Consumer Reports tests K-Cup Alternatives

Single serve coffee makers are, hands down, the most convenient way to make coffee at home. The Keurig machine takes just a few minutes to warm up, the coffee is prepacked and and there is virtually no cleanup. The downside is that K-cups are fairly expensive (unless you are a very savvy shopper) and they can add up quickly if you drink a lot of coffee. Consumer Reports recently (March 2013) set out to see if there are K-cup alternatives that would work as well, but that could save you a little money in the long run.

They estimated that someone who drinks one K-cup a day ends up spending somewhere from $220-$275 on the little cups over the course of the year. They tested both disposable and reusable cups that work with Keurig machines but that are designed to be filled with coffee by the user. The original K-cups were still winners when it came to convenience, but they found at least one good alternative that could save you some cash in the long run.

Simple Cups are disposable cups that you fill with your own coffee. They cost less than the K-cups, but not by much. CR estimated that a cup-a-day drinker would still spend around $185 a year with these, including your own coffee. EZ Cups are reusable cups with disposable filters inside, and you also use your own coffee. They turned out to run about $135 a year, including coffee. Neither model was as easy to use as a K-cup and could be difficult to close.

The winner when it came to saving money and ease of use was the Keurig K-Cup Adapter, with its reusable cup and filter system. It’s only about $18, so your only cost after that is the coffee, at about $80 a year. It does require cleaning, but it offers a good value and was Consumer Reports top pick for a K-cup alternative.

Zevro Indispensable Coffee Dispenser

One way to ensure that you get a good cup of coffee is to freshly grind your beans just before you are ready to use them. Oils escape from the beans when they’re ground and your coffee will age much, much faster than whole beans do. Dried out coffee grounds lead to less flavorful coffee. The problem with grinding as you go is that you have to devote some extra time to measuring and grinding the beans before brewing. This can be a slow and noisy (especially for those of us who make coffee very early!) process and there are times when it would be nice just to have that coffee already ground and ready to go! I don’t want to compromise flavor for speed, and neither do the people at Zevro, who came up with the Indispensable Coffee Dispenser. This gadget holds up to 1/2-pound of freshly ground coffee in an airtight environment. With the touch of a button, it will also dispense coffee grounds in 1 tbsp amounts directly into your espresso machine, coffee pot, or other coffee-making  equipment. It does not grind the beans, so you can grind them as coarse or as fine as you like before storing them.

The best thing about this dispenser is that it holds enough grounds to be useful, but not so much that you’ll end up with past-their-prime beans in your dispenser. It will keep things fresh until you’re ready for a refill.  The dispensing action is also useful because it means that you don’t need to constantly open the container and let air in as you access your beans.

Capresso Froth Pro

Hot, steamed milk is always a nice addition to a cup of coffee even if you’re not setting out to make a specialty drink with it. But when you’re brewing drip coffee, or any other type of coffee that doesn’t come straight from a high powered espresso machine, steamed milk is usually not an option because the machine doesn’t come with any kind of attachment to make it easy to make! Fortunately, there are all kinds of neat gadgets out there that will make it easy and convenient to get steamed milk at the drop of a hat – and your coffee drinking experiences will probably be the better for it.

The Capresso Froth Pro is a good example of this. This machine delivers enough steamed milk for a couple of drinks in a small pitcher that actually looks a lot like a coffee mug itself. It will froth or steam and it works for both hot and cold milk (or soy/other nondairy milks, per the manufacturer). Perhaps the best part is that the gadget has a very small footprint and a nice, tight lid on it. This means that you can park it on your desk at work and be enjoying your own lattes without treking down the street to a more expensive coffee shop when you want one. You’re not going to be able to make latte art with this, but you’ll still get a creamier cup of coffee.

Coffee Joulies

Insulated cups are the standard for keeping your hot drinks hot and you cold drinks cold. They generally work very well, letting you sip your caffeinated drinks at your desk all morning without forcing you to jump up to reheat. But even insulated mugs don’t keep your drinks at the same perfect temperature for hours. Hot drinks gradually lose their edge as they sit and, if you’re like most people, you’ll eventually head to the pot to top off your coffee. That is where Coffee Joulies come in. This idea was posted as a project on Kickstarter, a food-safe “thermodynamic heat storage device” that looks like a coffee bean. Pop one of these into your mug and it will bring it down to a drinkable temperature 3x faster than usual and will keep it there 2x as long. These work particularly well when they’re used in conjunction with an insulated mug, as you get the benefits of both heat-saving devices. Of course, if you’re an espresso drinker you’re not going to really reap the benefits of this little bean, but if you like to sip your tea or coffee, this is one little gadget worth adding to your collection.

Xtra Cream

You probably don’t take a container of milk or creamer with you wherever you go, but if you are a coffee (or tea) lover you will probably encounter coffee-drinking opportunities on a regular basis. Sure, it is easy to get the drink you want at a coffee shop, but it isn’t so easy at a fast food joint or restaurant that only offers tiny half-n-half containers alongside that steaming mug of freshly brewed coffee. I will drink my coffee black if there are no good cream options (actually, I drink it black most of the time if the coffee is good), but I find the Xtra Cream Container very appealing all the same. The container is like a super-sized creamer – and it actually holds more than 2 teaspoons of liquid. It has a resealable lid and travels well, so you can take the dairy or nondairy of your choice with you and will always be prepared to take your coffee as you like it.

And, to be honest, it also makes a neat candy dish for the desktop of a coffee loving friend. I have yet to meet a coffee drinker who hasn’t at least cracked a little smile after seeing it!