Perfect Pod EZ-Cup for Keurig 1.0 Brewers, 1-Stream Reusable K-Cup Coffee Pod, Refillable Coffee Filter

So here's the thing...I bought a half dozen of the other highly rated reusable pods (these ones: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AUBYMK2/) and don't get me wrong, they are *great*! I bought a half dozen because both my guy and I do double coffees in the morning, so we needed to have 4 clean pods every morning, because the filters (we were using these ones: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0765CH82G/) get so darned messy (and hot!) that you can't take them out right away - you have to wait until they cool down and firm up - and so you can't reuse the pod immediately. Well, because of the whole hot, messy filter issue, I decided to try these filters with the flap on top (these ones: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007AVZQ1U/). Now, these filters are made to go with this pod that you are reading about right now, but we were using them with the pods that we already had, and they made *awful* coffee - the coffee was so weak, even with two scoops in each pod. In fact, I figured that I had wasted the money buying these filters, and that I was going to have to cut the flaps off the remaining 196 filters. Then, on a whim, I decided to look up this pod - you know, the one that the filters with the flap are *made* for. I couldn't imagine it would make any better coffee, but my desire to not deal with the messy filters was making me a bit crazy(ier). At this point I was already invested, so I ordered one of these pods. I just had to know. Well, the first thing that I noticed was that, because of the spring-loaded bottom of this pod, I *couldn't fit my normal two scoops into the pod*! "THIS," I thought, "is not going to go well." After all, even with two scoops of coffee, the flapped filter made really weak coffee (in the other pods), so *one* scoop is going to be positively anemic. But I'd already bought the thing, so I gave it a try. HOLY COW!!! I do not know what dark magic this thing is invoking, but this pod makes *perfect* coffee, and with only *1 scoop* (remember that we were using two scoops per pod with the other pods). Yes, you read that right, this single pod has cut our coffee spend *in half*! Somehow the tamping action of the spring-loaded bottom, along with the design of the pod (the walls are solid, not filter like other pods) brews perfect coffee, with one scoop, every...single...time!! And as if that wasn't enough, the flap on the filter means that we can remove that filter *immediately* - with zero mess - and use that pod again (after all, you can only put one pod at a time in your coffee machine). This means that we only are using a single pod to make both double coffees! Beauty! The last thing that you need to know is that it does take a little force to get the lid to snap into place with that filter flap. Don't let this daunt you - just mash that baby on so that it's fully seated, and you too can have perfect coffee with half the coffee and one-tenth of the hassle! By the way, this is our coffee of choice now - https://smile.amazon.com/First-Colony-Rainforest-Organic-Arabica/dp/B079SSDTT1/ - it's organic and it's tasty as all get out (we got it at Costco on sale, but that's cool that it's available on Amazon!)

i had received a keurig coffee maker for christmas. i was tickled because i really love drinking coffee one fresh cup at a time. and being the only coffee drinker in the house, making a whole pot was just wasteful. up until now, i'd been using a french press and tea kettle, which made a great cup of coffee, but took forever. long story short, i really like this machine. of course though, it's great flaw is the ridiculous amount of WASTE. as great a cup of coffee those little k-cups make, i just can't bring myself to throwing out one of those little bits of landfill fodder every time i want a cup of joe. i had received that official reusable mesh filter device with the coffee maker, to use my own coffee, but that device isn't worth the cardboard it came in. its design is terribly flawed and not once could i get a decent cup from it. we even tried some diy hacks, trying to make something or retrofit something that would give a comparable brew to the k-cups. no go. frustrated, i searched for something that would work. this is it. i was apprehensive about buying it, not wanting to shell out more money on a device that just wouldn't work, but luckily it gave me a great cup right out of the gate. while i wish i could have found something that created zero waste (besides the coffee grounds) for this machine, i can live with composting these paper filters with the grounds. it's a little more complicated (a few more steps) than just sticking a cup in the holster, but this is the design that works and it's not hard to use. i get to drink the coffee i love using this fast and easy machine, one cup at a time without throwing out those awful plastic cups. what's great is that it works just fine with "drip brew" coffee grounds, which is what you usually find in the pre-ground packs at the grocery store. freshly ground coffee is always better, but i don't have a grinder of my own yet, and i hate using the machines at the store (they have no finesse and pulverize the beans regardless of ground setting.) UPDATE NOV 22, 2013: my keurig bit the dust a while ago, but i thought i would pop in to continue my support for this product. since this review, the k-cup alternative market has grown, with many other reusable or low-waste products popping up. i gave many of them a try, and again, the results just weren't as good as this product. there was a time, as well, where the paper filters for the ez-cup were becoming too costly (still not as costly as k-cups, but enough to make me look into reusable cups once again, to no avail) and i did not like running out of filters and having to wait for shipping. but now a days i have been seeing similar, compatible products (like the the ez-cup and the filters it uses) in the grocery stores. the popularity of these products and the widening availability of them still makes the ez-cup (and similar keurig solutions) the most appealing for a good cup of coffee using these machines, with the least amount of waste.

