Cuppa Woe

I'm currently drinking a cuppa joe that was produced by a single-serve brewer. It's fine coffee. But I can't help but feel that this style of specialized coffeemaker solves the wrong problem. 

The problem isn't, "How can I spend too much for designer coffee every day without having to leave the house?  At least, not my problem.  No doubt 'Big Coffee' spent months debating how to get people to pay them Starbuck-like prices without having to supply baristas, location, tables, rest rooms, air conditioning, napkins, condiments, internet connectivity, and ambience.  They solved their problem, alrighty.

My problem is that our Olde Faithful coffeemaker bit the dust. Noooo-oooo! Every morning, I need good coffee. Right away! Sooner! Morning coffee should be easy enough that someone who hasn't had their morning coffee can make it. Of course it needs to be good too. That lukewarm brown water Mom serves up ain't gonna cut it, Joe. 

We hurriedly got a replacement but I couldn't get it to brew coffee on command.  It insisted on being programmed.  Don't scream "Luddite!"  I was a programmer once, and I love gadgety stuff.  But it has to work.  It should follow the "critical path" we all learned about in project management class.  Once it has water and beans, there should be a button you press to start brewing. If you want features beyond that, they should be available. 

Alas. This beast had no "Now" mode.  None of the buttons said "On."  Sometimes it started brewing the 2nd or 3rd time I pushed the top button, other times I had to keep trying. Probably it was a faulty machine. But you know how frustrating the return-repair process is, and it should NEVER be attempted by a woman who hasn't had her morning coffee.  So I sent the piece of crap to its new home in the landfill and got a $30 one at the grocery store.  It was awful but at least it had an "On" button that worked. 

All was well until our bean grinder died of plastic fatigue. I couldn't find a replacement that delivered the same lack of features. I wanted to fill it with beans, put on the lid, and push down on the lid to grind.  If I wanted a coarser grind that day, I didn't push down as long.  The closest I could find for a replacement was oval instead of round, ensuring that the grinding was uneven.  You either got expresso-fine powder or half-beans, usually both.  Other models had more settings than our blender, and cost nearly as much. No thanks.

Then one day they stopped selling the beans I favored.  That was it. It was time for us to shift millenia and go for the single-serve model.  The maker I chose was very pricey. I could have gotten 3 grocery store coffeemakers, 3 grinders, and a year's worth of filters.  The price of the coffee is also fairly high, about 85 cents a cup.  I'll have to use it for a long time to recoup the cost.  Compared to a daily donation to Ye Olde Nearby Coffee Shoppe, I've already broken even, but that's not the right metric.  I would never drive to a coffee shop. ("Operate a car before I've had coffee?  You can't be serious.  And if I've had coffee, why get more? That ship has sailed, Gail") 

Conclusion? The coffee is, honestly, a little better than before. However, the morning coffee routine is a little more involved, and our grocery bill is a little higher.  All in all, it's ok... but I sure miss the old grind.