Mediocre coffee for $50 a pound

I found this story off the Los Angeles Times:

Much about the art and science of the consumer market is mysterious, but nothing's stranger than the seeming popularity of those coffee-pod brewing contraptions sold under brand names such as Keurig. 

Here's what's strange about them: First -- speaking with the authority of a coffee devotee with my own genuine Italian espresso machine at home -- the coffee they make is horrible. Second, it's ridiculously expensive.

Keurig uses plastic and foil pods filled with about 10 grams of ground coffee each (some are less, some "bold" brews are a little more), which are placed in the brewing device, automatically pierced with a needle, and inundated with hot water. The coffee-making process is mess-free. That's the good news, but once you've said that you've said everything. The result is typically a flavorless brew of brown hot water. The pods are discarded after a single brew, creating a detestable volume of non-recyclable packaging waste.

Keurig's single-serve pods, or K-Cups, sell on its website in packs of 24 for about $16.50. That's about $30 per pound of coffee; the price for some blends licensed from Starbucks can approach $50 per pound.

For comparison, at Peet's you can get a pound of top-flight fresh Italian or French roast for $15. For the same sum, Keurig will sell you half a pound of Folgers, which you can find in canisters at Wal-Mart for less than five bucks per pound.

How do you spell "sucker"? 

 Keurig Coffee Maker, from Bed Bath and Beyond.

My sister has one of these Keurig coffee makers in red.  Every morning she makes her one cup of coffee from this ridiculous machine.  It takes her less than a minute to make a cup of coffee.  As with myself, I'll use the old fashioned Mr. Coffee 12-cup coffee maker, or the smaller Mr. Coffee 4-cup coffee maker.  It takes me around five minutes to make a cup of coffee--perhaps two or three minutes, if I want to pull the pot out for that first cup while brewing.  I know it is more convenient to run a Keurig machine for a single cup of coffee, over that of a 4-cup Mr. Coffee maker, but is it worth the time, price or taste quality of your coffee? 

I'm sticking with the Mr. Coffee machine.  It makes great tasting coffee, at a cheaper price than Keurig.