{"id":4047,"date":"2014-04-04T14:31:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T14:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=4047"},"modified":"2015-06-30T20:25:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T20:25:43","slug":"coffee-nerds-and-my-god-marco-is-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/04\/04\/coffee-nerds-and-my-god-marco-is-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Nerds and….my God, Marco is right"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Well shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what came from my mouth when I finished reading this post from Marco Arment<\/a>. He\u2019s right in so many ways.<\/p>\n

He links to this post from Mother Jones<\/a> about the problems with K-Cups from Green Mountain Coffee I quoted an excerpt below:<\/p>\n

Journalist Murray Carpenter estimates in his new book, Caffeinated, that a row of all the K-Cups produced in 2011 would circle the globe more than six times. To update that analogy: In 2013, Green Mountain produced 8.3 billion K-Cups, enough to wrap around the equator 10.5 times. If Green Mountain aims to have “a Keurig System on every counter,” as the company states in its latest annual report, that’s a hell of a lot of little cups.<\/em><\/p>\n

Green Mountain only makes 5 percent of its current cups out of recyclable plastic. The rest of them are made up of a #7 composite plastic, which is nonrecyclable in most places. And for the small few that are recyclable, the aluminum lid must be separated from the cup, which also must be emptied of its wet grounds, for the materials to make it through the recycling process. Even then, chances are the pod won’t be recycled because it’s too small, says Darby Hoover, senior resource specialist at the National Resources Defense Council.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a typical MJ article though. They highlight something we were already aware of such as, \u201cprinters are manufactured with non recyclable parts, use overpriced ink per ounce and print paper which most of it ends up in land-fills\u201d Duh.<\/p>\n

I actually don\u2019t criticize K-cup users. In fact, Elizabeth owned a Keurig when I met her and used it even when we lived together. I\u2019d make my coffee with a Hario kettle, Burr Grinder and Chemex while she would walk past me, stick in a plastic pod and push a button. Actually, my only complaint about her Keurig was that she\u2019d leave it on at night and the blue LEDs would light up our dining room.<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t like how Keurig coffee tastes and am well aware of its shortcomings and would never use one myself, my God, Marco is right!<\/p>\n

Not to separate myself from the subjects in his piece but I don\u2019t waste when I brew. I use Glass & Metal to brew my coffee and my filters + coffee grounds go in a compost bin. I use a 20 ounce coffee cup that I wash and re-use each day. My water heating method is via a gas oven. My digital scale is powered by a battery that I\u2019ve replaced once. When I\u2019m in California for work, I recycle my cup from Philz Coffee at the office. I don\u2019t know what they do with their grounds though.<\/p>\n

So I really can\u2019t relate to his claim of waste but his overall point on snobby coffee people is so true. I like this part:<\/p>\n

We certainly pay for it. Not only is our fancy coffee much more expensive than regular automatic drip at retail, but we also pay massively in our time, and we ask the public to do the same. That\u2019s why specialty coffee shops often have a huge line: it takes much longer to make an individual pour-over cup than almost any other well-known method of making hot coffee except a siphon brew.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and this<\/p>\n

Our obsession with gear and \u201crituals\u201d is only distracting them \u2014 and us \u2014 from the real problem: old, mediocre, or badly roasted beans.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll only fix the real problem and get more people back to our side if we drop the pretention, ritualization, and gear obsession and recognize why so many people opt out of our fancy coffee methods and into Keurig\u2019s.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How can I expect anyone to give a shit enough to actually buy $100 in equipment and spend 5-7 minutes every morning making a cup of coffee?<\/p>\n

A realtor that\u2019s selling the house I\u2019m renting was over yesterday. I was making coffee while she did an inspection and in a proper British accent she said, \u201cthat coffee smells amazing and almost has me wanting to dump out my tea\u201d I made her a 12oz serving of my Blue Bottle single origin Ethiopia via Chemex pour-over. She was intrigued by the process, noted how low the acidity was and how easy it was to drink and she even noted the woody blackberry notes and we both sort of appreciated our coffee for a few moments, something that I do almost every day.<\/p>\n

\u2026and that\u2019s what brings me happiness in life.<\/p>\n

I adore ingesting something that opens my eyes and makes me realize how great life is. Whether it be a pastry, cheese, chocolate or an old-growth French wine. I love that excitement and I can honestly say she had need had coffee like this before.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I see the coffee war from a big picture. It\u2019s just like Mac versus PC in the early 2000s. 1-3% of America uses Macintosh and the rest use Windows. Macs are more expensive (still are) and they\u2019re more fun to use. There was a time when you couldn\u2019t get an IT person to help you with your Mac, there was little software or games and you couldn\u2019t just hit Circuit City and get replacement parts but the Mac brought you happiness. It was superior. I see something as simple as a French Press or Chemex as superior to Drip \/ Keurig. You spend more time and money but the joy you get out of it far exceeds the taste of a push button.<\/p>\n

