John Myers
A cup of steaming hot coffee, espresso, or cappuccino – sounds tempting, but you don’t feel like a time-consuming preparation? Then coffee capsules are unbeatably practical. You can find out what’s inside and what the environmental balance looks like here.
Quick enjoyment from coffee capsules
If you don’t want to prepare coffee for a large group, but rather in individual cup portions, it’s particularly easy with a capsule machine. Simply insert a capsule into the device, press the brew button and the right amount of water is heated and pressed through the capsule with pressure. This contains the coffee in finely ground powder form, with different types of coffee being available. The spectrum ranges from strong espresso and cappuccino coffee capsules to flavored coffee with a vanilla taste. The capsules for the coffee machine are mostly made of aluminum or plastic: a fact that is causing discussions about the ecological balance. Some manufacturers therefore also offer biodegradable coffee capsules or refillable coffee capsules.
How can I grind coffee?
This is best done in a coffee grinder where you can adjust the degree of grinding. This gives you a variety of options – fine coffee powder for espresso, coarse coffee for the French press. If you don’t have a coffee grinder at hand, you can also grind the coffee in a mortar – and in an emergency you can also use a kitchen mixer.
Expensive but easy to store: coffee capsules
In addition to the quick preparation in portions, coffee capsules have the advantage that the machines are cheap. Although individual cups can also be prepared with a coffee machine, these devices are expensive to buy. On the other hand, the beans per cup cost less than the contents of a capsule with the same type of coffee. Coffee capsules can be stored long-term and in decorative capsule dispensers, while the bag with the coffee beans should be stored in the dark once opened and emptied within four to six weeks. Is espresso healthier than filter coffee? The expert answers this question for people with a sensitive stomach or a pronounced sensitivity to caffeine in favor of the espresso. But what about the preparation method and how do capsule machines fare here?
Is the pick-me-up from coffee capsules healthy?
Scientific studies have shown that filter coffee performs better from a health point of view than coffee prepared in fully automatic or capsule machines. The potentially carcinogenic substance furan evaporates during the slow brewing process, but this is not the case with coffee capsules, the researchers report. However, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) currently sees no need for action, since the amounts absorbed are normally too small. Whether you use a filter coffee machine, a fully automatic coffee machine or a device for coffee capsules is ultimately a matter of taste and a question of budget.
