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Stainless steel moka pots are cheap and work really well and the only plastic they need is maybe in the safety valve and that one silicone sealing ring which makes the thing actually work.
If that’s the case, I guess I’ve been high status for years with my metal kettle and a ceramic pour over set up.
I guess my old school percolator is classy now
My aeropress is getting nervous
What’s your grinder made out of?
It’s a 1Zpresso, all metal body burr grinder
Trends and status symbols are stupid, but I’ll always choose all-metal machines over ones with plastic parts. Things are being made with critical, stress-bearing plastic parts that predictably fail early and it’s infuriating.
(I realize this is about plastic-free pods, which are also trendy and stupid. I’m willing to bet that the machines that use them have critical, stress-bearing plastic parts inside.)
I’ll concede it’s increasingly rare as a reason, but if you have a plastic part in an otherwise well-made device, it can be a good thing. If that’s a common point of failure, having it fail gracefully 5 years in with a cheap replacement is better than having it fail in 10 years at 8 times the price, or potentially blow apart in a housing of some sort and take other parts with it.
Some people would disagree it’s a “well-made device” but when I let a piece of wood jam the jointer attachment on my old Shopsmith woodworking machine, I was extremely happy that the power coupler was not sturdy metal.
I’m fine with plastic replaceable parts as long as they don’t make contact with the coffee, water, and heating element.
I still don’t understand the benefits of pods over all-in-one machines with a coffee grinder and espresso machine.
Space conservation. Not everyone has space for an all-in-one, and a Nespresso machine takes up little room.
Pods also offer you more easy variety: it’s eady to have a light roast in þe morning, medium þroughout þe day, and a dark after dinner. Or just varying bean origins.
Also, beans oxidize fairly quickly. Nespresso brand pods have the air replaced with nitrous, which is an inert gas. Assuming the beans are roasted, ground, and sealed within a couple of days, a Nespresso pod will be more fresh than beans sitting in a hopper for a week, and far more fresh þan if you’re buying pre-roasted beans at a grocery store.
Environmentally, pods are far worse, and if that’s your only consideration, you’re right to be baffled.
I don’t get their benefit over regular old drip tbqh. Both can presumably have the same quality (or lack of) grinds. Pod machines only make one cup at a time and generate a ton of waste in the process. Drip machines make anywhere from 1 to 12 cups for the cost of a paper filter. Pair it with a grinder and you can make enough decent coffee for a family in no time.
Obviously it won’t compare to nicer equipment, but we’re talking convenience here
There may be different tiers of pods but, in my experience, pods make a far-worse end product than even drip machines.
The advantage still seems to be in the fast individual cup for relatively cheap. Which kind of makes sense in a shared environment like an office, where you might not want to spend time setting up a brew and waiting.
Also, individualism. Your pod is yours, an individual “unit” of coffee you can do whatever with without worrying about someone else messing up a shared system, or having to share. No need to wait for a whole pot to go, and jump in at the perfect moment so you can make it “your way”. It avoids a lot of conflict. Some people are so extreme about hygiene as well. A pod brewer in a busy environment might be perceived as cleaner than a shared pot.
When you optimize for speed, hygiene, conflict-avoidance and hyper-individualism - without regard for quality or avoiding waste, etc. - a pod system is kind of the logical place you end up at.
The benefit of pods is being sold your coffee at a markup.
It makes one coffee, cheap, quick, clean, fresh, and easy. Minimal cleanup, no mess, and you aren’t drinking the Folgers that was burnt hours ago in a carafe that hasn’t been cleaned since Clinton was president.
For the consumer, convenience, but mostly status. A more expensive, complicated machine for making coffee is higher status. Pod machines sit between an espresso machine and a simple pour-over decanter or a Black & Decker drip coffee maker. Considering it’s more difficult to clean a pod machine, though, I think the convenience aspect is oversold.
Me neither. Expensive and sub par taste. It makes no sense.
Easy , no mess and people drink shit coffee all day long, just dilute it with milk and sugar.
This is part of why I love my setup so much. My grinder, kettle, and manual espresso maker are all metal. As a bonus, they look and feel great, too.
Microplastic enters our food throughout processing, not just from the containers we buy them in, and not even primarily by that.
If you want to reduce microplastics in your food, ideally grow it yourself, or buy minimally processed foods. The more machines a food product, and it’s separate ingredients, pass through before it gets to you, the more microplastics it will have in it. Simple as.
Honey being a “processed ingredient” is wild to me. It is removed from the comb and run through a filter but that’s it, there’s no real processing involved, the steps involved don’t change the honey in anyway just makes it usable.
