but,

I also have a K-Cups system at work. My co-workers and I bought one together and we buy our own pods (we store our own share in our lockers). We never have to worry about coming in to the office and tehres no more community coffee and dealing with who will go get the next can of Folgers and whether so and so has paid or not. In month, i noticed I saved tons of money. I was dishing out 150 nearly twice a month on coffee (that includes the pastries and other enticing options on the drive-thru menu). Now I enjoy my decaf coffee, tea, and decaf cappucinos at work. You can also purchase a reusable pod and fill it with your favorite coffee (I cheat- I fill it with Starbucks – which is still cheaper than buying the cup). I sometimes even find new roast at WholeFoods and try it on here.

About Pod Freshness
I couldn’t find any info about the K-cups, but Nespresso coffee are vacuum sealed straight from roasting. That means the coffee is as fresh as you can ever get. The concept, if true for the other companies, means that unlike the bags or cans of coffee that spoil because air gets in, each pod is guaranteed to be fresh.

Bias
My son worked for Nespresso and when i visited him in Switzerland i got a tour of the plant. I got to see how fresh and taste the difference to other. No one can compare to them. But that is because they are top.
But guess what, I only serve Nespresso at home. I drink coffee mostly at work and with my girfriends. Starbucks has become the “Top” US market coffee, but it becomes expensive on a daily commute. That is why, although Starbucks coffee blends are my go-to coffees, I brew it myself rather than buying a five dollar cup each morning.

Use a percolator, French press..they all have advantages. I saved a lot of money with the pod system and it works for me. I was wasting money at the drive=thru, but with my savings, I can still endulge in a hassle free pod system without going back to the burnt coffee percoaltor system. The French press is delicious, but the pod system is easy, easy to maintain, and efficient!

It works well for me but I don’t use my pod machine as much as I drink a lot of coffee in the morning and any leftover gets put in the fridge and freezer for chilled coffee drinks, so it’s more efficient to brew larger quantities.( plus my coffee cup is a mega sized dollar store one that holds about 16 oz.) But when I’m in the mood for one cup then I use the pod machine. ( I also own a Bodum Santos Vacuum coffee maker. If you’ve never seen coffee made with one of these, check out their site.)

Pods? Seriously? OK, a year from now, maybe two, Pod company “A” has gone out of business. Pod company “B” only makes pods for CoffeeMachineCompany “2″. Which has also gone out of business or is now making their machines of sanitized lead-cadmium bindings, in China. Your CoffeePodEatingMachine only takes Size 43b (metric). This is BS.

If you want to go Single Serve, just do:
a) pour over. Easy, cheap, full control. Just get good coffee.
b) get a coffee-rocket ™ — an Aeropress. Not quite as convenient, but gives the best danged coffee outside of the International Barrista Championships (w/out a $3000 machine).

I recommend the Aeropress. You use coffee a scoop, two, three, or four at a time, and you get one, two, three, or four “shots” out of it. Yeah, it looks like I’m saying SHOTS, like espresso, but you know the purists would be at my door w/ torches, pitchforks, and those little hard rock-candy swizzle sticks that wussies and women use.

You get a couple of shots in a mug, add some additional hot water to taste (technically, an “americano”), and fix to your heart’s content. I won’t tell if you use honey or fat-free “creamer”.

How’s the milage? Let me see… one Aero, w/ 300 filters, is about $28.95. A little more or less online or locally. 300 filters sounds like a lot to me — supposedly a YEAR’S worth, but maybe not — but you can re-use your filters until you start freaking out your friends who have taken microbiology, but dang it, you can sterilize them or just get a new filter. I usually get 10-12 pressings from a single filter, unless my queasy friend is watching, then I get 20 pressings.

A pound of REAL coffee (fresh roasted, thank’s local coffee shop) runs me $11. I get about 32 shots out of that. Normally, that’s about 35 cents per, but I drink double-shot mugs, and usually have a couple of mugs per day. That puts me at about 70 cents per mug, before real cream and sugar. Ok, I lied. I use Splenda.

I can make a fantastic cup, any time, day or night (works great w/ decaf). You can “git ‘r done” in less than 5, w/ the clean up. Less than 3, if you practice. You can shoot over ice, shoot into cake batter/dessert, etc. You can drink it straight, if yer a man (like me), or mix it w/ flavorings, if you’re smooth and sophisticated (er, like me). Amazingly smooth.

One more thing… read up a little on coffee, self-serve. Hit the coffeegeek.com forums. There’s lots of info on coffee, making, drinking, roasting, etc. If you think your Mr Coffee is doing you right, then you’re in for a whole new world of awesome. You’ll get so good, you’ll have the Starbucks clerks stopping by on their way to work for a quickie. Or something like that.

Jessica

There’s a call from a Mr. Orange… he’s asking why you are comparing him to the Apples?

I doubt your french press is still warm after 2 hours…

You included the “keep warm” along with the “make” functions.

avg. coffeemaker = 900 watts
2 hours running (brew+warmer) = 1.8kWh

avg. range eye = 1400 watts
6 minutes to boil = 0.14kWh

Depending on what the electric company charges per kWh, that’s quite a difference in electricity savings.