We have a Nespresso machine (our second one). In the past I was very quick to poo-poo coffee out of pods, but now I'm a convert to this particular brand.
Having said that, a really well made coffee from a proper espresso machine would still win for me. But I can't beat the convenience for my before work cup of coffee, especially with the milk frother.

I have one in the office and at home. In light of throwing away half a pot of coffee at both locations almost everyday, I purchased them. It solved the problem of always having a fresh cup, and the fact that my wife and I have different tastes in coffee.

I too have a problem with the waste they create. I contacted a couple manufacturers to ask about recycling and got the typical answer of "We're working on it." I suspect that there is something about the plastic used, heat and those plastics that can be easily recycled.

You can use the refillable pod, but I have been told they can clog the works up. They are also a pain to clean. Thanks for addressing this. Maybe there will be a answer for the waste side dilemma soon.

My bf just gave me one of these yesterday. I have only had a french press and a fancy coffee grinder and I am very afraid. I ordered some Coffee People Donut Shop coffee and I'm hoping for the best. If that is bad I will probably get the reusable k-cup and make my own pods.

Originally I hated the idea of K-cups or pods. You ever look at the ingredients on the cups? Kinda weird. But my husband bought one on sale last Christmas.... and although I'm a coffee snob, it's really hard to poo-poo them because they're just so darn tasty and quick. Although I would never turn down a lovely cappuccino from a proper machine, its just that nobody's offering.
Also, I third the waste conundrum. Wish, they'd figure something out already.

i love the convenience for a single cup morning, and i do use the reusable pod filter rather than buying and throwing away single-use pods, but i'll be damned if it tastes anywhere near as good as the coffee out of my bunn. same coffee, same ratio per cup, same water - the coffee out of the bunn is just BETTER.

my husband loves his kuerig after being converted by the machines at his office.
i have a HUGE problem with tossing all those k-cups!
Since his office's coffee service collects and recycles the k-cups, he brings the used cups from home to recycle at work.

If you use a K-Cup machine at home and know someone who has a coffee service at work, check to see if you can recycle your cups!

Otherwise, I would never own the machine.

got the B130 a few months ago, and after spending over $75 on different k-cups, i must say that the coffee I have had from this machine ranges from undrinkable to mildly insulting.

My wife says I'm crazy but I there must be something wrong with me or this machine.

Here in the UK I use a Nespresso machine, which I would NEVER give up!

Nespresso also have a full recycling service here too, you simply hand the empty pods to the delivery driver when they drop off your new pods. They even provide the bags to store the empties in.

Aside from being hugely wasteful and making some of the worst Folgers-in-a-Bunn level coffee I've ever had, these things are quite convenient.

Great for use in an office/lobby, especially for groups used to pots of Folgers sitting on a hotplate all day. A big upgrade in management/maintenance/variety, but not so much in quality in my experience.

The wastefulness of these things drives me nuts! Even if you can recycle the little cups, you still have to consider the resources (water, energy, etc.) that go into recycling them. And aside from that, I think the coffee they make is just awful! I make coffee one cup at a time in a small french press. It's easy, the coffee is great, and no plastic waste!

Considering I usually want to drink four cups of coffee, it doesn't really work. I make a pot in my five-cup machine and fill my reusable coffee mug. Or I fill it up at 7-11 on the way to work.

My parents have a few and I LOVE the Koerig. Especially since I'm pregnant right now, when I'm home I can make a single cup of decaf and not inconvenience anyone, which is really nice. Unfortunately, I never can justify dropping at least 100 bucks when I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home. Doesn't stop me from wanting one!

I agree with katepk and everyone else about how wasteful those machines are. The coffee tastes horrible and the machine takes too much space. I think they are waaay overrated.

My parents have a built in Nespresso machine at home, but since I moved out (currently living on a different continent) I REALLY miss the Nespresso machine. Sadly there's no way I can afford my own yet.