I bought both the Ekobrew refillable cup and also the EZ-cup for the usual reasons of reducing cost for a cup of coffee and cutting down on the packaging and waste stream of the original cups (tasty though they certainly are). The Ekobrew is a lot of high quality product for the money. It's well designed and manufactured. It's not my first choice however. It has a molded-in metal screen which I believe makes the coffee taste bitter if not clean. It also has an o-ring seal for the top which is another area to trap old coffee. The EZ-cup costs $6 more which might be a concern if I neecded to have a lot more than one. The paper filters cost the same for each. The EZ-cup paper filters have a top and when the cup is brewed you dump the coffee grounds into the trash and never have to deal with them. The plastic top of the EZ-cup is perfectly designed so that when it's popped into place, a seal is greated between the plastic housing and the plastic lid plus two thicknesses of paper. There's a metal spring in the bottom which supports a plastic bottom plate underneath the paper filter but it doesn't contact the coffee. I'm an engineer so I over-complicate things and I apologize. The short version is that I used a small expresso maker for years and didn't like to clean the metal parts that come in contact with the coffee so I put up with a lot of bitter tasting coffee. So when the pump died on it, I started to use my wife's Keurig and naturally made an engineering project out of it. Shop around and buy a Keurig, they're worth the money. Here's a tip: use a fizzing tablet denture cleaner like Polident if you do have to clean something like a metal coffee screen or espresso machine parts. The EZ-cup prodcues the best tasting coffee and requires the least maintenance. I just rinse it under the tap after dropping the used filter and grounds.

I had a hard time - from looking at the product online - deciding if this was going to do what I wanted. I really like the cup of coffee the K-cup gives me, but just can't justify the cost. The 'My K-Cup' gizmo you get with the brewing unit isn't so great - you grind the coffee fine enough to give a flavorful cup and you've got a half-cup of muddy coffee grounds. Grind it coarse enough to eliminate the mud and you've got a cup of coffee that tastes like you dunked a brown crayon in hot water. I'd been mashing Mr. Coffee style filters I had left-over from my last brewing unit into the My K-Cup filter basket, and trimming off the extra paper. That worked - sort of. It let me use a fine grind, but if I didn't cut the excess filter paper off just right I'd have coffee going all over the place. My wife just shook her head and laughed at the the 'operation' I had going on every time I wanted a cup of coffee...a nasal spray bottle just the right size to push the filter paper into the filter basket without tearing it. A plastic dose cup from liquid Tylenol cold and flu to shape it better and hold it in place while I trimmed off the excess paper. It'd take 5 minutes or so to form the filter paper cup but the end results were...... well, you get the idea. So, I saw this EZ-Cup thing, and it comes with the paper filters like I'm trying to create, and they're already made. Since I'm getting WAY too much grief from my wife over making my own filters I decided to give it a try. The gizmo just came, and I brewed my first cup with it. Amazingly, it worked perfectly the first time. No fuss, no muss, no mess. Good cup of coffee. My wife didn't have much to say, just dumped my 'apparatus' into the trash and said to get a backup EZ-Cup and order the filters in bulk. So, the EZ-Cup gets 5 stars from me for two reasons - makes a good cup of coffee with WAY less effort that I had to put into it previously, and I now get ZERO grief from my wife. Thanks, Perfect Pod!

