I have always heard the name "Green Mountain" whispered with awe among my coffee snob friends. For the longest time I didn't even realize that Green Mountain was a company - I thought it was the name of the type of coffee, like Arabica or Peaberry or whatever.
In fact, Green Mountain is one of the consistently highest rated coffees. The company's flagship coffee is their mocha java, which gets a score of 91 points on the Coffee Review website. (And those people are tough graders!) Other blends rate even higher, particularly their fair trade blends. As a bonus, Green Mountain will ship you green coffee beans, and let you roast your own. I had one office mate who roasted his own coffee using a collection of air pop popcorn poppers, and another who used one of those hand crank stovetop poppers.
Regardless, Green Mountain has always positioned itself as fair trade friendly and ecologically conscientious. They heavily promote their fair trade blends, and tout the compostable coffee cup that they developed with a paper company.
However, Green Mountain is no longer a small, feisty, lovable scamp. In 2006 Green Mountain purchased Keurig, makers of the K-Cup coffee system. Green Mountain's earnings have skyrocketed ever since, and it seems fair to call them a "behemoth" now, nipping at the heels of that famed 500 pound gorilla, Starbucks.
The problem? Keurig's K-Cup system is a countertop environmental catastrophe. Coffee's carbon footprint and ecological impact is one thing (something that shade grown and fair trade blends hope to correct). But at least coffee grounds and paper filters are compostable. Many people don't compost them, but they COULD.
Enter the K-Cup, which creates a big ol' wad of plastic waste for EVERY SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE. This is even worse than the pod system espresso makers - at least the pods are compostable. They are ridiculously expensive compared to regular old espresso grounds, and I'm not sure if the foil packets are recyclable, but still. At least it isn't generating a little plastic cup and lid for every single cup!
Every single cup!
I just had to say that again.
I was horrified when I first encountered the K-Cup system. I studied it, convinced that I must have been misunderstanding what I saw. Was it really one individually wrapped plastic container per cup of coffee? That couldn't be right, could it? Oh but it was right.
The K-Cup system is a waste in every possible sense of the word. It's a waste of money, a waste of landfill space, and a waste of petroleum used to make the plastic. All in the name of a tiny bit more ease of use. Look, I'm not a fan of the pre-packaged plastic packets of ground coffee that most offices receive, where you have to open a new packet every time you make a pot of coffee. That's an awful lot of waste that could be replaced with a refillable tub and a measured scoop. But at least those are one packet per pot! It seems downright parsimonious compared to the waste of the K-Cup.
In fact, Green Mountain is one of the consistently highest rated coffees. The company's flagship coffee is their mocha java, which gets a score of 91 points on the Coffee Review website. (And those people are tough graders!) Other blends rate even higher, particularly their fair trade blends. As a bonus, Green Mountain will ship you green coffee beans, and let you roast your own. I had one office mate who roasted his own coffee using a collection of air pop popcorn poppers, and another who used one of those hand crank stovetop poppers.
Regardless, Green Mountain has always positioned itself as fair trade friendly and ecologically conscientious. They heavily promote their fair trade blends, and tout the compostable coffee cup that they developed with a paper company.
However, Green Mountain is no longer a small, feisty, lovable scamp. In 2006 Green Mountain purchased Keurig, makers of the K-Cup coffee system. Green Mountain's earnings have skyrocketed ever since, and it seems fair to call them a "behemoth" now, nipping at the heels of that famed 500 pound gorilla, Starbucks.
The problem? Keurig's K-Cup system is a countertop environmental catastrophe. Coffee's carbon footprint and ecological impact is one thing (something that shade grown and fair trade blends hope to correct). But at least coffee grounds and paper filters are compostable. Many people don't compost them, but they COULD.
Enter the K-Cup, which creates a big ol' wad of plastic waste for EVERY SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE. This is even worse than the pod system espresso makers - at least the pods are compostable. They are ridiculously expensive compared to regular old espresso grounds, and I'm not sure if the foil packets are recyclable, but still. At least it isn't generating a little plastic cup and lid for every single cup!
Every single cup!
I just had to say that again.
I was horrified when I first encountered the K-Cup system. I studied it, convinced that I must have been misunderstanding what I saw. Was it really one individually wrapped plastic container per cup of coffee? That couldn't be right, could it? Oh but it was right.
The K-Cup system is a waste in every possible sense of the word. It's a waste of money, a waste of landfill space, and a waste of petroleum used to make the plastic. All in the name of a tiny bit more ease of use. Look, I'm not a fan of the pre-packaged plastic packets of ground coffee that most offices receive, where you have to open a new packet every time you make a pot of coffee. That's an awful lot of waste that could be replaced with a refillable tub and a measured scoop. But at least those are one packet per pot! It seems downright parsimonious compared to the waste of the K-Cup.