I have a tassimo and I would never switch. Ever. Did I say ever?

the waste is enough reason for me. but we had one at work so I tried it a few times... in order to get the coffee strong enough, I had to make it on the strongest level (equivalent to "regular" coffee in my opinion) and then it only fills up my cup halfway! I'm certainly not going to use TWO k-cups for every cup of coffee!

I don't really understand the attraction of these machines. I use an old-fashioned electric percolator and it works great - no filter, no waste and you can brew just one cup if you want and it takes no longer to brew. Just sayin'

two words: DARK MAGIC. most of the k-cup flavors are reminiscent of puddle water, but 'dark magic' is really good + actually tastes like real coffee. i love my keurig.

I think Wolfgang Puck has one of these single brewer machines, but instead of having them in an actual pot, they're compostable, and I believe the plastic wrapping it comes in. Our office has a little basket for the used pods, and people can take them and use it in their gardens back home.

I have a Tassimo, and while it is convenient making a single cup of coffee....the ingredients turn me off of it most of the time. Especially any of the "Cappuccino" or "Latte" versions, there is a decidedly...unnatural taste to them.

Aeropress. Perfect coffee. No waste. Simple. Easy to travel with.

I was given a Keurig a while back, but hated the waste of Kcups. We fitted it with the reusable basket, however, and now we actually waste less than with a traditional coffee maker - no more throwing away half a cold pot of coffee! Plus, I can use any sort of coffee I like, not just what's available as a Kcup. It's worked out well.

To those who object to the waste of k-cups: Keurigs have refillable k-cups. I have one. It is awesome, and I have yet to purchase any additional pre-made k-cups (I did use the ones that came with the machine). A quick dump & a rinse and I'm good to go!

I love my K-cup! I do use a French press on weekends, though, when I want a rich pot of coffee. My husband drinks tea, so I was wasting a lot of coffee when I had a regular coffee machine. I had a Tassimo prior to the k-cup and it eventually made bad-tasting coffee, despite my cleaning it. The cups ended up tasting off. Anyway, two big thumbs up for the K-cup and all of their varieties of cups.

I second (third?) the reusable K-cup idea. It's the best of both worlds- the Keurig for a quick shot of hot water or coffee, and you get to choose your own beans. Way cheaper than K-cups too, which seem to get pricier every time I look. We use a "Solofill" cup picked up on Amazon.

For those with Keurigs that are only filling half the cup: No amount of descaling would fix this, but I took mine apart and discovered blockage in the filter below the water reservoir. I cleaned that out, and it now works like new. I hope this helps.

I have a 7 year old Capresso machine that takes beans and makes one cup at a time (pressed), yes, it is much more expensive than the pods, but it's been an absolute workhorse, and the coffee is excellent and cheaper to run than the pods.

I think they are wasteful, expensive, and the coffee is not very good. It's not that hard to make some coffee in a regular coffee maker. You don't have to fill the whole thing! ;)

Not impressed. Happy to stick with my little moka.

I absolutely love my Keurig coffee maker. There is such a huge selection of K-Cups that you would be hard-pressed not to find one you like. I like stronger coffee so I buy the dark roasts and it makes delicious coffee. It is so quick and easy to use and there is really nothing to clean up except my mug and the drip tray on occasion. The K-Cups cost around 50 cents each so they aren't really cheap, but considering all the coffee I threw out from the drip coffee maker (even when making only half a pot), the K-Cups are probably a bargain. I still keep my drip coffee maker on hand for parties and I buy fresh coffee for that, but otherwise I use my Keurig every day.

I also have a Nespresso machine which I will take with me to the grave! I love this machine entirely too much. Since my husband is not a coffee drinker, making a pot of coffee just for me never made any sense. It's so quick and easy to just make a cup of whatever (my go to, 1 long with extra hot water and then topped off with some soy or almond milk).

I think it was mentioned above, but the Nespresso capsules are recyclable.

I don't like the waste, but the Keurig saves me at work. We have tons of coffee drinkers, but all of them are apparently trained ninjas that will be happy to brew a pot of coffee, but leave no trace behind to indicate who could be responsible for cleaning the thing, or buying more coffee and creamer. Ever.

