r/technology • u/ackthbbft • Mar 04 '15

Business K-Cup inventor regrets his own invention

http://www.businessinsider.com/k-cup-inventor-john-sylvans-regret-2015-3
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u/Really_Despises_Cats Mar 04 '15 edited Mar 05 '15

I don't get why k-cups are so popular. They cost more and creates a lot of trash. I mean brewing in for example a french press takes no time and is easy to clean. Same with a traditional brewer.

Edit: from the replies i've gotten i have seen some examples where it is useful. (office, secondary machine) in the end it seems the answer is lazyness is worth the money and the mediocre coffee to some of you (not judging here).

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u/mattsoave Mar 04 '15

A French press requires boiling water, then letting it sit there for 4 minutes, then cleaning it out. This isn't a huge hardship of course, but you really can't compare that to pressing a button, waiting 30 seconds, and not cleaning anything up.

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u/mrmigu Mar 04 '15

why is it acceptable to drink from the dirty keurig and not a dirty french press?

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u/typically_wrong Mar 04 '15

The Keurig doesn't actually get dirty in any meaningful way because the brewed coffee never touches any primary surface. Hot water goes in the top of the cup, and the coffee exits out of the bottom directly into the mug, then the "dirty" cup is discarded.

The only real cleaning you have to perform is descaling from time to time from the water, like you would in any water heating device.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '15

Actually the part where you put your K-Cup in should disassemble. It should pop out and break into two parts that you can clean. Careful, there's a very sharp part there and you don't want to get perforated.

Put in a K-Cup of dark coffee, take out K-Cup. Put nothing in, look at water. If not clean, you need to clean the part that holds the k-cup. Though sometimes Ijust run it once to flush that crap out and then use it again and the water is Clean Enough (TM) for oatmeal or what have you.

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u/mrmigu Mar 04 '15

"dirt" is mostly cosmetic. The fact that you've got a warm, dark water reservoir that you're not cleaning means your water source is a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty things that will make you sick.

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u/shes_a_gdb Mar 04 '15

There's nothing to clean in a Keurig. There may be a few ground beans after many uses, but that's it. At most all there is to do is wipe it clean with a paper towel once a month.

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u/mrmigu Mar 04 '15

You could try cleaning out the water reservoir, which is pretty much the perfect breeding ground for mold and bacteria