The New York Times had a story yesterday about the costliness of using single-serve coffee makers. While Americans over 40 tend to think of coffee in terms of how much it cost per pound, those of us in our 20's and 30's tend to think of it in terms of how much it costs per cup. Enter the emerging multi-million dollar market for single serve coffee. If we think of coffee as costing $2-3 dollars per cup, the ability to have it in the comfort of our home for mere quarters begins to seem like a pretty good deal. The article does the math though and these single use cups/pods amount to paying a price of around $50/pound of coffee.
Of course, products are available that allow you to use your own coffee in these single cup machines. How efficient are these though? According to AOL's Daily Finance Savings Experiment Blog, two tablespoons of coffee grounds are needed for every six ounces of water when brewing in a drip machine or French press. My best estimate is that my K-Cup requires 3 tablespoons to make approximately 9 ounces of coffee. While it intuitively seemed like we were using more coffee grounds per cup with the K-Cup, it actually is exactly the same amount, proportionally. This means that if you use your own coffee you actually are not paying anything for the convenience of making your coffee by the cup rather than brewing an entire pot.
So go crazy, buy yourself some nice coffee and make it by the cup, just remember to BYOC.
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