Keurig's new K-Rounds coffee pods are plastic-free and could finally make single-serve coffee-making sustainable ( www.techradar.com )

This is quite exciting in that it removes plastic waste. I see no reason why different companies can't make different shape ones to maintain their lock-in. I expect a knock-off market to pop-up, but that exists with plastic pods too. It's a step in the right direction at least.

alcoholicorn ,

All coffee pods are garbage.

Especially espresso pods. There's a place around here that has a 20,000 dollar espresso machine, that serves over-extracted espresso because the owner felt pods were easier or something.

cobra89 ,

Is it actually a cafe or just part of another establishment? What kind of cafe has a pod espresso machine? I would never go there.

alcoholicorn , (edited )

It's a restaurant run by an Italian. Not even Italian American, but a first generation immigrant.

It's not a pod espresso machine, it's got normal e61 group heads, perfectly capable of making great espresso if he had a grinder. But instead they use pods of pre-ground coffee that just lets the water shoot through, giving like 4:1 brew ratio.

cobra89 ,

That's such a travesty and a waste of a good machine... Wow.

Sam_Bass ,

Good. Not gonna get me to buy one but good.

Gallus2023 ,

ESE pods have been around for quite a while now, and they've been a great alternative to Keurig.
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ca865c3b-f108-4b9f-b2ae-425252687132.jpeg

yuri ,

I was surprised to learn that the store brand k-cups around here are already fully compostable. It’s just a biodegradable plastic ring with half a sphere of coffee filter on the bottom and a paper disc on top.

sexy_peach ,

Awesome. I wonder why it wasn't like this in the first place. Disposable plastics are too cheap I guess

fubarx ,

Team Aeropress here.

Good to see Keurig try to cut down on plastic waste, but if they really wanted to make an impact, they could open-source the design of the pods so all the alt-cup manufacturers could switch as well. It may be counter-intuitive, but the more options customers have, the more machine sales and goodwill Keurig will create.

ProgrammingSocks ,

Aeropress for the fucking win. It's so beautifully simple and making coffee with it is so easy.

cobra89 ,

Do you use a new paper filter every time or do you use some reusable filter for your aeropress?

fubarx ,

Unbleached, round paper filters. Come in 300 packs. Goes into compost bin along with grounds.

Had metal, reusable ones, but accidentally tossed them out.

toaster ,
@toaster@slrpnk.net avatar

How did the metal ones compare? Mind you, the paper rounds are really small and compossible.

fubarx ,

Same size as paper ones. Thin, perforated metal. Came in two gradations. Taste-wise, couldn't tell the difference. When opening to clean, it slid off so you could wash it, then compost the coffee as usual.

Pretty handy. But somehow, I managed to dump them away. Went back to paper.

cosmicrookie ,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Coffee will never be sustainable. We will all keep drinking it but this is just a feel good movement of making something slightly less bad than it used to be.

spez_ ,

Coffee is slavery (true)

JasonDJ ,

You can have coffee without slavery, but you can't have slavery without coffee.

🇺🇸🏃DD

franglais ,

Noone else is using Senseo dosettes ?

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

What are those?

franglais ,

Basically, a single dose of coffee, wrapped, and sealed in traditional coffee filter material, which is inserted into the machine,can be thrown in to the compost.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

So I'm learning that the Keurig isn't even innovative. Shame!

Obi ,
@Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

I think I've only seen these in France, which is crazy because it's such a simple and elegant solution to this "problem".

Donut ,

Senseo is everywhere in the EU. Personally, I rank it below homemade filter coffee though.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71A+14Di1LL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

EvilLootbox ,
@EvilLootbox@lemmy.world avatar

I've seen these in hotels in Canada, but it was for use with a standard 4-cup machine

AlsaValderaan ,

3rd party Senseo pads are a godsend; good easy fast coffee with a paper filtered coffee pad that just decomposes. I'm sad that it didn't work out over Keurig.

Gallus2023 ,

Also known as ESE pods and available for order from Amazon, and coffee specialty sites!

pedz ,

Yes! We can finally buy our way out of unnecessary waste, and ultimately climate change, with this new thing that keeps us buying. Just gotta buy the ecological things and everything will be good.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

I hear you and ultimately we all have our own versions of utopia. But it doesn't stop us celebrating small steps in the right direction just because we're not at our destination.

Ferrous ,

Is it a step in the right direction, or is it a refinement to the sinister system that is sending us down the drain?

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

It can be both

hydrospanner ,

Not on Lemmy.

Here you have to be angry about everything or you're part of the problem.

Riven ,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Especially when you could just buy a sack of coffee instead of disposables or single use.

cobra89 ,

Or we could stop putting the onus on consumers and demand manufacturers/producers actually do the right thing. Even Keurig said they're still making the plastic pods. The actual answer is regulation.

We need to stop excusing the "it's too expensive to be green" bullshit. If it's too expensive not to poison the planet then it's not economically feasible.

It's like saying "it's too expensive to not put poison in our food", then you shouldn't be making food.

doggle ,

Make it sustainable in pod form specifically. Pour over, drip, French/aeropress seem pretty sustainable. Especially of you use a mesh filter.

dditty , (edited )
@dditty@lemm.ee avatar

Everything in context though. Even if you use a paper filter for coffee every day, the overall paper usage in a year is like the equivalent of what, maybe 2-3 print NYTimes Sunday editions?

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Would like to see this for more than just coffee. Although, the knock off Keurig I have came with a filter cup thing that acts like a reusable pod, so I don't really need the single serve plastic cup pods anyway. I can just put tea, coffee, hot cocoa, etc in that mesh cup and then clean it afterward.

Do official Keurigs not have that?

deezbutts ,

They do

Socsa ,

An here I've been making single serve coffee in a French press my whole life.

joe_cool ,

Ah finally a sane person. Why is normal coffee no longer an option? It doesn't even take any longer unless you grind it by hand.
And it's so much better.

munderzi ,

In Switzerland we got something similar, it's little balls though. It comes packaged in cardboard and you can compost the remains https://www.coffeeb.com/en-ch

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

Oh, cool! How's the coffee?

munderzi ,

It's actually pretty good, don't own a machine but have tried it a couple times. It's also comparable in cost to normal capsules.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

That's really good. One of the criticisms I always see about capsules is the taste and it seems the Swiss managed to overcome it.

klemptor ,

Keurigs taste like trash though.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

For real? I never drink coffee outside of the very rare frappuccino.

scoobford ,

They're very poor brewers, but most people like that sort of grimy mass market coffee flavor. Or just want caffeine and feel weird about taking tablets.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

isn't that a time issue? Like a lower heat and longer brew should fix that right?

scoobford ,

Sort of. You want an even extraction most of all, and while their grinders are probably pretty good, the water coming in doesn't saturate the grounds evenly and isn't a consistent temperature.

sabreW4K3 OP ,
@sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al avatar

That makes sense. That seems like something they should focus on at the design stage.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I figured they just used instant grounds which always taste like crap compared to real brewed coffee.

scoobford ,

Nope, it is regular coffee grounds, but usually they're using terrible beans. You can actually get nice third wave pods, but there's only so much better beans can do if your brewer isn't doing its job well.

homesweethomeMrL ,

Just to be clear, it was always "finally" able to be sustainable - it just wasn't profitable.

Now that they've saturated the market with makers they can "finally" keep the profits rolling with something that kills the planet less.

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