August 2012

The True Price of K-Cups: $51/lb!

Compared to $10-15 per pound of normal coffee!

A little while ago I had an encounter with a K-Cup machine in a waiting room. It was pretty snazzy, I had to admit: it made me a delicious cup of coffee in just a few minutes, with no muss or fuss. Impressive! I began flirting with the idea of buying myself one. But I had to ask, how much do K-Cups really cost, versus making coffee "the regular way?"

For me, "the regular way" means buying coffee - usually Starbucks - either whole bean (which I grind myself in my burr grinder) or pre-ground from the grocery store. 
 
(Speaking of costs, I am very price-conscious when it comes to these bags of ground Starbucks at the grocery store. The savvy shopper will note that the bags ARE NOT ONE POUND BAGS. Instead, they are 12 ounce bags. Be sure to compare the price per pound correctly! Unless they are on sale, it is always cheaper to buy a pound of coffee at a Starbucks café. They will grind it for you for free, if you like.)
 
I am willing to pay a certain amount of premium cost for added convenience. But I was shocked when I learned that the price of K-Cups amounts to $51 per pound of coffee! Even the extra-fancy coffee blends at Starbucks rarely cost more than $20 per pound, and that's for the limited edition and seasonal blends. Your average every day Espresso or Italian blend is usually around $12 per pound.

Who drinks the most coffee?

Science is awesome, but on a day-to-day basis it is also often very boring.

According to this infographic by ILoveCoffee.jp, the #1 most coffee-drinking-est career is "Scientist/Lab Technician." I can see the sense in that: science is awesome, but on a day-to-day basis it is also often very boring. How much pipetting can you do before you fall asleep, the drone of the lab hood lulling you off to the Land of Nod? Better get some coffee, then!

And remember, it was mathematician Alfred Renyi who famously said that "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems." 
 
I am also not surprised about the #2 slot, which goes to "Marketing/PR Professional." If you have ever spent any time around marketing or PR professionals, you know that they are annoyingly frenetic. I'm pretty sure that "I drink a lot of coffee" is just a cover story for all the coke they are snorting in the bathroom. (Totally not kidding about that, by the way.)