Are Your K-cups Making You Broke?
John Sylvan is the inventor of K-cups. You know those adorable cups that you pop into your Keurig brewing machine and in under a minute you have hot coffee. The funny thing is, according to a story from the Atlantic, John Sylvan does not own the exact things he invented, stating they were a bit on the expensive side. Speaking to this specific group of college and millennial aged folks, I’m willing to bet John Sylvan has more money than you, so if he finds K-cups a bit overpriced, maybe you should too.
His reasoning that K-cups and Keurig Brewing Machines are a little too expensive for his taste isn’t that far fetched. This generation has shifted away from traditional drip coffee makers to these K-cup fed coffee machines for speed and individualism in their cups of coffee. These enhancements come at an increase in price. For those of us that are trying to redefine cheap and keep a close eye on our expenses, these increases in cost creep for only a slight improvement in the coffee brewing process.
An article from New York Times found that a pound, 45 6-ounce cups, of K-cup coffee costs around $50. One of the more expensive generic brands offered is minimal in comparison at around $12 per pound while brands like Folgers only runs around $5-6 per pound. If you’re wondering how that adds up, Business Insider calculated if you were to drink only one cup of coffee a day you would spend around $100 on old fashioned (more expensive brand) ground coffee versus $400 dollars a year for the K-cups. That is a $300 difference per year, and goodness forbid if you drink two cups a day, you would be looking at around a $600 difference.
When it comes to time it takes to make each type of coffee, Keurig has the advantage. To make a pot of coffee, you are usually looking at around a 4-6 minute process including clean-up. Using a Keurig machine, the total process is just about a minute. If I use our estimates above and do some simple math it will take around 30.5 hours to make a pot of coffee vs. 6.1 hours to make one cup of K-cups everyday for a year.
To round it out, I understand that K-cups are awesome and super convenient. But the question you have to ask yourself is what would you rather have every year, two cups of K-cup coffee daily or $600 in your wallet? Considering money is of great importance for this age group, grinding it out (literally) will save you a large amount of money that can give you more flexibility in other aspects. For some places that $600 is close to one month of rent. So once again I ask you the question of what is more important, K-cups or a month’s rent payment? And remember that pot coffee is extremely easy to make, plus you can control how strong the brew is and if that wasn’t good enough you can even make large amounts all at once! If I haven’t sold you yet on turning in your Keurig for coffee maker then I think you’re addicted to the K-cup lifestyle or still living off someone else's credit card. When we’re looking to cut costs anyway possible, how we make our coffee is an easy transition to make to save large amounts of money.
Simple Price Comparison:
Classic Pot Coffee: $
K-cup Coffee: $$
Buying Starbucks Daily: $$$$ (You may be crazy)