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Posted by thunderbong 4 days ago

A wave of plastic-free coffee pods and machines(www.cnn.com)
153 points | 179 commentspage 2
zaphar 4 days ago|
I mean, among real coffee snobs the status symbol is mostly not using a Keurig or Lavazza machine at all. Pour overs, Espresso machines, most status symbol coffee equipment is pretty light on the plastic already.
schnevets 4 days ago||
I think it's less about status or quality and more about a convenient cup of complimentary coffee in a waiting room that doesn't come with two ounces of environmental guilt.
Marsymars 4 days ago|||
Yeah, my normal morning coffee for my wife and I is from a Kalita Wave glass brewer. No plastic touches the coffee. Costs $40. Ceramic or stainless steel also available.
shostack 4 days ago|||
This. Anyone serious about coffee who is not going with one of these machines purely for convenience and speed would not otherwise consider them in a million years.
jrootabega 4 days ago||
It's CNN. Not exactly news snobs.
regus 3 days ago||
I make coffee in an electric percolator. It’s stainless steel, the coffee never touches any plastic. People online say this is the worst way to make coffee, but it tastes fine to me.
jmugan 3 days ago|
We recently switched to that. I don't like the taste as much but not sure what else to do. This coffee thing is getting complicated.
esFran 3 days ago||
I use a stainless steel moka pot, which I find very efficient (a minute or less to get coffee ready), healthy and eco-friendly. I hate capsules because of the waste they create once used and the energy that goes into making them.

From what I've read, it's true that the oils aren't filtered out as well as with paper filters, but their contribution is minimal.

By the way, always coffee with milk.

stevage 3 days ago|
Yeah me too. Stovetop pot on induction stove. Takes less space than a coffee machine, less waste, and the coffee comes out hotter. Oh, and I can make two cups at once.

Those pod machines are just all around crap. Kind of acceptable in an office kitchen, but really surprised anyone wants one at home.

prima-facie 2 days ago||
We already have the ESE coffee pods (e.g. from illy coffee) which work with your regular DeLonghi coffee machine, or even the pour over with a paper filter.
zekehernandez 4 days ago||
I would enjoy a plastic-free drip machine with a thermal carafe for convenient large batches. For now, been enjoying a stainless steel french press and pour over.
ungreased0675 3 days ago||
A Chemex with properly weighed and proportioned beans makes excellent coffee. It’s also plastic free and there isn’t a wait list.
gizajob 3 days ago||
These already seem pretty common in Italy, with the biodegradable plastic-free pods
comrade1234 4 days ago||
I used to grind my coffee and manually make espresso. Years ago though I switched to an all-in-one. I was very adamant that it had to have ceramic grinders so that it will last forever. I've since had to replace some internal parts and I'm sure the display will eventually fail and not be replaceable, but those grinders are going to last centuries!
Marsymars 4 days ago||
> I was very adamant that it had to have ceramic grinders so that it will last forever.

I wonder about this - I've got a few 1Zpresso grinders - they're rated for 100-200kg of coffee, and napkin math says my most-used one has probably done about 70kg to date. At grinder prices and my age though, not sure I'd ever come out ahead with BIFL burrs though.

Kirby64 3 days ago||
No ceramic burr grinders make comparable coffee to steel burrs. They’re all worse. Enjoy your steel burrs and don’t overthink it. Even “worn out” I bet they will taste better than ceramic burrs.
ungreased0675 3 days ago||
Can you explain why? I don’t know enough about coffee grinders to work out how there could be any difference in the end product.
Kirby64 2 days ago|||
Think about it the same way as ceramic vs steel knives.

Although ceramic can technically be sharper, and technically is harder, it’s both very difficult to get a sharp edge and that edge is extremely brittle and chips easily.

Steel can be made much more precisely easily, and the sharpness has toughness that won’t degrade as quickly. This lets you make an edge that cuts much cleaner, which leads to better shaped particles. Once you start “mashing” the particles instead of cutting them, grind size distribution gets a lot worse and you start getting more “fines” which leads to muddy cup profiles.

Also, because ceramic burrs are used on lower end grinders, the tolerance on the burrs and the other stuff around the burrs (alignment, shaft, etc) is much worse overall which impacts repeatability, and because you are continuously grinding, repeatability (play or shimmy) translates to worse grind size distribution.

KingMob 3 days ago|||
I'm guessing because ceramics are hard, but not as hard as steel, so they're less precise as grinders.

Thing is, no grinder can produce perfectly-sized grounds 100% of the time. Due to randomness in how the beans break, there will always be pieces smaller than the desired size. (Probably larger pieces sneak through, too.)

Grinders all produce a distribution, it's just that burr grinders tend to have a tighter distribution than cheap spice grinders. I'd guess that ceramic burr grinders have ever-so-slightly more give than steel, and will let through slightly more undesired grounds as a result.

But it's probably a pretty minor effect.

ungreased0675 3 days ago||
Ceramics are generally much harder than steel.
giwook 4 days ago||
I'm assuming you've already noted in your will that the ceramic grinders be harvested from your coffee maker when everything's being sold at an estate sale otherwise what was the point of anything
rob74 3 days ago|
So, what's new about that? Philips's Senseo machines have been available now for 20+ years and they use pads without plastic? Ok, they probably don't count as a "status symbol" and some might turn their nose up at them, but still...
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