The product itself is deserving of a 5. The price is costing it a star.. I almost dropped it 2 stars. In terms of function, it works extremely well. One can control the concentration of the coffee by the amount of grounds used. And if used properly, the grounds stay in the filter cup! [My husband attempted at first to screw in the lid, before reading the directions. It pushes in and pulls out.] The EZ-Cup saves a good deal of money on pods, while it also prevents the regular Keurig pods - which are not easily recyclable- from accumulating. The EZ-Cups are also much easier to clean because one pulls out the paper filter and discards the used, compacted coffee grounds, while the cup then only needs a rinse or easy wash. The grounds can be composted or sent down the garbage disposal, then the paper filter rinsed and recycled-- or, the entire thing can simply be thrown in the trash-- it will break down over time. [Our last adapter used a metal filter basket. It was onerous to clean.] The biggest drawback is price. No small matter. They are extremely expensive for what they are - two small pieces of plastic and a spring. If they were cheaper (~$4), we'd buy a boatload of these pods, fill many at one time, and place them in our pod carousel. When company would come over, we'd put out the regular pods. [$4 is an appropriate price… not $12. If they were cheaper, no doubt the volume of sales would grow exponentially. Consequently, although sold with a smaller profit margin, it would be more than compensated by sales volume. As much as I liked the idea of this product, I hesitated to buy it due to price. As much as I like it now--having used it, I won't buy more because of price. One will need to suffice for now.] Hopefully the price will fall significantly in the nearer future and we'll be able to expand our number of EZ-Cups (after development and manufacturing start-up monies are recouped?). Until that time, we'll get by with the one. But… it works great. Unfortunately, it will take the equivalent of many many pods to pay for itself -- which also defeats one of its main purposes.