One thing psychologically wrong with most of us though is that we believe that there\u2019s no way push-button can be better. If there was a magic machine that recreated my Chemex process electronically, I probably wouldn\u2019t buy it. Just like I seek out rare beer or special cheeses. IF it\u2019s on a grocery store shelf, there\u2019s no way it\u2019s any good. I need to fix my attitude toward that. You should as well.<\/p>\n

But right now, push-button coffee isn\u2019t as good as pour-over. So the solution I see is one Marco mentions but doesn\u2019t expand on. I think our solution is to stop being assholes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m an asshole about quite a few things and it probably annoys people. I get along by myself though so it\u2019s usually not too bad. If I see a compression artifact on an HD video, I won\u2019t watch that movie or if my car\u2019s turbo doesn\u2019t pick up when I expect it to, I curse it or if traction control doesn\u2019t hang on to my reckless driving, that\u2019s annoying as well. It\u2019s snobby pretentious and extends to pretty much every hobby or past time in my life. So it\u2019s no surprise that I choose this method to make coffee.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to keep drinking my great coffee and everyone else can keep drinking Keurig cups. I don\u2019t give people smack for how they drink their coffee but if someone is interested, I will show them how I do it. Just like how I was as a Macintosh user. I won\u2019t tell people they should own a Mac or convince them to switch away from Windows. You use what you and I\u2019ll use what I do. IT\u2019s not worth my time to get you to switch.<\/p>\n

but I know that the way I\u2019m doing it is better and that\u2019s good enough for me.<\/p>\n

So Marco is right on a lot of points and I should work to change how I approach things and live life just a bit more simpler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Well shit.\u201d That\u2019s what came from my mouth when I finished reading this post from Marco Arment. He\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[144,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-coffee","category-culinary","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-13h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3597,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/02\/15\/keurigs-new-vue-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 Keurig’s new Vue System","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Keurig Vue System (via): Brew Stronger. Brew Bigger. Brew Hotter.\u2122The revolutionary Keurig Vue\u2122 Brewer works together with the new Vue\u2122 packs to deliver the ultimate brewing experience. Fox News: Green Mountain will begin selling the new Keurig Vue brewers in \"coming weeks\" for $249.99--more than double the price of its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culinary"","block_context":{"text":"Culinary","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/culinary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3270,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/11\/02\/k-cups-and-the-death-of-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 K-Cups and The Death of America","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"K-Cups. You've had coffee via this brewing method and you may have a machine at home. If not, you've certainly seen them in stores, online and heard of the popular method in conversation with friends. Tonight, I was ranting a bit on Twitter about how evil these little plastic pods\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-thoughts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1378,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/01\/18\/starbucks-goes-supersize-i-see-this-as-a-good-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Starbucks goes Supersize…I see this as a good thing.","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Starbucks unveiled a new cup size on Monday the 17th that has been tested in select markets. I heard about this larger cup size late last year and it didn't really interest me but I saw a few advantages to this. Of course, in a time when our nation is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culinary"","block_context":{"text":"Culinary","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/culinary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/laughingsquid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/trenda-20110117-125017.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/laughingsquid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/trenda-20110117-125017.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/laughingsquid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/trenda-20110117-125017.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/11\/14\/the-joy-and-economics-of-a-home-espresso-machine\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":3},"title":"\u2605 The Joy and Economics of a Home Espresso Machine","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Espresso consumption is an aesthetic experience, like tasting a vintage wine or admiring a painting. It is a search for beauty and goodness and improving the quality of our life. As it offers such subjectively ineffable \u2018goodness\u2019, devoid of defects, the only adequate reaction to it is astonishment \u2014 astonishment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culinary"","block_context":{"text":"Culinary","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/culinary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4337,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/11\/17\/linked-starbucks-green-mountain-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":4},"title":"Linked: “Starbucks & Green Mountain Coffee”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"via Sum of Us:Starbucks doesn't think you have the right to know what's in your coffee. So it's\u00a0teamed up with Monsanto to sue the small U.S. state of Vermont\u00a0to stop you from finding out.Hiding behind the shadowy \"Grocery Manufacturers Association\", Starbucks is supporting a lawsuit that's aiming to\u00a0block a landmark\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4437,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/01\/20\/linked-the-multimillion-dollar-quest-to-brew-the-perfect-cup-of-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":4047,"position":5},"title":"Linked: “The Multimillion Dollar Quest To Brew The Perfect Cup Of Coffee”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via Fast Company: In many ways, Blue Bottle is the antithesis of Starbucks. Each of its cups of coffee\u2014which cost between $4 and $7\u2014is brewed manually, taking at least three and a half minutes. 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Its caf\u00e9s aren't built\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}