K-Cups/Keurig brewers: alternatives

Some time ago, I wrote a post on refilling K-Cups, the single-serve coffee “pods” used with the Keurig single-cup coffee brewers.  I hate the idea of sending the plastic, foil-topped cups to the landfill.  An internal memo provided to me by a representative of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which owns a large share of Keurig Corp. and manufactures K-Cups, stated “the environmental impact of the K-Cup waste stream is one of the most significant environmental challenges we face.”

The company does offer a product which completely avoids the throw-away K-Cups: the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. Let’s take a look at this product.  (Update: this review refers to the older version, but the concept is the same. I’ve since written a table of K-Cup alternative products, with links to all my reviews, updated in December 2018).

What it is
The My K-Cup is a simple three-part contraption: a mini gold filter basket that fits into a filter holder with a lid. The filter holder corresponds with the removable assembly in the Keurig brewers that hold the disposable K-Cups. I thought perhaps it would be difficult or annoying to swap out this assembly for the My K-Cup, but either pops right out and the other pops right in. Simple.

How it works
Very straightforward. 1) Fill the filter basket with ground coffee. 2) Set it in the bottom holder, twist on the lid. 3) Pop out the assembly in your Keurig brewer, and pop in this holder assembly. 4) Push the brew button.

The math
There is, of course, a bit of finesse involved in step 1 above.

First, a standard measure for coffee is 2 tablespoons per 6-ounce cup of coffee. Since “tablespoons” (and coffee scoops) vary, we’ll go with the equivalent recommended by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, 10 grams per 6 oz cup. I realize I’m mixing metric with English measurements. Most people have kitchen scales, which are able to measure weight in grams. And most average-sized coffee mugs are between 6 and 8 ounces. Once you know what 10 grams looks like, and how much water you typically use, you’ll know how to make your coffee.

So, the package insert says that the My K-Cup holds 2.7 tablespoons of coffee. I won’t use a conversion formula to tell you what the equivalent is in grams, since I’ve not found one with the proper translation of volume to weight for coffee. I simply used my scale, and the My K-Cup holds right around 14.5 to 16 grams of coffee.

Usage tips
The instructions say not to pack the My K-Cup filter. The water would not flow through the coffee, grounds would overflow into the holder, and they would clog the hole at the bottom of the holder. Likewise, very fresh coffee (which I hope you are using) “blooms” as the hot water causes a release of carbon dioxide. That can also cause overflow and cloggage.

So use care to only fill the filter to just under the plastic rim. Actually, probably the worst aspect of the whole My K-Cup experience is filling this little filter with coffee grounds. It’s easiest with a spoon, but still sort of a pain.

A very fine espresso grind may clog the filter and cause the same problem. I experienced this because I thought I would get more flavor from a very fine grind, and it made a mess. It will require some care to find the correct grind that will allow enough extraction but not cause clogging or overflow.This probably varies with the coffee and roast strength, not to mention the grinder. Start with a grind somewhat finer than a drip grind. Go with as fine a grind as possible that doesn’t cause brew failure.

Results

Compared to a drip machine, the Keurig provides a slightly cooler brew temperature (the max is 192F) and a shorter length of time the grounds are in contact with the water. Therefore, the 15 grams of coffee in the My K-Cup would work best with smaller brew sizes (under the large 9 ounce choice offered on the brewers).I did some tests, using the same coffee and same grind with the My K-Cup, a drip brewer, and the Aeropress small batch coffee maker. Not surprisingly, the Aeropress offered the most rich and intense flavor. But the My K-Cup does make a cup quite comparable to a typical drip machine.

And if you are so pressed for time that you are using a Keurig brewer in the first place, my bet is that you neglected to clean your old drip machine on a regular basis. This is a huge, overlooked advantage of a Keurig brewer: it doesn’t get dirty. You will certainly want to wash the My K-Cup filter and holder (or the assembly for the disposable K-cups) with soapy water on a regular basis, but overall it’s much less work than maintaining a drip machine.

Conclusion
The My K-Cup is the sustainable choice — when used with a sustainable bean, of course — for use with a Keurig brewer. Still, it will probably not satisfy those who want a strong, really flavorful cup (especially a big one). I think Green Mountain has achieved good results with some of their K-Cup  varieties, although I’ve yet to have any K-Cup that compared to a decent bean in a French press preparation. It would probably take a lot of experimentation to get consistent, really satisfying, beyond-the-ordinary coffee using a variety of beans with My K-Cup. This sort of defeats some of the convenience of a Keurig brewer, but still preserves the speed, energy efficiency, and coffee waste minimization advantages of these machines.

