I rarely use them but Sam's Club or Walmart's Great Value Donut are quite good as is Caribou.

Exactly what @User wrote--- I rarely buy the ready to use pods. I have the plastic ones which we got from Amazon and i just fill with whatever coffee strikes my fancy. That said, I have been not thrilled with most decaf. I like most Melita coffees but the decaf is not on a par with the others. I am searching for a good decaf as well. If you find one, let me know:)

I don't know what stores you have available to you but DH prefers Signature Select purchased at Safeway, Albertsons or Top Foods. I'm not sure if other stores have it available, those are the stores at which I shop. It comes in several different blends, Costa Rica is his blend of choice right now.

I do keep Starbucks darker blend pods on hand for guests so I have more than one type to offer. (also a tea or two and the hot chocolate pods). When I think about it, I don't think I've ever bought the Keurig pods. There are so many to choose from in the stores and often the stores own generic brand is good coffee, or at least most friends, my plumber, electrician, others who may be here in the morning have never complained.

I've been enjoying Green Mountain Half-Caff.

I use a refillable pod for my Keurig. It is available at Bed, Bath and Beyond or try Amazon online.

I use the Walmart brand pods, they are the most inexpensive/tasty pods I have found. I tried the 'refillable' pod and found it to be MUCH more work than it is worth. One really may as well make a full pot "the old fashioned way" for all the mess and hassle of the refillable pods. There is definitely a sticker shock where the price of those pods is concerned. I am ashamed at the cost and the plastic that is filling my garbage. I am the only coffee drinker in my household and I have two cups a day. Convenience and effort/beverage ratio won out. I would not say the WM brand is equal to the pricier 'name' brands nor would I say the Keurig lived up to my expectations for "great" coffee. I hope you like yours.

Menards have great deals on coffee pods, I have not been unhappy. Just got 80 pods for $13.99. I never buy unless they are on sale.

Keurigs automatic reorder is the least expensive way to get pods that I've found. I only drink Peet's brand.

Get yourself a refillable pod. Do you know that the original maker of the coffee make actually offered an apology to the world for unleashing vast amounts of polluting waste for the landfills via those pods? They are among the worst offenders.

When you get a reusable pod for it, I like Peets decaf.

You can buy a little Melitta brand espresso pot that goes on top of the stove and makes a nice cup of coffee in about the same time as one of those makers. I have one that will make a couple of mugs at at time and it is good, very hot and very quick. I don't know that it is real expresso, but it does force hot water up through the grinds just like expresso. Very fast! These little pots are inexpensive and have will never suffer electronic breakdown.

I have never had a good or very hot cup of coffee from one of those pod machines. And, it can't do very many coffee tricks either. You can't much change anything but the amount of water that you use to make less coffee.

I agree with arcy_gw, the refillable pods are a real pain in the bu*t to use and make a mess. For us, we have found the Costco brand Kirkland Pacific Bold and Kirkland Breakfast Blend to be very good. We have tried the Sam's Club brand and just really don't care for it at all. Now I want to try the Walmart brand that arcy mentioned. Never knew Walmart made a coffee pod.

Costco Kirkland Breakfast Blend is delicious.

buy the refill containers

How is it that refillable pods are such a pain in the bu**? If you get a few of them and just wash them once a day...what's the big deal? All you have to do is empty the grounds into the trash(or compost) and rinse them off under the faucet. Couldn't take more than a couple minutes or so.

@arkansas girl that is exactly what I do. I have probably 10 or 12 varied colored plastic pods and I keep them next to my keurig in a glass jar. (nice pop of color lol).

Honestly about a year ago, we bought a giant assortment of pods from Costco and we are just finishing those up. If I am too lazy or want a different type, it's nice to have some onhand ready to go.

We drink about 5 or 6 cups a day, so the 96 pack lasted probably like close to 15 months. I don't feel guilty for that because if I had used only the ready made pods I can't do the math for how many we would have tossed.:)

I used to order them on line direct from keurig.com and look for coupon codes on line.

Refilling the pods is about the same work as using a "real" coffee pot IMHO. I always just bought store brand coffee grounds--cheap is my go to. I am on septic so the idea of washing the grounds that don't spill out after banging the pod on the compost can is more than I want down my drain. Everyone has their threshold of 'bother'. I think we are all free to have ours. I wonder how universal is the experience is of moving to a a pod machine. They come with an assortment of delish coffees. Then one discovers the price of pods at the store. One tries a variety of cheaper brands. Not satisfied. One tries the refillable with filter then the fancier mesh w/o filter. The hassle leaves one wondering why did I not just make a pot of coffee? One returns to the high end spendy pods all the while knowing they have tripled the price of their morning jolt and they are filling the landfills with yet more plastic. Coffee grounds and filters are biodegradable....As I said the investment is made now I wait for the machine to break so I can release my guilt and go back to the old fashioned coffee maker.

arcy, your remark about how we are all free to have our own threshold of bother is notable. So much of the waste and pollution are created in the process of serving minor and selfish and myopic convienicnces of a passing moment. We think it an acceptable price for the earth and the rest of the world's population to pay for that small nod to ourselves. It is just a little piece of plastic and we are home in our own kitchens and that little piece of garbage will not have anyone's name on it as it goes out to the landfill. So, by what means is any one person going to held accountable? They won't. We are all accountable. All of our names are on the waste that we have made that is choking our earth.

