Do you use a single cup coffee machine?
Do you buy your coffee in those convenient little coffee cups?
Well, I joint this group last year after my favorite Breville Barista coffee machine died after 8 years of heavy use – yes, I do drink a lot of coffee.
Before I was just replacing the seals a few times on my Barista, but at that time unfortunately the pressure was not working anymore. And that required either to have it serviced and most likely the unit replaced, or spring for another coffee machine.
I decided for a new coffee machine that is cheaper than the Barista and will hopefully last 2-3 years. When I worked at the office a few years ago, we had a beautiful Keurig coffee machine that was used very heavily and I thought, well, why not, let’s try that. And then my husband came and said he wanted one with a milk frother. Oh well. So, I went for a Keurig with milk frother. The only thing that always prevented me from buying one of those before were the huge amounts of cups you needed and all that plastic waste those produce. And with me drinking about 4 cups of coffee a day, sometimes more, those cups add up. Even if some claim that their cups are biodegradable, I don’t really trust that.
Now I know that some single cup coffee makers also have these reusable filters, where you can use your own coffee. So, when I bought my Keurig, I searched if they had a reusable cup. And they did – the Keurig My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter with Multi Stream Technology, which fits all Keurig machines. I bought that too for $15.99, but it kind of disappeared in a drawer for a while after I used it a few weeks. The cups were just too convenient to use – put it in, make your coffee and throw the cup away. No washing before you get your next cup of coffee. But a month ago I was taking out the trash and I saw all these plastic cups I was throwing out. It was not a good sight and I felt very guilty.
I looked in my drawer and took out the My K-Cup Universal Reusable filter. Now I still had some coffee beans of my favorite Fairtrade Amazon Peruvian coffee, and I went to look for a container for the ground coffee and the coffee grinder. Once I found everything, I ground a batch of coffee to try if it had the right consistency for the filter. Once I got that, I finished grinding that bag of coffee and started making delicious coffee without feeling guilty.
Yes, I still have K-Cups for the morning coffee, as my husband is in charge of that, but after my initial cup I use the Reusable K-Cup.
Now let’s get to a description of the My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter. It consists of a plastic cup, a plastic insert with metal mesh walls and a lid with several holes. These holes are the reason for being universal, as different Keurig coffee makers use different brewing methods, that means using either one or several holes to push the coffee into the cup. The system is very user-friendly.
You first remove the plastic insert of your Keurig coffee maker, and yes, in both my Keurig machines I could take that out. You have to make space for the My K-Cup plastic insert. Then you unscrew the top of the reusable filter – it has a little white dot on the plastic cup and a little painted on lock on the lid that shows you the open and closed position of the cup. Once you have it open you can add your ground coffee – up to the maximum fill line it fits approximately 2.5 teaspoons of ground coffee. You can put in the amount you like, screw that top back on to the locked position, put it in the machine and make your coffee. I was very surprised to actually get some crema with the My K-Cup. None of the bought coffee cups produced a noticeable crema. So that was really nice. You also can put it in the dishwasher, which is some added benefit for many people. As I do not use my dishwasher, I am happily washing the reusable cup by hand and letting it dry.
So, if you have a Keurig coffee maker maybe you will consider using the My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter. It will save you lots of money buying coffee beans instead of all these cups and there will be much less plastic in our landfills.
Do you already use the My K-Cup filter? If so, let me know if you like it, or maybe you are not that happy with it.