Some of you may not know, but I drink a lot of coffee. And when I say a lot, I mean like around 100 fl oz per day. I’m also a bit of a coffee-snob, meaning that I won’t drink any old swill you get at Dunkin’ Doughnuts (umm yuck!). So even a large (venti) black coffee at Starbucks costs over $2, and a couple coffees per day (even with free refills) adds up fast.

The recession and a new job have forced me to re-work my budget. So I decided to make coffee at work, but I’m the only one in the office who drinks coffee. So if I were to brew a whole pot, it would go to waste, and I’d be spending about $14/week on beans. So I decided to get the Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System for the office.

I’m not going to use the K-Cups that most people have to buy for the Keurig. Instead, I’m going to grind my own coffee and use the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. This will allow me to only use 1-2 lbs of coffee per month at work. This will actually save me somewhere between $50-70 per month on my coffee expenses.

Now for the review of the machine. I’ve been using it for almost a week at this point. Overall I am pleased with the quality of coffee it brews. The trial K-Cups that came with the brewer were pretty bad, not anywhere near up to my standards. However using my own coffee with the reusable filter makes a pretty good cup of java. You need to grind the coffee about as fine as you can (think espresso grind) in order to get good extraction and a dark cup. Be sure to tamp the grounds down lightly into the filter too. The coffee it brews is akin to a French Press, this is because the reusable filter is metal, and not paper. This lets all the flavorful coffee oils flow into your cup. Great for taste, but can do a number on your stomach, so be careful.

As for care and maintenance of the machine, it’s pretty easy. The only major pain is cleaning the reusable filter, but for the money savings, I don’t mind it. All in all I would suggest this machine to anyone who wants fresh coffee often, where brewing an entire pot isn’t economical. So work out the math, and if it makes cents (har har), get one!

I love coffee. Coffee is the second most valuable traded commodity behind oil. Millions of people worldwide participate in the economy of coffee. The topic of coffee is a widely discussed and debated topic amongst its fans. Everyone has their own favorite bean, drink, preparation method and style. Coffee is perhaps the most personal beverage one can consume. Many people use coffee to just get them up in the morning, and pay little mind to the taste. Some people dump tons of cream and sugar into their coffee or drink expensive fashionable espresso drinks. Others have a true passion for fine, fresh roasted coffee and love tasting coffees from different origins, roasters, and preparation methods. I personally love straight black drip brewed coffee, freshly roasted and freshly brewed. I’m partial to coffees of southeast asian origins such as Sumatra. I figured I would put together a list of coffee related resources for other lovers of the bean. Whatever your coffee style, I’m sure the following sites will give you a lot more information about your favorite beverage.
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Starbucks Coffee is launching their free WIFI access through AT&T tomorrow, June 3, 2008. Unfortunately, it is not unlimited WIFI access. Through the deal between AT&T and Starbucks, customer who have a registered Starbucks Card will be able to access the internet for 2 continuous hours per day. The only other catch is that you must make a purchase once per month with your Starbucks Card to keep the account active.

All in all this is not a horrible deal. Starbucks could have done better by just giving customers free access for the day with purchase, but I can see the logic to limiting to 2 hours per day. I guess some people could just get 2 or more Starbucks Cards and mooch free WIFI all day (if the service does not limit based upon MAC address of your wireless device). The only down side to this whole scheme will be that it will be even harder to find a seat or an outlet at a Starbucks going forward. I’ll give the free WIFI a spin sometime tomorrow and see how it performs.

Remember, you can also get free drip coffee refills from Starbucks with your registered card. So figure $2 for a cup of coffee, free WIFI for 2 hours, and free refills the rest of the day… thats a decent deal.

Just a heads up for everyone who loves coffee. Starbucks is now giving customers free refills on regular drip coffee. If you have a Starbucks card (pre-paid gift card) you can bring your old cup along with the card and get free refills on drip coffee. A tip to make your cup last longer is to transfer your coffee from the paper cup into your own travel mug. I’ve been drinking free coffee all week off the same cup. Shhh, don’t tell Howard Shultz. Overall I don’t feel guilty, I’ve spent enough money at Starbucks and turned enough people on to quality coffee that I figure they owe me some free coffee.