**I've updated my rating from 4 to 5 stars. You can read the update at the bottom.** Just got my wife a Keurig for Christmas which I knew she really wanted. However, I personally have issues with the amount of plastic waste the K cups generate which apparently are not recyclable (anyone see the movie Wall-E?). They are also expensive, but it was more about avoiding the waste than the cost savings that attracted me to an alternative such as the EZ-Cup. It appeared that none of the solutions including Keurig's own My K-Cup were ideal so I had low expectations and went with the EZ-Cup and a 50 pack of filters to start based on the design and marginally better reviews. I also got a couple boxes of regular K-cups to use. I was not out to ruin my wife's present by forcing her to use the EZ-cup immediately - I've been married long enough to know that's a one way ticket to the dog house. By the way, my thoughts on the Keurig itself are mixed. It seems to be 'ok' for coffee-for-one with zero effort but to me a pot of coffee on weekends will always rule supreme. My first cup made with the EZ-Cup was a major disappointment. Although we typically used whole bean coffee and ground it using a coffee grinder, I only had a can of coffee that was already ground in the house. With a bit of excitement, I filled the EZ-Cup with it and brewed a cup on the large 10oz setting. The result was weak almost undrinkable coffee. Ugh, that's what lots of the reviews complained about and I should have known better. It took about a week before I felt like trying again. I had read some reviews recommending using coffee ground on the finest setting and this would allow more flavor to make it through on such a short brewing cycle. While I could have bought a new bag of whole bean coffee to grind and try, I just took my existing bag of ground coffee and ran some through my grinder (Cuisinart DBM-8) on the finest setting. Wow, now that is some very fine coffee. I filled the EZ-Cup filter to the top (tapped it on the counter so it settled and could fit more but did not pack it down which some people suggest to do and others say not to) and ran it through the Keurig on the 8oz setting. Result? Drinkable coffee. So I am optimistic I can continue to tweak this to my own needs by trying some of our favorite whole bean coffee's and grinding them on fine. Another option would be to try coffee's marketed as 'extra bold' to try to squeeze out more flavor in the limited space the EZ-Cup has available. Ideally I would want 10oz of excellent coffee so we'll see. So to summarize - the EZ-Cup may be the best option to avoid tossing plastic K-cups for every cup of coffee. I would not recommend this product for people that have no interest in experimenting until you find what works for you. You'll likely toss it in the trash or return it after the first use. While the customer service department from Perfect Pod (makers of EZ-Cup) seem very responsive to any complaints that come up in these reviews and more than willing to help anyone in need, I do not understand why there appears to be zero information or suggestions on their website to help people get the most out of their EZ-Cup who may be struggling. FYI - the product packaging does not include any info except the bare minimum on how to load it. Clean-up is simple. Just remove the EZ-Cup, pop open the top and toss the filter and grounds in the trash. This can be done immediately after it is used. Some have said not to let it sit overnight as it may be harder to remove, not sure. **Update as of 1/7/12** Ok - I feel I've mastered the EZ-Cup and am raising my rating to 5 stars despite the effort needed to figure it out. I purchased some quality whole bean coffee and ground it on extra fine. Brewed first cup on 8oz setting. Wow-actually a bit strong-that's good. Brewed the next cup on 10oz setting and voila -Perfect!! Woo-hoo. My wife was going out this morning and I offered to make her coffee saying I think I figured it out. She does two 10oz batches (20oz total) in a travel mug. I held my breath on her first sip..."Excellent" she proclaimed and after the second sip "This is REALLY good". I would say we both like it better than the K-cups themselves. I also decided to compare the amount of coffee required per oz of coffee comparing our Cuisinart coffee pot and the Keurig w/EZ-Cup. First I compared water amounts. 4 cups on my coffee pot is exactly 20oz - so very easy to compare. I used a kitchen scale set to grams and compared. The result is they use EXACTLY the same amount of coffee per cup. For us it's 10 grams of ground coffee per 10oz of coffee made (in my case I based it on 20oz/4 cups of coffee made which required 20g of ground coffee. So in the end, the only difference in cost to us is the cost of the filter itself. A very reasonable trade-off to be environmentally responsible and avoiding the plastic K-cups going into a landfill. So my recommendation is to experiment before giving up on the EZ-Cup or whatever your K-Cup alternative solution may be. You can tweak your own flavor by the grind setting and brand of coffee. I think you will be happy with the results and sleep better knowing you're being more environmentally responsible! Thanks to Perfect Pod for inventing. I'll be ordering a second EZ-Cup now to make my double batches easier.

I've had my Keurig coffee maker for over a year and absolutely love it. It makes a great hot cup of coffee using K-cups. However, I really love Starbucks and I have not found their brand in a K-cup to date. So, about six months ago I purchased the mesh wire basket and case used for loose coffee. I was disappointed because it always leaked, spilled ground coffee into my cup and generally made a "muddy" cup of coffee. I recently looked for an alternative and came across the EZ-cup. I was a little hesitant. The reviews seems 50/50. Either people loved it or hated it. I decided to try it. For my first cup, I was mindful to not overfill the filter and to be gentle with it. I placed the filter in the cup and used a teaspoon to fill it. It held about 2 1/2 teaspoons. I did not fill it all the way to the very top. I gentle closed the cup and looked through the bottom to make sure the filter did not break. I have to tell you that I love a good cup of Starbucks from their stores and this first cup using the EZ-cup was that and more. It turned out fantastic. I used a spoon to make sure the filter did not break and spill grounds in my cup. I'm so glad I found the EZ-cup. I haven't used the K-cups since I bought this product. I am really enjoying my Starbucks coffee. Thanks EZ-cup!! So, what have I learned? 1) fill the filter INSIDE the cup, 2) don't overfill the filter, 3) be gentle.

does a great job with other loose coffee. use any loose coffee for the k cup