After multiple occasions in which moldy coffee grounds were discovered in the machine, after everyone in the office stubbornly refusing to clean up after someone else (again!), and many, many (expensive and also wasteful) cups of take out coffee while the machine sat, dirty and unused, in the office, we got a Keurig and never looked back.

What can I say? People are animals.

It is a waste of money!

I bought one of those machines once. When I opened the box and read the warning on the pamplet enclosed, I immediately returned it. It read - contains chemicals known to cause cancer. Not "could possibly cause". But known to cause. Yikes!!

I HATE the Keurig! I have one at my office (we've actually gone through 3 now because they always break) and the coffee is consistently burnt tasting, acidic and using the k-cup just makes for weak coffee and a waste of my good beans. Like everyone else here, I hate the unnecessary waste the cups create and I don't like the thought of the cheap plastic leaching chemicals into my coffee (I know, I know, get over it). Long live the french press!

Don't both with the refillable k-cups (I swear they're flawed by design). Get a Solofil cup and grind your own beans! French press for special occasions :P

Eh... seems like another expensive gadget. I prefer my moka pot.

the K cups aren't meant to make better coffee, they're meant to make more convenient coffee. but it's icky. i like my french press and moka pot.

I am the first to admit that I am a coffee snob. I have invested a great deal of money into my "ultimate" setup (Macap grinder and Expobar Brewtus) and I order my beans from Blue Bottle....

However, while vacationing in Paris last year, I discovered the Nespresso Citiz. I ended up getting one for my boyfriend because he doesn't drink coffee every day and the pods stay "fresher" (don't get me started on this - of course, the quality is nowhere near what I get from my machine).

But it's a great back-up or alternative to SBUX. It travels well and is really easy to maintain. My only issue is that the pods are not easily available in US stores.

This is unacceptably wasteful. Even if they were refillable / compostable, it probably takes tons of oil and industrial metabolism to make all those little cups and pods in the first place. Plastic can only be downcycled, not really recycled. Glad to see there are some companies who call themselves green but obviously don't give a crap about the planet.

I go for instant 3 in 1 in the morning and on w weekends hubby prepares by beating ,:)

I agree with all the comments regarding excessive waste. Personally, I feel that these kinds of products are the consumerism culture at it's worst. Any product that locks you into buying a specific plastic encased packet to work is bad design. What's sad is how few people will bother to recycle the pods that can be reused.

I'll stick with my regular ol' coffee pot. I'm not a fan.

No thanks here. DH and I drink a substantial amount of coffee. I can't even imagine what it would cost for coffee for us each week. The waste factor really bothers me as well. I'm not familiar enough with the packaging but don't how they would be recyclable in our compost bin or the standard paper/plastic. We've got a very liberal recycling program and anything I can't recycle has to be pretty spectacular to earn it's way into my house.

We saved the empty k cups for a month or so and used them as pods for starting seeds last spring. They are a perfect size, and even have the hole in the bottom from brewing that works great for drainage. We placed them on an old cookie sheet and kept it watered. Worked great for growing seedlings!

Pfffft...

"It's wasteful and expensive!!"

So is spending $4 on a bad cup of coffee from Starbucks, yet I see billions of people do it every day.

I'd rather spend $0.50 on a k-pod than waste a filter and 4 cups of coffee that nobody bothered to drink.

And yes, you can get a refillable pod, and it works just fine.

For those of you who said the coffee in k-pods is horrible, you were probably only drinking the swill that the keurig comes with. If you only buy the "Extra Bold" varieties, you will be beyond happy with your Keurig. I highly recommend Tully's 'Full City' blend, but you'll be hard pressed to find it because it was so good they -sold out of it-.

And to the guy who said "Have you ever read the ingredients on a k-cup? Kinda weird.":

Seriously? The ingredients on a k-cup? It's COFFEE. Unless you're drinking the chemically-flavored "French Vanilla" or "Island Coconut" coffees, or even the apple ciders/hot cocoa they sell, the only thing you're going to find in a k-cup is COFFEE.

