Coffee-related products

Coffee-related products / K-Cups/Keurig brewers: alternatives

Refilling K-cups, take 2: The My-Kap reusable lid

One of the most popular posts on this site is the one I did on refilling K-Cups, the single-serve coffee “pods” used in Keurig brewers. I outlined a method for re-using K-Cups by using plastic wrap. It works, but the amount of time it takes to clean out a used K-Cup and then cut and properly apply the plastic wrap really defeats the purpose of the whole Keurig system, which is speed and convenience.

Later, I reviewed the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter, a product designed for the Keurig brewers that avoids the use of the K-Cups altogether by allowing you to use your own freshly ground coffee in the brewer. (Update: see also this post on the Solofill reusable coffee filter.)

Now along comes another product that allows you to re-use K-Cups with your own ground coffee: the My-Kap. It’s pretty simple — a plastic cap with slightly beveled edges that fits snugly in the top of a used K-Cup, once you’ve removed the foil, cleaned out the filter, and refilled the cup with ground coffee. It already has a hole in the center for the Keurig brewer’s piercer/water dispenser.

The main thing you need to do differently when using a used K-Cup topped with a My-Kap is hold down the handle of the Keurig brewer while the coffee is being brewed. This allows a snug fit. It will work if you don’t, but you will get leakage within the brewing “basket” (K-Cup holder assembly) which will spray and/or drip from not only the exit hole, but also the seams of the basket, depending on your brewer and its structural integrity. Even holding down the handle, using the My-Kap is slightly drippy. You may have to clean your brewer more often.

That being said, the My-Kap works like charm, as advertised. Some thoughts:

Pros:

  • Putting the My-Kap on the used K-Cup is, without a doubt, much faster and easier than fiddling with plastic wrap.
  • Both when refilling a K-Cup using plastic wrap, and when using the My K-Cup Reusable Filter, I had a hard time getting the proper grind and filling the K-Cup or filter with the right amount of grounds. The brewer forces water through the K-Cups under pressure, and the K-Cups are designed and filled so they won’t create problems (overflow, blowouts, etc.). The My-Kap fits tightly enough to circumvent most of these problems. The instructions say to fill to 3/4 full, but it seemed quite forgiving through variations in grind size and amount of coffee used, taking the guess work out of reusing a K-Cup.
  • You don’t have to remove the K-Cup holder assembly from your Keurig brewer, as you do with the My K-Cup Reusable Filter.
  • The cap is stiff and sturdy, and can be washed (dishwasher safe) and used indefinitely.

Cons:

  • Be careful prying the cap off after you brew a cup of coffee with a My-Kapped K-Cup. An odd little plastic tool is provided. I’m not sure if it was actually made for this application, because it looks a bit like some sort of peg board hanger. No matter which way you use it (I believe it is meant to be used as shown on the right), the My-Kap is snug and unless you are very careful, it will pop off suddenly, and soggy ground coffee will fly everywhere. Do it over a sink or wastebasket.
  • Although I have heard of people doing so, I wouldn’t recommend preparing many refilled K-Cups using My-Kaps ahead of time. There is a hole in the center of the My-Kap itself (nearly as large as the diameter of a pencil), and coffee will spill out of it if it falls over. There are also one or more holes in the bottom of the K-Cup from the brewing process. Ground coffee gets stale fast enough, and all these holes will just speed that process along.
  • The usual caveats of reusing K-Cups apply. The inner paper filter can’t be completely cleaned of coffee grounds and oils, and in addition to trapping flavors will also eventually become clogged. Nor can coffee oils be cleaned from the inner sealed space between the bottom of the filter and the bottom of the K-Cup. Frankly, I also wonder how often the plastic K-Cups should be exposed to high heat.
  • My-Kap is made of polycarbonate plastic, and as such may contain BPA. If you are concerned about possible exposure to this chemical, this product might not be for you.

When I wrote my first post in May 2007, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (which purchased Keurig in 2006) was working on more sustainable or recyclable materials for use in the K-Cups. They are still working on this (here is a June 2008 post from the Green Mountain blog on the topic), as they are facing the challenge of finding materials than can withstand heat and pressure, as well as protect the coffee from light, heat, moisture, and oxygen while being stored. I was recently told by a Green Mountain rep that they have “had some promising results in this area and hope to be selling a tea product in a K-Cup made from renewable materials in the first part of 2010 and portion packs with more substantive improvements in the not too distant future.”  Keurig has an environmental policy on its web site, where it explains the construction of the K-Cup in more detail, and other actions the company is taking to reduce environmental impact.

The My-Kap comes with three caps, a removal tool, and/or a brush to clean out the K-Cup.

