K-Cups®: The Best Coffee Invention

Before there was K-Cups®, making coffee was a messy job. 

I remember back in the 70's, my parents used a Percolator to make coffee when company came over. The process took a long time and you had to put your coffee grounds into a stainless chamber inside the Percolator. The boiling water seeped through the coffee grounds to make the coffee. The cleaning process afterwards was a mess. You had to dump the coffee grounds in the trash, then wash the Percolator to make sure it was clean of all coffee grounds. This was a great way to make multiple cups and the "Perking" sound was pretty cool. 

Later in the 80's, when I started to drink coffee, I remember the standard coffee pot process. You would have a coffee pot or pitcher and fill with water up to how many cups you wanted to make. There were lines on the side of the clear glass pot to make this easy. You then poured the water into the coffee maker. Above where the coffee pot sat was a plastic filter compartment that you had to line with a white coffee filter. After doing this, you had to scoop out coffee grounds to the proper amount. Math was involved in this process - you had to figure out how many cups of coffee you are making x how many scoops per cup was needed to make a good tasting cup of coffee. Once this process was done, just turn it on. The clean up process wasn't terrible, you had to pull out the plastic filter compartment and dump the coffee grounds and used filter all at once into the trash. To make the next pot of coffee, you had to repeat the process again.

In the late 90's and 00's (is 00's really the right abbreviation?), I had a single cup coffee maker. The process was the same as the earlier coffee pot method, but instead of a whole pot of coffee, you just made 1 cup at a time. This is ideal for the person on the go, especially on the way to work in the morning. You fill the coffee cup with water, pour into the coffee maker, put coffee grounds into the coffee filter section. I had a "permanent" filter, so I didn't have to use paper filters here. I would just fill the coffee into the screen filter and the coffee was ready to brew. To clean up (usually the next morning) before making the next cup, you would dump the grounds into the trash, then wash and rinse the filter in the sink until clean before entering the new coffee grounds.

I used this single coffee cup maker for years to make my coffee on the way to work in the morning. Two years ago, I bit the bullet and bought a Keurig® Coffee Maker. This machine was fancy and made all kinds of funny noises, but the coffee it produced was perfect and consistent every time. The Keurig® type Coffee maker uses what is called a K-Cup®. The K-Cup® is a single serve pod that has all the coffee grounds sealed in a little cup. The great thing about K-Cups is you can now buy 100's of brands, or flavors. Also since the Keurig® machine is just passing boiling water through the K-Cup®, there are K-Cups® with teas, hot chocolates, fruit drinks and more now available. This is the cleanest coffee making operation I have ever saw. You just pour water into the reservoir, when the water is hot, the lights flash telling you it's time to put a coffee K-Cup® into the machine to brew. A perfectly brewed cup is produced every time. No measuring coffee, no cleaning or disposing filters or coffee grounds afterwards. When you are done, all you need to do is take out the K-Cup® (which not has a hole in the top), and throw it away in the trash. Clean and quick. It still makes one cup at a time, which is great for the person on the go, but the water reservoir is ready to make your next cup, so all you need is a K-Cup® and you are all set. Yes, the K-Cup® is the best coffee invention ever...in my opinion.

So now when you buy K-Cups® in the store, you can buy a box of 12 or a case of 72, but they are all the same. This is great since the cup you brew every day is exactly like the one you had yesterday. The only problem is though if you to try a new brand or flavor, you need to buy a whole box or case before you know if you like the flavor or not. One way around this is to try a Coffee FUN Box. The Coffee FUN Box has an assortment of brands and flavors you can try. This is a perfect way to find your next favorite flavor. The Coffee FUN Box makes a great gift for yourself or others. Also great about the Coffee FUN Box is you can set it up as a subscription so you get the K-Cups® delivered to your door every month automatically.