And a tiny filter.

I love my keurig, and I wish I had bought stock in greenmountaincoffee before last christmas, because by now I'd be RICH! MUAHAHAHAHA!!

I refuse to even consider them. The waste is ridiculous to me, (and recycling unnecessary products is still wasteful), as is being locked into buying the branded little pods, (why bother with this machine if you fill your own?). I make single cups of coffee just fine in a french press or percolator. You don't have to fill them all the way and they even make smaller versions! A past roommate had a percolator that made 1-2 cups of coffee right into your cup(s) and we currently have a tiny french press that is just the size of one large mug.

Oh, and btw, did I mention it has a -refillable- pod you can use over and over and over and over?

Yes, many people commenting on this thread did, which makes all of the "it's soooo wasteful" people whining about the environment sound silly.

It's -refillable-.

And to the person above that re-used the pods to start plants from seeds, +1 rep for you. Smart move, and we love you for it!!!

I have a $15 Black and Decker drip coffee machine that brews one cup at a time. LOVE IT. It has a mesh filter too. Easy to clean, makes great coffee. Much better deal than one of these doohickeys and it's cups...

I HATE these. They make the worst coffee ever.

I have the Nescafe Dolce Gusto and it's amazing. I have creamy cappuccinos and lattes at home and a fresh Americano every morning, even if my husband doesn't want to put on the pot.

I had some of the tully's coffee from a k-cup machine at a hotel. It was pretty mediocre.

I'll stick to my $3 drip machine (5 years strong) from a thrift shop that I do upkeep on myself, along with solid local roasted goodness, thanks.

To the folks who say "it's refillable": you do realize that is only half the story, right? Have you heard of industrial metabolism? Basic ecology? You actually have to create tons of waste and use tons of resources to make all of these. And is this coffee shade-grown? You do realize that standard coffee involves massive deforestation in the tropics, right? So how is this justifiable, then? Take a reuseable mug to work, buy shade-grown coffee. Minimal waste. Done.

I have a manual drip filter cone that uses #2 Melitta filters. I have my little 12oz pitcher I put the cone over--one 6oz cup of coffee is not enough for one sitting for me. I've got my kettle of water boiling on the stove and it only takes me a couple of minutes max to brew. And I do this while I'm preparing lunches to take to work/school. Even using preground coffee, it makes the best coffee I've ever tasted. I just haven't felt the need to buy one of those fancy pod cofee makers and I LIKE the ritual of pouring the hot water over the grounds. When I'm doing stuff for everyone else, it's nice to sit down with MY cup of coffee that's fresh and hot and to be appreciated for the moment.

@Emmi - I believe that when people say it is refillable, they are referring to the my-kup included with the Keurig machine. You grind your own coffee and place it in the my-kup and then put that in the machine. When you're done, rinse and reuse. Thus, you could easily put your fair-trade, shade-grown coffee in your my-cup, brew it, and not create excess waste or contribute to deforestation. You don't actually have to buy the little cups to use the Keurig.

@Ragazza - thank you for the clarification. I understand what you mean, but the Keurig website itself says that the "standard" method is to use the K-cups just once; and if you want to reuse them, they can be used "many times before they have to be thrown out". So I imagine they wear down quite fast. But more significantly - really. How many people are going to *actually* reuse these tiny cups? That would be such a pain in the butt that at that point, why wouldn't people just buy a standard coffee maker? Let's be realistic here.

We have a Senseo with the coffee grounds in a paper pod. Works well, tastes pretty good, & can compost the pods easily! I'm not certain what happened with the Senseo vs. the others, but it's a good alternative to the other pods/kcups abounding.

love my keurig and the variety of flavors esp Pumpkin and Kahlua!

@ katepk "The wastefulness of these things drives me nuts! Even if you can recycle the little cups, you still have to consider the resources (water, energy, etc.) that go into recycling them."

What do you mean the resources necessary to recycyle them? They're plastic and I would assume that all plastic requires the same resources to recycle, right? I toss mine into the recycle and wish that more people would think to do the same!

