We’re always reminding people how much more cost-effective it is to brew your own coffee at home instead of buying it at a coffee shop. But according to a new report, coffee drinkers who are hopping on the K-cup bandwagon are paying a premium for the convenience of only having to brew up a single serving.
The NY Times looked at the prices for single-serve coffee and espresso and found that the per-pound cost can vary anywhere from around $31/lb. to more than $51/lb. That’s significantly more expensive than most high-end coffees, which the Times says come in at less than $20/lb. if you buy the beans whole.
But CNBC points out that the patent on K-cups is soon coming to an end, meaning that the door could be open to a host of competitors willing to start a price war and bring the per-pound price of single-serving coffee closer to the cost of bulk coffee.
With Coffee, the Price of Individualism Can Be High [NY Times]
The Price of K-Cup Convenience [CNBC]
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Awful lot of people here are self righteous about wasting money on wussy coffee. $51 is stupid, don’t try to justify it with, “well I was spending blah blah at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.” Grow up, make your coffee at home and be an adult and spend even less. Putting water, filter, and grounds in a coffeemaker isn’t rocket science or dirty. If you can’t determine how much water to put in the reservoir how do you manage to feed yourself everyday?
Will the reuseable kcup work for hot chocolate? (not a coffee drinker, but there are a few kcup machines around here.
will this reuseable cup work for hot chocolate? (not really a coffee drinker, but there are quite a few kurig machines here in this office)
We have a Keurig at work – they got it so that the higher ups could have fresh coffee on demand. Except that most of the time, they couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. And people kept throwing out the reusable filter.
So now we have one of those industrial coffee makers and each morning, someone dutifully makes coffee. The coffee’s gone in about 30 minutes, but nobody makes any more (it’s really just “morning coffee” that the workplace is providing – not all day coffee). The Keurig is still there and people use it occasionally. I’ve used it a couple of times – once using a K-cup (because they had some there) and once using the reusable filter. I’m not a coffee snob so it all tastes the same to me. I actually just bought a single-serving coffee maker (that comes with a reusable filter) for my cubicle, but honestly, I can just use the Keurig. Why bother?
I just recently saw a new brand of single-cup coffee makers – I don’t remember the brand or specs, but I just remember it took two packets to make a cup of cappuccino. Two packets? Twice the $…
I think you are probably referring to Tassimo. There is supposed to be a barcode on each pod that the machine reads to optimize your coffee. Last I looked Tassimo pods were even more expensive than k-cups.
True about that, BUT you can get a KCup filter that you can add your own coffee to so really just the machine is costly, I waiting for it to go down to get it for my mom. The single filter would make it just as effective as any coffee pot
C’mon, is this really news? K-Cups are expensive. Also, water is wet, the sky is blue, and Charlie Sheen is a madman.
18 cups a day x 30 days = 540 cups divide that by 8.50 =0.0157407 cents per cup
Actually a 33.5 oz package of coffee lasts about 31 to 35 days
Eat your heart out Starbucks
18 cups of coffee a day? That can’t be good for you and your various organs.
I only drink a large cup in the morning. I use the old fashioned coffee maker. Much cheaper. I drink company coffee on workdays (free). I had Senseo maker with pods, expensive, and lousy coffee. So at home, it’s cheaper to make a 4-cup pot of coffee, even though I only drink about 1/2 of it.
Price per pound seems like a strange way to look at it, especially when some of the brewers will use the same K-Cup to brew a small serving or a large serving.
It makes more sense to me to say it’s about 50 cents a cup. Definitely more expensive than brewing it yourself from ground beans, but definitely less expensive than buying it from a barista.
We’ve got one at the office in our waiting room. It’s nice that folks can get mocha, tea, coffee, decaf, chai or cocoa, whatever. (Though we did find that the milk-based beverages are best prepared by opening the K-Cup into a mug and brewing hot water over the mix, lest you shorten the life of your brewer.)
I have a five-cup Black & Decker cubicle-size drip coffeemaker I got for $25 from a Best Buy back when I was in high school. I also have a Lutheran-sized travel mug that holds the whole ‘five-cup’ pot and still fits in my car’s cup-holder, and a metal thermos of the same capacity in case I expect to be on the road awhile. I could also use the Klingon raktajino cups and then it makes just enough for two, and I’ve recently gotten some fly little demitasse mugs shaped like Daleks, in case I want to serve four people from my little Black & Decker, plus I do have a standard twelve-cup machine that ran about $30 and is nice for when four people want coffee and two want cocoa or vice-versa.
Together, they take up less room than any of the fancier machines, plus I can keep the one in my bedroom. When I want to get up before the husband, I just set my coffeemaker’s automatic feature and wake to the pleasant smell rather than a noise which might wake him, drink half the ‘five-cup’ pot and make a nice breakfast. (Whose ‘cups’ are coffeemaker makers using, anyway? Elves? Hobbits? I bet it’s the Ferengi, charging by the cup.)
What I have never gotten, though, is the point of the Keurig when bitty coffee-makers are available. Do I just drink larger servings than everybody else?
I don’t care what people say about the K-cups. My wife and I absolutely love our Keurig. We always buy ours with stackable coupons so it’s even cheaper (still nowhere near bulk coffee costs). But then again, at any time we can pick any flavor we want, and not have to store 20 bags of coffee in the cabinet.
We also trade them with friends and family often, so it makes the variety even greater when picking out exactly what your mood and taste calls for. We have the My K-cup and use that when we’re out of k-cups, but that’s about the only time we use it.
I never found it worth my time and effort to make just one cup with our regular coffee maker, then you have to spend time washing it all. It takes the enjoyment out of that one cup of coffee.
Remember, this is a luxury item that comes with it’s own luxury tax. It’s not for the thrifty.