The harsh and quickly unfolding truth of the matter is that it is not acceptable anymore. The earth has reached the limits of the amount of abuse that it can tolerate. This is critical overload.

You are among those who have realized it and have realized that a quick moment to rinse and reload the reusable pod is not a major inconvenience.

Good on you!

Your conclusion is the best. Just make a pot of coffee with a good quality coffee. There are any number of really easy to use coffee makers that will make a small pot of coffee for you with a great amount of ease and convenience and much, much less waste.

For myself, I shun automatic coffee makers because they always end up having to be replaced so often because some little something in that cheaply made pot has ceased to function, and it cannot be repaired. I use a pour over pot now. Unless you actually break it yourself, it is going to serve well for a long time.

You are right---just make a pot of coffee. It is a better option for many, many reasons. Or, buy a set of the reusable ones and prefill them with some good quality coffee at at much more reasonable price.

Doing a price check online for Peets, I find that the pods are costing almost $16 per pound and a a little over $9 per pound in loose grinds. That is likely to be true of most other brands as well.

But the real cost is the environmental cost of production, and waste. I was reading an article on BBC News this morning about how there are really very few venues for recycling these pods. The same is true with a lot of the things that we toss into the recycling bins. It is mainly #1 and#2 labled plastics that are recyclable. Many of those things we are telling ourselves comforting lies about. Most of it goes into a landfill that we the taxpayers are paying the cost for, while the manufacturers of theses things garner the profits. These companies should be held accountable for the cost of disposing of the waste that they have created. So, add that cost to the price per pound of pod coffee that you are paying, that we all are paying.

There may come a time when creating plastic waste will have the same onus as does wearing fur or smoking tobacco.

The Kirkland pods from Costco are recyclable. And, to me the reason the refillable pod is a pain in the bu*tt is because with my shaking hands, I get coffee grounds all over the place and have to clean those up. Sometimes, I will spill more coffee grounds that I got in the pod. It became a real chore on my aching back. Once I found the Costco pods were recyclable, I started purchasing their pods.

It is only really recycable if your locality has the facilities for it. According to the reporting that I saw, there are very few venues for recycling these pods. Just because the company says that the pod is recyclable does not mean that it will be recycled from your bin. Apparently that is the truth about a good deal of what we think is being recyled. It really isn't so.

Is that really surprising? I don't think so.

I use the Perfect Pod https://www.perfectpod.com/ which is refillable and has filters. And honestly, it isn't that onerous. I set up one every night before bed, so all I have to do is hit the button in the morning. If I want another cup, it takes no time to set up another. And I love that I'm not spending all that money on pods AND I'm not putting that plastic in the landfills.

dallasannie, you are absolutely correct! Even if they do actually recycle those, they will only be recycled if they have been cleaned/rinsed. As I understand it, most of the plastic that we put into the recycle bins is not really being recycled!

I use refillable pods and fresh fine grind coffee. It's sooooooooooooooooo much less expensive and no garbage. The grounds can be composted.

Yes, the grinds can be composted or just poured out on the ground in some corner of the flower garden, or yard. I have been emptying grounds alongside the front porch for years and there is nothing there that doesn't just look like dirt. They will blend back in to nature very quickly.

We are telling ourselves lies to believe that there is some redemption for our massive consumption that creates such massive garbage, or that there there is some justification for it. There really is no such.

We see only our own and we convince ourselves that it is "just this". Yes, it is "just" that. It is just one drop until you consider how many of us are making that one drop, on a regular basis. It quickly becomes a stream, that flows into a river, that empties into an ocean or becomes a mountain, very quickly. It is a constant flow of trash and chemicals. It is like that river that makes you wonder where does all of that water come from and how can it keep coming, and coming, and coming. The answer is that it comes from trickles joined with other trickles until it is a powerful river. Our accumulating garbage is no different.

I had no idea that many of the plastics we put in the recycle bin are actually not recyclable. I clean every metal container, plastic container, and glass container before I put it in the recycle bin. However, what I am reading says to me that that doesn't mean that the material is recycled. That truly concerns me. @gigirambles, I am intrigued by the Perfect Pod you posted and the filler. I have bookmarked the site to have it available. There are so many to select from, would you mind sharing the name of the exact pod you use, please.

@walnutcreek - the brand I use is Perfect Pod EZ-Cup 2.0. The pod and the filters are available at Target and on Amazon. You can use any ground coffee in them. They are, for me, the perfect replacement to K-Cups.

Thank you so very much, gigrambles. I truly appreciate and am placing on my shopping list right now.

We have these- there was another one we got which had multi colored pods. (That was nice because I could designate a certain color for decaf ). I like having multiples because DH and I each drink a few cups a day. This way there is always a pod ready to use.Set of 6 in purple

I try to buy only what I need and I have actually quit consuming some things just because of the way they are packaged. One result of this is that it has become obvious just how many things we believe we need, but we really don't need. That realization has led to a less cluttered home, fewer resources used to purchase it, and less generated garbage.

I'm not at zero waste, don't try to be, and never will be.

The things that go into the recycle bin and the garbage bin are all pretty well clean. Yes, even the garbage can. I don't use any plastic bags at all so the garbage is loose in the can. It shouldn't be dangerous or cause problems for those who collect it, so there is forethought gone into it. Having a small amount of garbage makes it easier to deal with.