Food for Thought with Alex Bielak- A Coffee Drinker’s Dilemma (Part 2)

A Coffee Drinker’s Dilemma (Part 2)

Part 1 of this column got a strong response from readers of Food for Thought. Besides the expected suggestions for favourite methods of caffeine delivery, the hot button issue was clearly the environmental impact of “one cup” systems.

Some of you even questioned my environmental cred simply for reviewing pod-delivered coffee. Let me assure you, I agree it is environmentally unsustainable to add tons of used pods to landfills. For an excellent overview of that issue see this New York Times article, courtesy of my friend Ecogirl, or read this piece as flagged by a reader in the comments section from Part 1.

For the record, I won’t be switching to any variant of the pod system soon as I’m happy with my current Espresso machine and other alternatives. I’m glad, however, to see producers of such systems moving to address the environmental concerns.

Adriana Melo, the manager of the busy new Burlington ECS location, told me some of the product they sell
is now at least partially compostable (i.e. some have a mesh rather than a plastic bottom), though one has to manually tear apart the components after use. Not terribly likely to happen.

She also told me they carry “fully compostable Ethical Coffee Company pods that are compatible with the Nespresso system”. (However ECS doesn’t sell Nespresso machines which are only available from designated retailers.)

Looking at the Ethical Coffee Company’s website one can see that all is not rosy between ECC and Nespresso so, to hark back to a previous post, “caveat emptor”.

I had mentioned the excellent, but pricey, Illy pods, but ECS no longer carries them. “They were not a big seller,” said Adriana offering me a cup of decaf Caffitaly espresso instead.


It was as least as good as shots of Illy I’ve had in the past. Made from a pod in a Caffitaly machine, it had a lovely nose and great crema (see picture), a nice initial bite and mouth feel with a lingering, creamy taste.

You’ll excuse the flowery language, but that’s nothing compared to the terms professionals use to describe coffee. (See the piece by Fenton Wayne to learn what it means if your coffee is “baggy, dirty, or “hidey.” Let alone, “sweaty, turpsy or unclean!”)

I can’t pretend to have that sophisticated a palate, but over the past month I’ve tried a bunch of the many varieties of decaf K-cups in the office machine. (Adriana notes that “Tassimo only has two or three decaf varieties and Caffitaly only one.”)

You can read my (subjective) ratings below, but to cut to the punch line, none of them were much beyond average on a rating out of 5 cups, with the Caffitaly one above serving as a reference of 4.5 out of 5.

(And yes I know it’s a bit of comparing apples and oranges: The Illy and Nesspresso systems brew at a higher pressure (~15 bars) than the Keurig (4-5 bars), while the Tassimo and Caffitaly adjust for brewing at either. Nonetheless I really liked the Caffitaly and it’s just a reference point.)

So here are my notes about the coffees, in the order I tried them. Each cup was made with fresh, cold water in the machine, and served in a pre-warmed cup. Pictures of the pods can be found in the photos section.

1. Tully’s French Roast: Good nose, strong taste that lingers. Slightly burnt quality. 3 cups

2. Gorilla: slight nose. Insipid taste with little body. Watery. 1 cup 

3. Newman’s Own Special: Mild nose. Bland. Not particularly distinguished. 2 ½ cups 

4. San Francisco Bay French Roast: Flat aroma. Slightly sharp/acidy at first taste, but good length. Not very pleasant. 1 ½ cups 

5. Green Mountain Dark Magic: Strong coffee aroma while brewing. Decent taste with a bit of an edge.

Flavour lingers but turns slightly sour and more pronounced with time. OK. 2 cups 

6. Emeril’s Jazzed Up: (I tried this when I really needed jazzing up and hoped for a hit of chicory or something!) Lacking in aroma. Not offensive, not anything really, and certainly no chicory. Reasonable length in the mouth. 3 cups

7. Van Houtte Original: Reasonable aroma. Mild, slightly chocolaty taste, turning a bit sour with time. Not especially distinguished. 2 ¾ cups

8. Van Houtte Dark Roast: Peculiar aroma, somewhat robust. Bitter, almost gritty. 1 ¾ cups

9. Green Mountain Extra Bold: Good aroma. Taste blooms in mouth. Good assertive coffee flavour. 3.5 cups

10. Swiss Water Process Club: Not much nose. OK taste. Not offensive but not memorable. Bland. 2 ½ cups

11. Martinson Colombian: Adriana gave this to me to try saying it should be sweet and tart, and indeed it was. Not much nose, but pleasant enough. 3 cups

12. Timothy’s Colombian: Undistinguished. Slightly acid. I give up! 2 ½ cups.

Postscript: I’d like to note that I probably erred in my last piece: the Mars bar-flavoured coffee was not a K-cup offering but rather one brewed in yet-another landfill-increasing system, the Flavia, which I sampled in my Dentist’s office. (And there’s a paradox if you think about it.)

For more pictures, click here

Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak

Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.