Depending on how long you’ve followed me, you may or may not know how reliant I am upon America’s favorite drug: coffee. (It’s a lot.) (Possibly completely.) My day cannot begin until I’ve pressed a shot of espresso or brewed a pot of hot, black coffee. You know I’m addicted because, while everyone else is gushing over the richness of dark roasts, I’m over here drinking medium and light roasts. You know, where all the caffeine is!
Clearly, I’m a coffee snob, and I’ve worked really hard to earn that title. So my fellow coffee snobs and environmentalists may be shocked to hear that, for the last three weeks, I’ve been getting my daily brew out of single-serving coffee pods from Intelligent Blends.
Trust me, I know. I totally, completely know the horrible facts associated with coffee pods. Coffee is already a torrid business full of ethical cracks. Without sustainability in mind whatsoever, crappy coffee czars are happy to put low-quality coffee into the cheapest plastic on the market to sell to you for $10/box. Then, all of that one-time-use, disposable plastic goes straight to the landfills. Or our streams, parks, wetlands, roadsides… You get the picture. Even the guy who invented them says he regrets it!
But these Intelligent Blends pods are different: they’re recyclable. If you caught my Instagram post yesterday, you got to see the entire process – including the recycling of the coffee pod. The grounds and filter can go right into the yard waste or compost, which leaves only the foil on top (5% of the container) to head to the trash. Or, if you have epic waste guilt, you could decoupage them onto your ceiling or something.
The Surprising Side of Single Serve Coffee
You might think that single-serve coffee rose to prevalence because people are inherently lazy and love convenience. Well, according to a 2014 survey by National Coffee Association, the majority of people prefer single-serving coffee pods because of the taste. Yeah, think about it! Each pod is completely sealed off from oxygen until about 3 seconds before you brew it. This retains that boldness that you get when you brew a pot of freshly-ground beans.
In my parents’ house, it’s common practice to buy pre-ground coffee in 5lb. bags. They keep about a half pound of coffee in an air-tight container next to the coffee machine, but the bulk bag is sealed at all! Coffee gets its full of delicious flavor from the roasting process, and when you brew it with hot water, the carbohydrates and fats turn into oils. Now, if you’ve ever smelled cooking oil that’s old, you can imagine how pre-ground beans can affect the taste of your coffee.
Recyclable Pods are Just the Tip of the Sustainable Coffee Iceberg
When Intelligent Blends partnered with me on this post, they sent over their Universal Single-Serve Brewer ($79 $71.10). The pods also provide a water-limiting way to enjoy coffee.
In addition to Intelligent Blends’ dedication to sustainability, they also, like, care about coffee. Cool, right? I spent some time reading about the founder of Intelligent Blends, Michael Ishayik, and the way he talks about coffee would make any card-carrying coffee snob tear up.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”Global Coffee Report” link=”http://gcrmag.com/profile/view/intelligent-blend-and-the-premium-single-serve” color=”#99cc99″ class=”” size=””]“We’ve done blind tests, and you can’t tell the difference between a hand-brewed coffee and our single serve,” he says. “We can get a target particle size to hit the ideal TDS [total dissolved solids] in the cup. Working with different filter paper and grams, we can really control that customer experience to exactly what the roaster wants.”[/perfectpullquote]
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”Green Key Global” link=”http://greenkeyglobal.com/blog/intelligent-blends-pivoting-to-sustainability/” color=”#ff9999″ class=”” size=””]“I needed to add value to this world and also get behind something I could believe in.” To the drawing board he went thinking up ideas from Organic Pet Food to Herbal medicines. On his quest towards finding the light, he noticed the Keurig Green Mountain coffee company patent on K-cup was set to expire. “I knew there would be a lot of room for growth in this market place.” “I had a fundamental issue that these pods were not recyclable! It was a big opportunity and I knew what needed to be done.”[/perfectpullquote]
This is Maud’s. Maud’s Righteous Blends is the coffee baby of Intelligent Blends and a 5th generation roast master. Together, they’ve created several organic & fair trade coffee and tea in recyclable pods, and even invested in the mother of all coffee grinders to ensure that the grounds are treated with the utmost care.
Plus, they’re way more affordable than the big-name brands and have all of the glitz and glam to go with it. Seriously, it’s cheaper than gas station coffee without the burnt, stale aftertaste and watery consistency! How does $0.39/cup sound to you? Pretty good? I thought so!
The name Maud is always going to make me happy thanks to Harold & Maud, and this coffee makes me happy, too – despite it being decaf. (*twitch* It was an accident. A big, big, will-never-happen-again accident.) The name “Maud” means something different to Michael Ishayik: it’s a combination of his daughters’ names, Maddie and Audrey. Dad-love is the cutest!
Try Intelligent Blends & Get 10% Off Already Affordable Coffee!
Once I got my hands on that single-serve coffee brewer, I couldn’t help but try some other brands. Boy, what a disappointment. I was shocked to see how many brands don’t have recyclable packaging. They don’t even try! They fully expect you to just take all of that low-grade, non-recyclable plastic and chuck it right into the bin. Yep! That’s what they want you to do because they prefer money over the future of our environment. Jerks!
As the girl who always ordered the sampler at diners, I highly recommend the Intelligent Blends Variety Packs. If you know you’re a hazelnut girl or a French vanilla kind of guy, please try the flavored coffees. I was initially terrified of the Maud’s Sister Hazel(nut) blend because I feared a saccharin sweetness from some kind of syrup or sugary flavor. Instead, it was just a suggestion of hazelnut layered overtop a nice, roasty coffee flavor. Kind of perfect – especially with a little cream in there, or sugar if you’re nasty!
Ultimately, though, you gotta go for the fair-trade coffee and tea section. Yeah, don’t forget that these things make tea, too! And cider! And cocoa!Switching out a coffee for a cup of Earl Grey from time to time sounds like true freedom. Or… maybe I’ll get crazy and go full London Fog with a pod of Earl Grey with an espresso shot of dark roast! Ahhh, this thing is so cool.
If you’ve been on the fence about trying a single-serve coffee machine, or an internet-based coffee company like Intelligent Blends… I get it. I totally understand your hesitance, and hopefully this post helps answer some questions and ease some concerns. Definitely don’t buy any single-serve coffee pods that aren’t recyclable or compostable. The options are out there, and they’re just as affordable as the crappy ones!
Also, we have an exclusive discount code that will save you 10% on anything you pick up from Intelligent Blends!
Use the code BROKEANDBEAUTIFUL to save 10% at ShopBlends.com!
Thanks to Intelligent Blends for working with me on this post! It is sponsored, and they provided me with the incredible universal brewer along with a generous amount of (decaf) coffee which I will drink despite its profuse lack of caffeine.