@nbateman Plastic cannot be recycled. It can only be downcycled (made into cheap, short-lasting junk). The only true recycleables are glass and aluminum. Recycling factories create greenhouse gasses and are often run by the oil companies. Look up industrial metabolism as well. Tons of waste is created when paper and plastic products are made.

No Thanks, I prefer cold brew or French press. The k cups produce too much waste for me.

Nespresso pods are not made of plastic...

I love my nespresso for its convenience, great variety of flavors, and the milk frother. nespresso also makes an effort to be very "green" and offers recycling throughout the uk (in the US, consumers can drop off used capsules to their local "nespresso boutiques" to be recycled). It helps that they have a business commitment to persuing a small carbon footprint ( as you can see here ), and that's good enough for me (unless i plan to start growing and roasting my own coffee beans).

All that being said, the individual capsules are only about 1 gram of aluminum, so if you ever purchase or drink soda (at 13g of aluminum per can) or energy drinks (or anything else) out of a can, you're doing way more damage than with a nespresso pod.

I'm sorry, where does it demonstrate that these pods are pure aluminum? It looks like they have at least a plastic liner both inside and outside. This is completely different than an all-aluminum can. With the pods, workers at the recycling factory would have to seperate the materials. I'd like to hear from an *expert* if this is even possible or if this "recyclable" just gets thrown away at the factory. Also: is it made *from* recycled materials? And really, what are the chances that the average person is going to tool around looking for a recycling bin instead of just throwing it in the garbage? Nestle is evil. They have overtaken tap water supplies in various states to sell as "bottled water". The reaason this product is wasteful is because disposable products are unnecessary. Period.

Pods are ridiculous! They cost more and are not environmentally friendly in the least. I am happy to grind my own beans (from Eight-o-clock pure Colombian) and measure the grounds into a coffee filter each morning.

I forgot to say that I also make single cups, using a single cup drip thingie that I bought from a Sur La Table for $2.65, which is reusable. The first (similar) single cup drip device was one I received as a gift, in 1980, and I just replaced it with the Sur La Table one this past spring (2011).

Put me on the list of pod-haters for the ecological reasons everyone else is citing.

I use the French press or my vintage glass vacuum coffee maker (no filters necessary and the vacuum pot is entertaining!).

I love the ritual of making coffee; I'm sad that other's lives are too hectic to take time to appreciate the bubbling, infusion and the smell of the fresh grounds. I also use the grounds to feed my outdoor plants.

Say, all you folks who hate having to throw out leftover coffee: Have you considered making HALF a pot, or bringing your own French press to work?

I consider grabbing a cup from a take-out place a second choice. Obviously sometimes you don't have a choice. And at least that way, you're helping support a place that hires locally.

P.S.: Another way to make a quick cup o' Joe is to make that coffee extract ahead of time. I know there was a discussion about it on this blog a few months ago. It's really smooth stuff.

Poddies - Please reconsider your choice.

I'm not very environmental but even I hate these things. Why take something as basic and traditional as coffee and complicate the process with pods and machines and such. We have a simple french press and a kettle. If I go out I will have a coffee from a real espresso machine, but I will happily pass over such a strange machine that takes the ritual of making coffee and condenses it down into a pod. No thank you.

I like the kreuig, some coworkers have them, but the waste and extra expense is too much. They sell reusable K cups where you can put whatever coffee or tea you want in it. This is the option I use, and that way you get the convience of single serve without waste, and it is cheaper to buy coffee and tea in bulk and then fill them as you want for stronger or weaker coffee/tea. They sell them on amazon for 16 dollars for two. Kinda like a mini gold filter.

@spicy gyoza: "It's wasteful and expensive!!"

So is spending $4 on a bad cup of coffee from Starbucks, yet I see billions of people do it every day."

