We left off discussing how single serve coffee saves us time in regards to the brewing process…
And time spent brewing the coffee is just the beginning. You then spend time cleaning – the pot itself, the filter and used grounds, measuring spoons, coffee drips and grounds that have spilled on counters and floors. Thus, there’s potential for a lot of mess. With single-serve, you simply throw the pod away and you’re done.
The old-school brewing method lends itself to the potential for leftover coffee. With single-serve, coffee drinkers can make exactly how much coffee they need. No longer does un-consumed coffee go down the drain. You want a cup, make one cup. You want two cups, make two cups, and so on.
Like anything else there are disadvantages to single-serve coffee. For one, it’s expensive. It costs anywhere from 40-96 cents per single-serve cup. In comparison a 6oz cup of coffee from a home brewer costs anywhere from 25-35 cents per cup, not including the filters (3 cents). There’s also the cost of the brewer to consider.
If you consistently find yourself pouring the remaining coffee from your pot down the drain then single-serve is a better option for you. With single-serve coffee you aren’t just paying for coffee; you’re paying for the convenience, cleanliness and efficiency that the product offers. We do that everyday when we buy lunch out, use a dry cleaning service, take a cab, or go to a hair salon.
While single-serve coffee reduces waste on the frontend it produces waste on the backend. The magical little cups do pile up in the garbage can and only recently have manufacturers begun to create ecofriendly versions. In this case, using single-serve is a personal choice. It’s simply a case of the environmental footprint verses the advantages of using single serve coffee. To each their own!
Our mighty little hero (can’t you imagine an adorable little cape on him?) is taking the country by storm. And here’s the proof: Let’s note that 83% of American adults drink coffee (www.foodmanufacturing.com.) That’s 268 million people. And of that group, 29% drink single-serve coffee. That comes out to over 93 million single-serve coffee consumers.
So no matter how you feel about our hero, it’s needless to say that he is quite the success story!
To further expand your single-serve coffee knowledge….here are a few facts:
- 27% of U.S. households own a single-serve coffee brewer. (gourmetretailer.com; www.nationalcoffeeassociation.com)
- It is estimated that single serve coffee sales will surpass the sales of retail roasted coffee in 2017. (consumeraffairs.com)
- Single serve is the fastest growing segment in the coffee industry. (http://coffeetalk.com/ctmagazine/04-2014/5998/)
- Single Serve Coffee sales represent 40% of the $11 billion total retail packaged coffee industry. (prnewswire.com)
