Sorry for the vague topic header ; I did a search on the forum but couldn’t find the answer I’m seeking.

I recently picked a Cuisinart k-cup style coffee maker for super cheap. I had a sample cup (pictured) from Sam’s club and the quality of coffee was far cleaner, quicker, and in terms of beverage quality, superior to my old drip down single cup maker.

Which reusable basket works with this design best? As the pics indicate, this is a double hole punch design and I need something compatible.





What works? I would be grinding my own super fine grounds (emulating what I see in K cups I’ve opened) to have the freshest, tastiest brew. What says the collective?

Seems it's a lot of trial & error on the reusable cups.

Some work well is a coarse grind, some with fine. Fill to capacity or partial. YMMV.

The one I have & rarely use has a fine 'mesh' all the way around & works well, but needs to be almost tightly packed. You do seem to get more loose grounds in your cup with the reusable cups than the k-cups. At least with the ones I've tried.

I just buy basic "K-Cup Adapters" from Amazon. You can get a box of 10 or more of them for $12-15 now. They look like this:



I use a set for a year then toss them and start another.

I'm confused by your pictures here. One shows a hole in the center and one shows a hole at the top?

I've only used Keurig machines so I'm not sure how Cuisinart machines are set up.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I'm confused by your pictures here. One shows a hole in the center and one shows a hole at the top?

I've only used Keurig machines so I'm not sure how Cuisinart machines are set up.

Keurig does the same.
Center punches the top of the k-cup & pokes a drain hole in the bottom.
I think most of the reusable cups are shallow enough to not hit the needle in the bottom.

quote:

Keurig does the same.
Center punches the top of the k-cup & pokes a drain hole in the bottom.
I think most of the reusable cups are shallow enough to not hit the needle in the bottom.

This is exactly the information I was hoping to see. The bottom piercing post was my only big concern on what type of basket to consider. I e also heard that the tiny filter that fits inside the reusable basket is good to add to remove fine particulates and slow the drip to make a stronger brew.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I just buy basic "K-Cup Adapters" from Amazon. You can get a box of 10 or more of them for $12-15 now. They look like this:

[IMG]https://www.nativeamericancoffee.com/cdn/shop/products/RC400-500-min_800x.jpg?v=1603819590 [ /IMG]

I use a set for a year then toss them and start another.

I'm confused by your pictures here. One shows a hole in the center and one shows a hole at the top?

I've only used Keurig machines so I'm not sure how Cuisinart machines are set up.

Ditto, we use the same one.

My son got me some stainless steel ones that work great. He was concerned about the plastic ones releasing chemicals at high temp.

They came in a two pack and have a removable metal lid with a gasket. You do need a dedicated holder for them as they touch the pin that punctures the bottom of the k-cup. I had a spare so I just cut off the pin in one.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

Keurig does the same. Center punches the top of the k-cup

My Keurig brewer punches five holes in the top of the K-cup.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

Keurig does the same. Center punches the top of the k-cup

My Keurig brewer punches five holes in the top of the K-cup.

Mine as well. It’s the “multistream “ feature. Or something like that.

I have been using the basic K cup plastic containers for years, never a problem.
They are cheap, try them if they don't work give them away or throw them out.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I just buy basic "K-Cup Adapters" from Amazon. You can get a box of 10 or more of them for $12-15 now. They look like this:



I use a set for a year then toss them and start another.

I'm confused by your pictures here. One shows a hole in the center and one shows a hole at the top?

I've only used Keurig machines so I'm not sure how Cuisinart machines are set up.

I had a few of these I used for Tea, just tossed the teabag in the k cup thingy and brewed a good cuppa, but you have to run a cup of water first to get the coffee out the machine from the previous cup , or you tea tastes like coffee,

wife started using them for some special blend coffee she liked when I stopped and bought a cheap kettle for my tea


no issues,

they can get funky as in stained etc but we would toss them after a year as well

Needles don’t contact the reusable basket.

I'm still searching for a reusable I like. The fine mesh, either K cup, or drip, allow too much sediment.

