K-Cups suck.

They need a shit load of coffee to make the millions of each flavor they need to make, so they buy for a blend. It might all be from the same place (Columbia or Sumatra) but the character of any given bean has to disappear in the blend. They need all the coffee to taste the same so any interesting characteristics have to be eliminated in the blend. Over roasting helps a lot as well because all charcoal tastes alike.

I'll see two coffees from the same Ethiopian village in one month that will have very, very different flavors. A few miles can make a big different in elevation being on different sides of the mountain can effect sunlight, soil composition or moisture. How long the beans are on the tree or in processing can effect fermentation. Same village and I can drink one all day and the other is just not my jam.

The whole reason I use the roaster I do is because he buys smaller batches of interesting coffees. We sometimes know the name of the farmer, almost always the co-op, occasionally we just know the name of the township but all the coffees have their own character. They weren't thrown into some giant processing center and mixed with a bunch of other coffees that don't share any of the same characteristics.

We will see some weird shit from time to time but it was selected for it's unique characteristics all the same. One coffee was grown on a farm that had four different varietals they mixed all together. I suppose it was a blend. Looked a little odd, different sized beans, different water contents, roasted a little unevenly but it was good. There a very wet processed Sumatran. The beans were all mottled and looked pretty unsightly but it was very low acid with deep earthy mellow flavors, you could drink it all day.

Shit like K-Cups and home K-cup style espresso machines will be popular going forward. They are very clean, look good on a counter, and they make expensive gifts. The best coffee will always be ONE YOU LIKE, that was recently roasted and which was ground by a half way decent burr grinder that has had hot water poured over it in some way.

Aero Press is very clean and delicious way to make a cup of coffee. It's almost as good as a pour over but way faster and easier to clean up. It would be the next big thing if it didn't just make one small cup. Beans you like with a good grind in a Mr. Coffee will kick the living shit over a stale boring burnt blend K-Cup every day.