Consumers Increasingly Choose Pre-Ground 'K-Cups' For Their Coffee Convenience

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— We Americans love our coffee. Proof of that is in the number of all those micro-roasted, artisan coffee brew shops popping up where people stand in long lines to pay as much as $5 a cup in some cases.

While that market grows, so does the one for a home coffee maker that brews a cup of convenience more than it does on of art or fine taste.

Pod coffee, or the kind you'd pop a K-cup into a machine like a Keurig, has risen in popularity. It's convenient, brews a cup at a time and is relatively low cost, but it's not something a coffee aficionado is likely to drink.

"Coffee pods was about a $4 billion market in 2014," said Euromonitor Beverages Analyst Howard Telford. He said the market has quadrupled for these pods since 2011. "Quality means different things to different people. When it comes to the single pod segment it is linked to the ease of preparing a cup of coffee. It also can accommodate a lot of different flavors that might appeal to different members of the household."

That could be a gentle way of saying we will drink anything at home as long as it's cheap and easy.