My Keurig Coffee Maker

I really do like my Keurig coffee maker; it makes a perfect cup of coffee every time, something I could never do with a drip coffee brewer.

In the beginning, I was infatuated with the machine and the varieties of coffee, tea and hot chocolate, but had to give up the sugar laden flavours for plain cups of coffee. And once I got back to the plain, I found I preferred it as I usually take my coffee with cream and no sugar.

The thing is, I ran out of my usual brand of K-cups, the medium roast from Costco, and as there isn’t a Costco handy I needed to find another source or solution.

My neighbour has a machine like mine and found the K-cups expensive, which they are compared to the cost of making a pot of drip coffee. She uses a reusable cup, and fills it with a fine grind coffee.

I decided to give it a try and bought a Solo type of reusable K-cup at the dollar store. It works well enough, once you get used to the fact there are always some coffee grounds left in your mug. The problem for me is cleaning the thing.

I am conscientious about recycling and emptied out the store bought K-cups, putting the grounds in the garden, or in the compost, or the garbage, and recycling the plastic ups. It was a pain in the ass, but I saved the cups and only went through the messy process about once a week.

The reusable K-cup I have has an irregular bottom, so it’s not easy to clean and as I have to clean it twice a day, I need a better system. I needed to do some research.

I found that you can buy disposable paper filters for the reusable K-cups, but the cost is about five cents each. Then I came upon a Y-Tube video of a man making his own filters from regular pleated paper filters, a lot of effort though much cheaper by far.

Then I saw another video of a man cutting a used K-cup and inserting it in the reusable cup. For a removable filter that’seasier to clean?

I tried that last one, as I still had a few K-cups. I made myself a mint, white chocolate drink and drank it while I cut the used cup so it fit in my Solo reusable holder. I tried it this morning and it didn’t work. Some of the grounds stayed in the liner, but most of them were underneath and in my mug. Back to square one.

I have a trip to Costco in my immediate future so I can make a coffee purchase at that time, in quantity, if I’m smart. But first I need to complete my research and try the No Name coffee cups available at No Frills. I hear it’s cheaper than Costco, but I need a taste test.

As much as I love the Keurig, someone needs to come up with a better system, for as it is today, it’s not as easy as it looks, not if you care about the environment. It’s a good thing I only drink two cups a day or I’d really be in a quandary.

I’ll do the research and get the box of $24.99 No Name K-cups; problem is they’ll most likely cost me much more than that. I find it hard walking through No Frills without buying way more than what’s on my list. I do love a bargain.