Well, I tried a variety of cup similar to the purple ones above. What I discovered is that the brew is noticeably weaker and that there was none of the albeit light crema on the surface when the coffee stops brewing. I’m fairly certain the small hole in- small hole out lets water and steam pressure force better extraction from the grounds.

Is anyone familiar with a reusable basket with a configuration similar to how a standard k cup functions? That being a small hole in, small out? With the open bottom style (mine has very fine ss mesh) the brew just isn’t as tasty and because it lacks the paper style filter inside a k cup there is some residue as well. Basically the coffee is on par with my old drip style maker. It just doesn’t seem to compare to the result with a disposable k cup. Something like this looks about right but seems to sit lower and possibly touch the bottom puncture needle.



There are tiny paper filters that sit in reusable baskets to can catch pretty much all the grounds residue and I’m not opposed to the extra step to reduce the waste of disposable cups.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
Well, I tried a variety of cup similar to the purple ones above. What I discovered is that the brew is noticeably weaker and that there was none of the albeit light crema on the surface when the coffee stops brewing. I’m fairly certain the small hole in- small hole out lets water and steam pressure force better extraction from the grounds.

Is anyone familiar with a reusable basket with a configuration similar to how a standard k cup functions? That being a small hole in, small out? With the open bottom style (mine has very fine ss mesh) the brew just isn’t as tasty and because it lacks the paper style filter inside a k cup there is some residue as well. Basically the coffee is on par with my old drip style maker. It just doesn’t seem to compare to the result with a disposable k cup. Something like this looks about right but seems to sit lower and possibly touch the bottom puncture needle.



There are tiny paper filters that sit in reusable baskets to can catch pretty much all the grounds residue and I’m not opposed to the extra step to reduce the waste of disposable cups.

The style you have pictured works in the older Keurigs, where the coffee pod adapter (with the lower piercer) is removed. I'm not too sure about newer models. I have used one of those occasionally. I have 3 Keurigs, all of which I got for free, when relatives got newer models. Waste not- want not.

Resurrecting this old thread… after a bit of trial and error, I’ve come to the conclusion that there isn’t a commercially available reusable k-cup that does what I was hoping for.

For a K-cup to do what it is supposed to do, it needs a single hole in, single hole out. Open screen sides simply don’t extract nearly enough from grounds to make a strong cup-o-joe.

On a whim, I removed the top cap from one of the cheap aftermarket basket cups (made a horrific, watery abomination), cleaned out a used K-cup, lined up the lower hole with the punch post and viola! It works as best as can be expected. The used cups look a little ghetto, but are nearly as good as new ones. They are surprisingly resilient; I have 4 and all are holding up better than I would ever think possible- roughly a dozen reloads each at this point. The interior filter elements do what they are supposed to- keep grounds out of the cup, the cap seals the top tightly enough to contain grounds under pressure, and most important, it makes a smooth, strong cup of coffee. It’s obviously more labor intensive but worth it not to dump potentially hundreds of little plastic cups in the garbage over time.

Sounds like a lot of extra work for minimum payback.

My wife and I like Costco's Kirkland Signature "Pacific Bold" -- it's the Green Mountain product, re-branded for Costco. I buy several cartons when it's on sale, $29.99 for a carton of 120 K-cups, so a cup of very good coffee is 25¢.

^^^
Not as much work as you might think; certainly no more than reusable aftermarket cups. The whole point for me is reducing the amount of trash I put in the landfill- WV is not a plastic container recycle state. 2 cups a day adds up to a lot of waste for me.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
The whole point for me is reducing the amount of trash I put in the landfill- WV is not a plastic container recycle state. 2 cups a day adds up to a lot of waste for me.

A noble thought, but it wouldn't matter even if WV was "recycling" plastic containers. As noted in another thread: It turns out less than 5% of plastic sent for recycling is actually recycled. The rest ends-up in landfills or, worse, the ocean.

I drink gallons of cold and hot tea, and I saw where tea bags added microplastics. From then on, we’re using metal tea diffusers.

Before that, and probably to save money, we went with metal coffee filters before we knew about the added ingredient of microplastics.