(Update: I have published a summary of all my posts on Reusable alternatives to K-Cups, which includes a detailed table of the features of the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter, the Ekobrew Refillable Cup for Keurig K-cup Brewers, the Solofill Refillable Cup For Keurig K-Cup Brewers, the My-Kap Kaps for refilling K-Cups, and the EZ-Cup refillable cup for Keurig brewers).

Keurig single-cup coffee brewers are handy for certain applications.  I work in a university building where lots of staff and volunteers have access to the coffee pot.  Certain times of the year, my crew and I spend about 15 minutes of every hour in the building.  If we brew a pot of coffee, someone else inevitably drinks most of it before we get back at the kitchen, or our stints in the field result in coming back to cold or over-cooked coffee. The Keurig is a perfect solution — brew a very quick, fresh single cup when we have our little interludes.

The issue we have is with excess packaging. The used plastic K-Cups are not recyclable.  I wrote to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which owns a large share of Keurig Corp. and manufactures K-Cups, regarding plans to make the K-Cups recyclable. They replied:

“We are not satisfied with the current environmental impact of the K-Cup packaging used with the Keurig system.  We have signed an agreement with one of our materials suppliers for the Keurig K-Cup product to jointly fund research on the application of renewable materials for the K-Cup.  One option may be to develop a brewing system that uses a photo-biodegradable K-Cup with a non-metalized lid.”

Bravo to Green Mountain that they are actively pursuing a solution! But then, this company does so much for sustainability, their efforts don’t surprise me.

Reuse is a form of recycling, so I decided to find out if I could refill a used K-Cup with my own coffee successfully.  It’s pretty straightforward — just make sure that the product used to reseal the cup is Glad’s Press and Seal.  This stuff is not like regular plastic wrap, and works like a charm.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Get all the foil off the rim of your used cup, and make sure the rim is dry before applying the Press and Seal.
2. Try to rinse as much coffee out of the filter in the cup as possible.  It doesn’t really seem to matter too much whether the coffee is rinsed out when it’s still wet or if it’s dried out.
3. Grind the coffee very fine — there is not much time for the water to soak the grounds and you need as much surface area exposed as possible.
4. Fill the cup to about 3-5 mm from the top with ground coffee — you can tap the cup to settle the grounds, but don’t pack it down. I tried it and it created overflow due to the force of the water going through the grounds. This amount of coffee is probably similar to the extra bold K-Cups,which have more coffee in them than the regular K-Cups; I personally find most of the regular ones produce pretty insipid brew.  Likewise, although I prefer light roasts, they come through as weak in the Keurig, so darker roasts are best.  But experiment — your tastes may vary. Overall, I use the Keurig for convenience — it’s not for outstanding coffee, no matter what you use.
5. Cut two small squares of Press and Seal per K-Cup.  I’ve tried both one and two layers, and two work better.  The squares only need to be large enough to overlap the edge and stick to about 10 mm of the sides of the cups.
6. Holding a square taut, place it on the top of the K-Cup so it is nice and tight, and press along the rim.  Then seal it along the underside of the rim and the side of the K-Cup.  Repeat with other square.
7. Viola! Ready to use.  Important: when you place the refilled K-Cup in the brewer, make sure to line up the hole on the bottom with the pin in the brewer.

The limiting factor in the number of times a K-Cup can be refilled is clearly the inner filter. Eventually, it will get too clogged with fine particulates; I suppose it might also rip or get a hole. Mis-aligning the bottom hole (step 7) will also retire a K-Cup.  So far, I have reused a single K-Cup 5 times without any noticeable change in the flavor of the coffee.

Refilling K-Cups in some ways defeats the convenience of the Keurig system, but since I grind coffee daily at home, refilling a couple of cups is no big deal.  Green Mountain also sells a product called My K-Cup, a plastic and mesh filter assembly for ground coffee that is used in place of a K-Cup.

Finally, my spent K-Cups are also repurposed, seeing a new life as filter cups for my pitfall traps, where insects collected in fluid-filled containers inserted flush with the soil must be strained and dried before being examined and identified. K-Cups work perfectly for this, as the bug-containing cup at left shows.  Samples can even be stored in them, as the cups are also easily labeled with a felt tip marker.

I imagine you could also start seeds in the K-Cup (the space between the bottom of the filter and the bottom of the cup could hold some water which would wick up the filter, and the hole in the bottom would provide drainage). Creative types could find other uses for old K-Cups.  Feel free to post them in the comments!