When we went to Philly, we stayed at a hotel that had an awesome coffee maker. It was so cool that Sara made anybody who came to visit make a cup of coffee just to try it out. Neither of us were coffee drinkers, but we each had several cups while we were there, if for no other reason than to use the coffee maker. She was so excited about the coffee maker that I wrote down the brand and model number on a napkin when she was in the bathroom and decided to buy her one for Christmas. It turns out that the model was only available for hotels and the like, but the company did make a nearly identical model for regular consumer usage.  I give you the Keurig B30:

Now, there are several advantages to this machine.  First off, since we are not coffee drinkers, we don’t need to make an entire pot of coffee. We just need one cup here or there, as we want it.  Since this makes one cup at a time, it is perfect. Second, it uses these little coffee cup things that have a pre-measured portion in them already.  When your coffee is done, you just throw them away: no muss, no fuss. Third, it is so cool! Even if you’ve never used it before, you can’t mess it up. The first thing you see is a giant “Press Here” staring at you on the front. When you hit that the thing folds open revealing a place for the coffee portion. When you put the little cup in there and close it, another door opens in the back with a blue water drop on it. Logically you add your water there.  When you close that door, a light comes on next to a picture of a cup. When you set your cup in, the Brew button starts flashing in bright blue. After you hit the button it takes a couple of minutes for your cup to be completely heated and brewed, and then the machine shuts itself off. There is nothing to take care of since it uses all of the water every time and the k-cup will be thrown away next time you use it. It is a miracle of modern engineering and it does it all simply without some digital display or screen.

So I was fairly excited to give this gift to Sara for Christmas but, unfortunately, she decided she didn’t want it. “I did love it…at the hotel. But not for our house!” she said. This is why guys have trouble buying presents for girls. I thought this was a sure fire thing. And what kind of logic is that anyway? It reminds me of when I was begging for a TiVo (greatest invention ever by the way) and she argued that we shouldn’t get it because she “would like it too much.”  I knew that if she kept it she would like it, although it is kind of weird to have to convince someone to keep their present if they don’t want it. Still, I think if someone else bought her that she would have been happy with it. I think I am held to a higher standard.

Anyway, she had two main objections: 1) it is more expensive to buy the little prepackaged coffee cups than to buy just regular coffee and 2) those little cups are not recyclable, so you are creating unnecessary waste. Now, in anticipation of those concerns, I also bought a re-useable filter thing in which you can use regular coffee. It is much more of a hassle to use, but does take care of some of those concerns and makes a pretty good cup of coffee. The pre-measured cup themselves cost about $0.50 apiece, but we quickly learned that you can use each k-cup twice, halving the price. Also, we bought them on sale for even cheaper. So they really aren’t so expensive.  

But now the real downside is becoming evident: I am turning into a coffee addict! It is just right there and so available and sooo delicious, I’m drinking like 2 or 3 cups a day. I certainly thought that could never happen to me. Now, when I say coffee, of course I mean “coffee”.  We’re talking two teaspoons of sugar and like an inch of half and half. I’m sure coffee aficionados will be all over me for this. But how long until I turn into one of those people? The other day I was drinking one that Sara made and I had to ask her if anything was up because it tasted weak to me! Next thing you know, I’ll require coffee that has been regurgitated by weasels! I started to get a little worried about my caffeine intake, so we got some decaf, but I’m still a little nervous. Especially since I find myself thinking of coffee during the day and whenever I smell coffee now the first thing I think is, man that sounds good about now!

Well anyway, this was all just an elaborate setup to link to commentor, friend of 25 years, best man and sister dater Hrokay’s new blog “No Cream, No Sugar”.  Of course I hope he knows that linking form here is a big honor and it comes with great responsibilty for quality and quantity of posts.  Of course this disclaimer hasn’t worked for some people I could name…