Archive: Opinions

I am not a coffeeie -- that's the coffee version of foodie, right?  I normally like a particular brand of powdered instant coffee.  I boil water.  Stir in the powder.  Drink coffee.  But my wife is a coffeeie, so we have the Keurig and what seems to me to be an enormous collection of coffee making paraphernalia.  On National Coffee Day, September 29th, I was in West Palm Beach because of a family thing.  Our Airbnb had a kitchen, which would save us money on meals.  The kitchen had a Keurig machine, the same model that we have at home, which meant I actually knew how to work it.  When we went to Publix it made more sense to get a box of Starbuck's French Roast k-cups than to get my usual jar of French Roast instant because, the big jar of instant was going to cost twice as much as the box of k-cups, and they didn't have powdered French Roast in my brand.  Plus it had the right number of servings for a six day trip.  Indeed, I drank the last k-cup an hour before we left for the airport to come home.  I decided I liked the taste of these k-cups better than powdered, so I had a nice surprise when my wife brought home a big honkin' box of the same k-cups.

As I finished my k-cup coffee this morning I was thinking about the money we saved cooking eating in, which led me to think about how much we saved getting the k-cups. It was a four dollar difference, but of course that is the economics of being in a different state for six days, because the jar of instant has a little more than a month's worth of cups.  I did a little Googling, and was shocked to find a 2015 The Atlantic article in which John Sylvan, the inventor of the k-cup, expressed regret at inventing what he said is "like a cigarette for coffee, a single-serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance."

“I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use,” he told the Atlantic reporter. “Plus it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make.”

At that time one in three households had pod-based coffee makers.  It is surely more by now.  The coffee makers are more expensive than traditional drip coffeemakers, and the coffee is, too.  A SmartFasmilyMoney.com writer did the math and found that a cup of coffee from a standard drip coffee maker costs $0.16-$0.46 per cup. The cost of a cup of k-cup coffee is $0.60-$2.00.  On the low end k-cup coffee is 375% more expensive than traditional drip coffee.  On the high end it's 435% more.

According to Wallethub, which just released an analysis of the best coffee cities in America, the reason coffee is so popular in the United States is that it was a reaction to the tea tax that caused the famous Sons Of Liberty 1773 tea revolt, the Boston Tea Party.  You would think that would make Boston the best coffee lover city, but it ranked 10th.  As a native Bostonian I didn't realize I was being traitorous every time I enjoy a cup of Earl Grey, but there it is.  I do like coffee better, though, so I hope that's enough to make me a patriot. 

Only two cities in the State of New York made the analysis.  New York City was ranked second best, after (you guessed it) Seattle, Washington.  And Buffalo ranked 70th best.  The analysis also reports that the coffee industry in the US is valued at $48 billion.  That is only 0.2181818181818182% of the national debt.  Clearly we have to step up our coffee drinking.

Anyway, the study reports that the highest percent of adult coffee drinkers are in Hialeah, Florida (Seattle, which didn't even make the top five even though it got the highest score for coffee lovers).  The lowest percentage is in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  San Francisco, which nowadays is reviled for its high cost of living was revealed in the study to have at least one virtue: it is the city with the most affordable coffee shops per capita (that are rated 4.5 stars).  New York City ranked number one for the most donut shops per capita.

The Mayor of the Village of Lansing loves to pontificate on the fact that bottled spring water costs a lot more than gasoline.  There has been much kerfuffle over the fact that some bottled water either is, or is not really different from tap water, yet it can cost $2 ($5 at airports).  People have been sold on a myth that their tap water is lousy and bottled water is good (that is sometimes true, but not really for the majority of us in the united States), and the undeniable convenience of bottled water when traveling, including just driving somewhere.  With the huge popularity of k-cups we have clearly come to the same conclusion.  The convenience of making coffee without having to grind beans, measure out powder, and, of course, the cleanup has convinced consumers that it is worth it to spend an average, more or less, of 400% more on each cup.

That still leaves the mystery of bottled water's popularity.  How hard is it to pour a little water in a travel cup?  As for cleanup... what do we clean things with?  Water! 

I was going to write about dirty politics in the election season today, but the taste of my coffee distracted me.  Perhaps if I were a little more awake I would write about that much more serious and topical subject.  The aroma wafting from the cup, the heat of the deep brown liquid and the taste... I think I'll get another cup of coffee and think about that.

By the way, looking at coffee prices in the store is not something I do.  I usually find my jar of powdered, grab it and go.  So on our Publix adventure I was shocked to find that Starbucks box of French Roast k-cups was considerably less expensive the same volume of Dunkin Donuts k-kups.  To my taste the Starbucks version tastes better, but who am I to judge?  I still love powdered instant.

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