3/26/2013

The Deceptive Cost of Single Serve Coffee






What's not to like about single-serve coffee brewers? If you're only drinking a cup or two of coffee each day, why brew a whole pot? While the cost of the pods may win out over a daily Starbucks habit, when broken down to per pound prices, it's a little shocking just how much they cost.

The New York Times investigated popular single-serve coffee brewers and found that it was well within the norm to be paying more than $50 per pound of coffee. Of course, pods and K-Cups are sold in much smaller quantities, so the cost per cup seems low. But at those prices, you'd be saving money brewing a big pot of the most expensive coffee around and pouring out the extra joe. Oliver Strand explains:
For example, the Nespresso Arpeggio costs $5.70 for 10 espresso capsules, while the Folgers Black Silk blend for a K-Cup brewed-coffee machine is $10.69 for 12 pods. But that Nespresso capsule contains 5 grams of coffee, so it costs about $51 a pound. And the Folgers, with 8 grams per capsule, works out to more than $50 a pound.
Surprising? As more and more coffee drinkers think of their morning joe in terms of cost per cup, it's easy to overlook the real price of coffee. Are single-serve coffee machines more convenient? Absolutely, and for many the convenience outweighs the cost.

Source: thekitchn.com


See also:
Single Serve Coffee Brewers Make Convenience Costly (NY Times)
K-cups and Coffee Pod Systems: Love Them or No Thanks? (kitchn.com)


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