Cool Beans

(September 23, 2008)

I almost forgot about our new baby! This is Keurig, say hello:

Keurig is a single-cup home brewing system. Oh no, don't call Keurig a "coffee maker." Saying Keurig is a mere coffee maker is like saying Star Wars is a movie about space. Sure it makes coffee, but there's...like...droids and stuff!

Besides, we didn't need another "coffee maker." I already own a higher end Krups machine that I have had for...lord...years. It is a rather higher-end machine considering that me 'n Joey would only brew a pot of coffee on Saturdays and Sundays, but it got the job done. Actually...it didn't get the job done at all...compared to the Keurig, our old coffee-making days were a drag.

The problem we'd been having, y'know, in the area of the Krups coffee, is multi-faceted.

For one thing, whenever I'd brew a pot of coffee, Joe claimed it strong enough to strip paint. He says my coffee gets him wild-eyed and jittery.

Whenever Joe would brew a pot, I would say it's like drinking coffee-flavored tea. His style of weak coffee was surprising because he likes Starbucks, which is usually quite strong. (Joe later told me it wasn't the FLAVOR that caused him to make weaker coffee at home, it was that he didn't want so much caffeine. Yeah but dude...coffee shouldn't be transparent.)

No matter who brewed it, it meant that we would never finish the whole pot, seeing as how only one of us really liked the coffee that day. Somebody always loses.

We threw out a LOT of coffee.

Plus, we would also forget and leave the carafe sitting there on the Krups machine until the next weekend. Ewwwww. The lucky one on coffee duty would have to dump out the moldy week-old coffee grounds, scour the carafe, grind the beans and brew a pot of something the other person would invariably hate.

Then last year Joe gave up caffeine, for the most part, save for the occasional cup.

Well THEN it became pointless to brew a whole pot of anything. We're on two totally different coffee journeys here! To decaf I say "why bother???" So one of us would just toddle off to Dunkin Donuts on the corner and bring back two cups -- one Turbo Fuel, one Decaf Hazelnut.

We had a coffee situation on our hands. Each weekend became a Coffee Issue To Solve. Spending way too much on Dunks, and then you only have the one cup and would have to go for more. (If my ex, Hub, is reading this, he will recall that the original intent of purchasing that old Krups machine was to cut down on the un-necessary expense of buying endless cups of Dunkin Donuts coffee! Boyfriend-and-coffee, problem. Well how did I get back HERE AGAIN trying to solve a boyfriend-and-coffee problem?)

"What we need," I mused, "is a coffee solution that fits this situation."

I did a lot of research on the various single-cup "pod" brewers. At work we have a Nespresso, something like what I've seen in Europe. It's okay if you like espresso, but it's loud and messy, you can't fit a regular-sized mug under the spout, and you need two pods to get a decent sized amount of coffee. Eventually I settled on Keurig and put one on my Wish List. About a month ago, I was in Amazon.com buying someone else a gift, and I decided to um, Buy Myself A Little Something. Thanks to Amazon.com's EVIL WAY of showing me my Wish List items with the banner "Why Not Buy Yourself a Little Something?"

Well. Lemme tell ya. This baby rules.

It arrived on a Saturday morning, along with an assortment of K-cup coffee pods. Perfect timing, as we hadn't yet dealt with the Coffee Issue that day. Within ten minutes, Joe had it set up, turned on and I had a hot cup of strong coffee in my hand and Joe had a decaf. It is SO easy. And soooo goooood.

The only thing I wanted was the ability to have two kinds of coffee without a lot of work -- I didn't even consider all the hidden benefits that have since become awesomely obvious! Like how there is literally no clean up. There's no carafe, there's no beans to grind, no coffee scoop. Every cup is fresh and hot, and you can have a different kind of coffee if you desire a second cup! There are hundreds of pods available in stores and online, even Joe's new favorite...half-caf. Even hot chocolate and tea. Keurig also looks good, it's got blue LED that lights up the water. And it takes up less room on my counter.

The whole first week Joe kept saying "Can I make you some coffee? Would you like a cup of coffee?" It's so easy to use that it is actually FUN. We're downright giddy with joy. Prob'ly a little over-caffeinated too. HA!

I kept the Krups around for about three days "just in case," then that puppy hit the pavement.