: that it's exactly the variance of Espressos "out in the wild" that can give you superb once in a lifetime taste experiences.