I buy a pound of coffee for ~$10 and the water at my apartment is included in rent. So... yeah, K-Cups and some ridiculous machine is wasteful for me. I use a french press.

i'm against them, because i really hate the waste that they create. i have yet to have a really good cup from one as well (like strong coffee). our dept at work has one, but i still make a pot of coffee every morning :-)

@Emmi - wee eats was talking about the Nespresso capsules, not the Keurig K-Cups that the original post is about. I assure you, the Nespresso capsules are aluminum! You can see that here: Perfecting our packaging solution

@Michelou okay, thank you for the information and I will take your word for it. Aluminum is not a bad product. It's a very abundant resource and it's easily recycled. I'd like to know just how many people actually put them in the recycling bin, and I also stand by my statement that Nestle needs to stop taking tap water for their bottled water sales (although they might have shaped up just slightly on palm oil issue).

Thanks for the information about the product, though.

ps I still stand by the statement that disposeable products are inherently wasteful, because they're unnecessary.

We have about 200 employees at my work and the company tried out the K-cups a few years back. After they saw the incredible waste produced by that many people drinking several cups of coffee a day, they ditched it and went back to using the drip machines.

I use a French Press at home and always will.

My dad actually reuses the k-cups themselves. he pops off the foil top, rinses out the coffee, fills it with ground coffee, and tops it with a piece of aluminum foil. uses them over and over again.

We bought a Keurig brewer when I was pregnant for the first time, worked great for us because I switched to decaf and we could both have what we wanted. I bought an Aeropress on a whim, though, and since getting that we rarely use the Keurig since the coffee is so much better. I just Craigslisted the Keurig to free up some counter space.

Assuming that you could get over the fact that the system is designed to breed complacency. All of the k-cup type coffee makers make poor coffee.

If you really like coffee its agonizing, you can't vary the grind size, water temp, brew time, bean type with any kind of accuracy. How long has the coffee been sitting before being pre-ground? How long has the coffee been in the k-cup before you use it? Who calibrated the water temp on the thing anyway?

Take some pride in your morning java and make it yourself. With a little ingenuity you can even roast your own beans: http://coffeegeek.com/guides/popperroasting

Right now.. I am totally hooked on moka pot coffee. Incredible concentrated flavor that no 'fakespresso' machine will ever come close to.

Turn on kettle to boil.
grind coffee to perfect coarseness.
dump into French Press.
Dump water into french press.
wait, and stir with a wooden spoon.
Press.
Enjoy.

I don't understand why this sounds like a hassle to most people.

You can make as much or as little as you want, with no waste, and no weird machine that you can't FULLY clean. And you don't have to consume anything from heated plastic.

Its a bit of a no brainer for me... but then again, I have brains.

(please pardon the snark, but poor and wasteful "improvements" to everyday life, are just ridiculous!)

coffee k cups from keurig are great. I totally think they are worth the purchase. I love how many brands are creating k cups and the ease of use they bring. I think the whole purpose of the k cups are for ease of use and quickness and they are great at that. On top of it all the flavor and quality is amazing for what they are.

I am not a fan of the K-Cups, had a machine at the office and received one as a gift. I find the coffee to taste terrible. I drink my coffee black and it tastes terrible out of these machines. If you doctor it up with cream and sugar it may be drinkable. Even when using the "fill your own" k-cup it isn't up to par with "less instant" methods. If I am going to drink coffee, I'll use my french press or traditional drip machine...the coffee is much better.

It may be quick, but I have yet to try a K-cup that makes a cup of drinkable coffee. So expensive and wasteful too.

the stock price of $GMCR in the past few months indicates this fade may be peaking. Personally, I just have an electric tea kettle on my counter and use an infuser to make a cup of coffee. Cheaper, saves counter space and it's fast.

My husband and I drink a bit of coffee in the morning, so I highly doubt we'd switch. But when we went to his family's Christmas gathering they had one of these and it was very easy to offer hot chocolate and cider and decaf to the younger folks while the adults enjoyed another pot of coffee from the stove.

Personally, I'm really not a fan of how much space the machine and the little stand a lot of people get to hold all the pods like I saw at a friend's place on Labor Day. Then again, the kitchen wasn't too well organized to begin with.