Coffee reviews / Coffee-related products

Not-quite-coffee review: Finca Mauritania Cascara

Just to end the year on a unique note, we decided to try an interesting and unique coffee product, cascara. This is dried coffee cherry, and can be prepared as an infusion like tea.

Something old is new again
Although unfamiliar to most Westerners, this is an ancient beverage in Yemen — it may have even pre-dated the actual roasting and brewing of coffee beans. There, and in a few other countries where it is prepared, it’s known as qishar (or qishr, quishar, quishr, keshir, etc.). In Yemen qishar is often made with ginger, sugar, and cinnamon (although many recipes you’ll find will substitute the coffee “husks” with ground coffee).

Enter Aida Batlle!
If anybody in the New World was going to produce and market qishar to the specialty coffee world, it was going to be Aida Batlle, proprietor of three outstanding El Salvador coffee farms — Los Alpes, Finca Kilimanjaro, and Finca Mauritania. She’s committed to quality, sustainability, and innovation.

Coffee is rarely dry processed in Central America due to the damp climate which is so much in contrast with the arid origins of most dry processed beans. But Aida has been experimenting with both dry process and pulped naturals for some time. For her dry process coffee, which she calls “pasa” (“raisin” in Spanish), she leaves the cherries on the tree after they ripen until they dry out and look like raisins. The beans are hulled from the cherries. Normally coffee pulp and skins — from either wet or dry processing — are composted and used for fertilizer. In this case, the dried cherry is used for cascara.

Aida produced around 225 pounds of cascara from her Finca Mauritania harvest. I obtained my cascara from James Hoffman‘s Square Mile Coffee Roasters in the UK, and from Counter Culture Coffee. Square Mile is sold out for the year; I don’t think Counter Culture offered it for sale but used it at tastings and as gifts.

During a visit to Yemen last year, Thom Owen of Sweet Maria’s took a photo of some qishar. It appeared not very uniform, with hunks of hulls and crusty pulp, and it looked dry and flaky. The Finca Mauritania cascara looks much like tree bark, was a rich reddish-brown color, and had a pliable texture.

This bark-like appearance no doubt gave this product its name, as “cascara” refers to tree bark in Spanish. This coffee cascara should not be confused with cascara sagrada, the dried bark of the California buckthorn tree, Rhamnus purshiana. Nearly all Rhamnus have phytochemicals that act as laxatives, and Rhamnus purshiana has long been used as an herbal laxative. Be forewarned that at least in North America, if you Google “cascara” you get lots of hits on the constipation cure, not the coffee tea!

Preparation and taste
The aroma of the raw cascara is powerful and intoxicating. Nearly every person who stuck their nose in the bag said “Wow!” Two descriptions for the smell of the raw cascara came up frequently: raisins and pipe tobacco. The latter aroma sent me back 40 years to sitting on my grandfather’s lap as he smoked a fragrant pipe. Both my husband and I, the only ones from our tasting group that had ever been near coffee mills at harvest time, also recognized the familiar sweet smell of slightly fermented coffee pulp. Licorice came up a couple times, and others detected wine, apple chips, or dried cherries. A few of us tried just chewing on a pinch of the stuff. I thought it was quite good, and the flavor lasted until the chips were well masticated. (This might be the non-liquid solution to a caffeine fix in the field. Bonus: fiber!)

Cascara is brewed like tea. No additional prep is needed — just use the cascara straight from the package. Square Mile recommends a ratio of 20 to 25 grams per liter of water and a 4-minute steep time. Sweet Maria’s advised using the same proportions as brewing coffee, with a steeping time of 4 to 12 minutes, with 8 to 10 minutes being best. Experiment! Your mileage may vary.

Upon brewing, the first thing you’ll notice is that the aroma of the beverage is not like the aroma of the raw material. It has a sort of vaguely grassy smell. One person thought it smelled like wet dog. Nor does it taste like it smells. With lesser quantities or shorter steep times, it is very lightly sweet; all flavors intensify if more cascara is used or it steeps longer.

The first, hottest sip has a citrusy tang; several people said it was orange-toned. Overall, the flavor is somewhat rustic or earthy. It reminded two people of rooibos (except cascara does have caffeine). Rose petal or rose hip tea was also mentioned more than once. If you’ve ever tasted a ripe coffee cherry, that mild sweetness was, as you might expect, there as well. Everybody could find some sort of grassy, green vegetative taste. For me, it was celery. One person said it was like sweetened water from a can of bean sprouts or bamboo shoots!  A couple of us thought it had a sort of odd, syrupy aftertaste (it reminded me of sticky coffee pulp). After it had steeped to the color of strong coffee, one person thought it was robust enough to remind them of beef bouillon.

