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Each morning, the routine seems to be the same. I rise before Sue and get her the first cup of coffee. There is an unwritten rule in our house. No communication transpires before she has her first cup of coffee. There have been very few times in our 41-year marriage that I have broken that rule. When I did, I paid for it.
It’s amazing how much java plays in our relationship. I can’t imagine what would happen if we ran out.
The Chicago Tribune had an interesting article earlier this month that addressed the growing interest coffee drinkers are having in single-cup coffee makers. According to the article, single-cup, pod coffee sales represent 8 percent of worldwide coffee sales. That isn’t a bad market share for only being in the market for a little over 10 years. It took us quite a few years to warm up to the idea of single cups. I would always make a 12-cup pot in the morning. But we would wind up throwing out more than half of the pot before the day was out. When Sue and I lived in Puerto Rico, we became accustomed to having six or seven small cups of the strong Columbian coffees each morning. When we returned here, we couldn’t get enough coffee. In those days, the coffee here wasn’t that strong. Of course, now you can get the tall coffees at Caribou or Starbucks that give you the same jolt. We have changed our taste and now enjoy the breakfast blend – a much lighter coffee.
The Tribune article noted that the cost of a single-cup serving is about five times the cost of a cup of traditionally-brewed coffee. They attributed the high cost per serving and the cost of the single-cup brew machines as the reason the growth of single-cup sales is only at 8 percent. That is the main reason that held us back from getting a single-cup brewer. But, I got to thinking about all the coffee we would throw out each day. I also remembered that when we had neighbors over for coffee, it was hard to accommodate their preferences. Some liked the strong brews that curled your hair when you drank them. Others preferred tea or cocoa, while still others would have enjoyed hot apple cider. So, two years ago, we got a Keurig machine for Christmas. It came with a variety pack of pods that really accommodated everyone’s preferences. There was no waste, since we brewed our favorite beverage one cup at a time. Who says you can’t please all the people, all the time. The home-brewed cups are certainly less expensive than the gourmet coffees available through drive ups. What’s even better, once we found the beverages we liked, we began ordering the pods over the web, which costs only about 60 percent of what you pay retail at the grocery.
Coffee, tea, cocoa, and cider may not be cheap beverages, but the ability to have your preferred beverage is priceless!
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