4 Eco and Wallet-Friendly Ways to Brew Coffee at Home

Coffee is an essential part of everyone’s daily routine. Dealing with the kids, reading those early morning emails, or getting through your next meeting would be impossible for many of us without a good quality cup of joe in our hands! But while coffee might be essential, if you’re not taking care, it can quickly become an incredibly costly pastime with an environmental footprint you might not want to think about!

Coffee Makers

While single-serve coffee makers like Keurig, Nescafe, and many others might lead the way in terms of convenient, tasty coffee, their environmental impact makes this type of coffee brewing one of the worst choices you can make!

While there are ways to reduce the environmental impact of a single-serve coffee maker by using things like refillable or compostable pods, this is still not the best way to make an eco and wallet-friendly cup of coffee. 

Thankfully, although single-serve coffee makers are out, there are still plenty of ways to make an eco-friendly cup of coffee.

1. Cold Brew

If you want to decrease your environmental impact (and lessen the strain on your wallet as you do so), getting into cold brew coffee could be the perfect solution.

This coffee brewing method requires minimum water, no heating or electricity, and can be made using your favorite coffee beans. 

While you can pick up a designated cold brew coffee pot for your caffeine needs, it’s also easy to make cold brew coffee without these tools…. Simply soak your preferred ground coffee in cold water for 12 – 24 hours (depending on how strong you like your java), strain through a filter (added eco points for using a reusable filter), and enjoy poured over ice. You can add cream, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, or anything else to create the perfect coffee every time.

Although cold brew takes a while to allow the subtle coffee flavors to infuse, the fact that you prepare it in advance means you will always have a tasty cup of coffee waiting for you.

2. Pour Over

Ask a coffee enthusiast what their favorite brewing method is, and chances are the pour-over method will be up there! This method for creating delicious coffee is almost an art form and allows every drinker to control precisely what goes into their perfect cup of coffee.

You can pick up full pour-over coffee makers or get a dripper, reusable filter, and goose-next tea kettle (like the ones from Uno Casa) and learn some quality pour-over coffee tricks to enjoy a lifetime of perfect coffees.

3. French Press

The French Press is such a traditional coffee brewing method, famous in Europe and renowned for making a strong and flavourful coffee.

To make this type of coffee, you will need a French press (or “cafetiere”), course coffee grinds, and a tea kettle. There’s no need to purchase additional filters, as the filter is built into the French Press itself – saving you cash and reducing your environmental impact!

It only takes around 4 minutes to brew a tasty cup of French Press coffee, depending on the beans you use, so it’s not the most time-consuming method to create tasty coffee.

4. Aeropress

The Aeropress is a bit like an upgraded French Press. It also allows coffee to steep before using a light vacuum pressure to push the caffeinated water out of the brewer. This method uses a micro-filter, but this is built into the coffee maker.

Once the water is boiling, using an Aeropress takes around the same length of time as a single cup brewing machine, making it an excellent environmentally friendly alternative to your beloved Keurig.

Bad Coffee Habits

One of the most detrimental ways to brew coffee at home is by using a large drip coffee pot. Not only does this type of brewing method use a whole load of water and electricity, but it also almost always produces far more coffee than you’re likely to drink!

Not only does a drip coffee pot tend to produce a lot of waste, but it’s also commonly considered one of the worst choices for coffee taste as it sits on a hot plate. Fresh coffee is always better.

Good Coffee Habits

No matter which coffee brewing method you go for, there are always ways to lighten your environmental impact… And these almost always are kinder on your wallet as well as the planet: win/win!

Making sure you don’t brew more coffee than you need, using reusable filters, and making sustainable choices when it comes to picking your beans are all great ways to make your coffee habit better for everyone. Not to mention, these eco-friendly brewing methods all create much nicer cups of coffee! 

You’ll wonder why you didn’t make the switch years ago.