There was some experimentation with milk or sugar, but nobody said additives made a huge difference in how they felt about it. Some people took to the cascara right away, especially if they were regular drinkers of herbal teas. I prefer refined black teas such as darjeelings, but I liked the cascara better after drinking it a few times, so it may be an acquired taste for some people. Everyone was anxious to try it and glad they did, even if they weren’t coffee drinkers — it was just that singular an experience. If you have an opportunity to try some, let me know what you tasted and how you liked it!

And with this last review, I’ll close out 2008. Happy New Year to all C&C readers!

Coffee-related products

Book review: God in a Cup, The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee

Journalist Michaele Weissman has put together a great overview of the world of specialty coffee in God in a Cup. She traveled around the world with coffee buyers and explored the contrast between mass-produced, commodity coffee and artisan-focused, quality-oriented specialty coffee.

This book isn’t really about searching for great tasting coffee, but uses that pursuit to frame the genesis and impact of specialty coffee for consumers and especially producers. While not strictly about coffee sustainability, it nonetheless brings alive many of the points that I strive to make here at Coffee & Conservation on the topic and the crucial role specialty coffee roasters make in this arena — and in turn how consumers can support it. As such, it lays the foundation for much of what I discuss here.

Weissman preserves her artfully-paced narrative by placing the in-depth background information at the back of the book or in boxes, but still provides enough detail in the main text to clearly explain to readers unfamiliar with the coffee trade and the stakes involved.

She does a great job of highlighting the passion — and activism — of the pioneers in this industry. Much of the focus is on her travels and interviews with three of them: Counter Culture’s Peter Giuliano, Intelligentsia’s Geoff Watts, and Stumptown’s Duane Sorenson, but many others are mentioned. This personal touch lends authenticity. It also keeps readers connected, as following these coffee buyers provides an opportunity to really understand the complexities involved in producing this crop and bringing it to market. Most revealing for me were the discussions about Fair Trade, and in particular the examination of the cooperative system. The example of the troubles Watts has had with poorly run organizations helps to illustrate that cooperatives (which are the only producers allowed to be certified Fair Trade) are not always the best way to protect farmers.

I approached this book with a little trepidation, as I have read way too many articles about coffee that were superficial, not factual, lacked a fresh approach, or were just examples of lazy reporting. This was none of these. If you are at all interested in coffee (which you must be if you have read this far), I highly recommend this book. Further, get a couple extra copies for your coffee-loving friends, people you would like to convert to specialty coffee, or those in your life that don’t really “get it.” God in a Cup will make a great gift this holiday season.

To get a sense of what this book covers and Weissman’s take on it, read this interview with her at Salon. She also maintains a blog which explores her ongoing coffee experiences. Then go pick up a copy of her book!

Coffee-related products / Retail and specialty roasters / Starbucks

Book review: Starbucked

I’ve just finished Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture by Taylor Clark, just released by Little Brown. It’s an entertaining, well-written and researched “biography” of the genesis and rise of Starbucks, and the concurrent/coincident specialty coffee scene in the U.S. Anyone interested in Starbucks (love, hate, or neutral) or the genius of retail marketing will really get into this book. Those intrigued with American culture will also find ponderable material here, and it will be valuable for readers who want to understand the post-1970s history of coffee in the U.S. (for the most thorough overall history of coffee, you can do no better than Mark Pendergrast’s Uncommon Grounds).

Clark leaves few stones unturned, especially when discussing the evolution of the Starbucks marketing strategy. The one thing that was barely discussed was sustainability. The closest is an entire chapter on Fair Trade which correctly points out that low-quality robusta coffee is the enemy of struggling coffee farmers, whose

“…fortunes rise and fall on the world’s demand for good coffee beans, and no one has done more to generate an insatiable global thirst for high-quality coffee than Starbucks.”

We can quibble about the quality of Starbucks beans, but the distinction here is between the quality of the big grocery store brands versus Starbucks. While exploding the myth that Starbucks harms independent coffee houses, Clark makes a point I have made here several times: that Starbucks has drawn out people who never strayed from Folgers, and these converts go on to explore other coffee venues.  And with any sort of luck, these converts don’t turn back to grocery store brands. Clark also echoes one of my mantras:

Helping lift farmers from poverty, then, isn’t so much a matter of hectoring companies like Starbucks (even if the company isn’t the human rights champion it claims to be) as it is of making sure people never drink the cheap and exploitive coffee offered by conglomerates like the Big Four.

Not only lifting farmers from poverty, but also preserving biodiversity.

Starbucked will help readers understand why we owe Starbucks quite a bit of credit for transforming coffee culture and triggering a chain of events that is helping consumers realize their own transformative power via the choices they make for their daily cup.