A more environmentally friendly alternative to pod coffee?

tompoland

I doubt that the espresso is better than a capsule but it must surely be better for our planet.

Thoughts invited.

LMSC

tompoland Interesting and another step forward to reduce waste!

We know we won’t buy the staying fresh for 3 months. Our coffee minds will quickly find a single dose containers to store the balls. We won’t know how good the machine or coffee would be.

If this works as intended, we might find many offshoots selling the coffee balls. We might find some one attempting to design a single dose beans to balls machine!

Assuming it is 14g per ball, it is 126g for $4.66 translating to about £4.9 inc VAT at USD 1:15 to a quid, assuming the postage is free and is sold in the UK. Essentially, it will be £9.8 per 250g. This is a standard price for a good SO beans here.

Summary, when you get it, we look forward to your review! 😃

DavecUK

tompoland In the UK I can see 9 balls costing £5. At 7g of coffee per ball, it works out at around £150 per Kg of what will surely be the finest coffee. Even if it’s only £2.50 for 9 balls, which it won’t be, that’s still very pricey.

It’s clever in a few ways, it brings the micro transaction concept to purchasing coffee, as I guess capsules does. The other thing it does is actually protect against copies because at the moment pods are being copied, the patent on this will no doubt be much harder to get around. Bulk buying is not really an option, because they only last 3-months so purchases will be smaller and on a more regular basis.

Doram

tompoland Thoughts invited.

Brilliant idea! Hopefully this will catch over standard pods (wouldn’t want to drink it though - looks like it would probably tastes like ****, lol).

tompoland

LMSC Summary, when you get it, we look forward to your review! 😃

Definitely one that I’ll pass on!

LMSC

Dave, They don’t seem to mention how many grams would the balls be?

https://www.migros.ch/en/content/coffeeb

DavecUK

LMSC I doubt it will be more than 7g Possibly 6 or 6.5.

LMSC

DavecUK May be, if it is the usual espresso capsule like Nespresso, who have a range of pods!

https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/TxC8YLS83MZDGC/ref=ask_ql_ql_al_hza

MediumRoastSteam

How are they bound together I wonder? Surely it can’t be pure coffee?

JahLaza

MediumRoastSteam think it said a seaweed extract

DavecUK

JahLaza Two compressed hardened alginate half spheres stuck together and covered in chocolate, ready to be hidden in a box of maltesers!

JahLaza

DavecUK more fossil fuel!!!

MWJB

Considering it’s taken decades to get some choice in acceptable options for Nespresso compatibles, I don’t know who would have the staying power to stick with this format until the patent expires, just drinking a choice of “8 blends”.

6.2g per ball apparently. More expensive than 20-40p per cup for Nespresso compatibles.

DavecUK

tompoland I like it because it’s round and looks like a malteser.

MediumRoastSteam

Looks like a Lindt Lindor chocolate ball.

i can see this being used in offices, or even bars or restaurants which currently use pods or Nespresso system. A lot less waste. Of course it will need to become significantly cheaper in order to be viable.

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam Looks like a Lindt Lindor chocolate ball.

I’m not posh enough to have experienced one.

The packaging of the coffee balls makes the think they might stale rapidly after opening, but i suppose there is only 9. I also think there is a lot of packaging. It doesn’t matter that it can be recycled, it’s still better to have less packaging. If this wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t have had the expression “use less paper and save a tree”. Recycling itself uses energy.

When that machine breaks, how recyclable is it, as im pretty sure it won’t be something that can be fixed. To me it’s a solution looking for a problem so it can make lots of money, and using “green” credentials to do it.

MediumRoastSteam

DavecUK I’m not posh enough to have experienced one.

You definitely don’t need to be posh to buy them! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 - or we are all very posh! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

E.g.:

Approx. £19per kilo. That’s a lot of chocolate, approx. 80 balls! Not much different to the price of coffee from the usual retailers (e.g: 1kg of Black Cat’s Chocolate Point - the cheapest - costs £20) and that’s not even fancy coffee.

Personally, I’d rather have coffee though! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

-Mac

DavecUK

You really should try them, Dave. They are amazing. A crisp (but not crispy) outer shell with a ganache filling that somehow stays colder than the outside. A true gastro experience.

dutchy101

Loads of deals on Lindt balls around Christmas time. I don’t buy / eat chocolate but always pick up some of these at Christmas. They are pretty damned good.

DavecUK

-Mac I see them in tubs in the shops in Napoli, probably “free” 😁….I guess I need to grab one now.