And I dont really get the critism on the electricity they use
If you want a hot drink then it has to be heated somehow
I bet the electricity used by a machine to drive the pump and heat the shot for one espresso is more frugal than heating up a mocha pot on a stove
And whatever coffee is used, it’s shipped and been roasted somehow by someone
Always open to having my perspective changed, I've been doing a bit of research.
It is indeed true that a coffee machine uses less energy to produce a cup of coffee than a stove-top moka pot, so thanks for pointing that out Stewart, I have an opportunity to improve here. Even though I am on a 100% green electricity supply, it still makes no sense to consume more than necessary.
However this is more than offset by the energy needed to make and recycle the aluminium pods, and also the packaging that the pods come in. Recycling is better than waste, but it's still worse than removing the need to recycle in the first place.
The answer therefore appears to be to use an espresso machine but use home-ground beans. There is a local coffee roaster to me that ships the green beans in large traditional hessian or paper sacks, roasts the beans themselves and packages them in paper bags. They can be purchased from my local Farmer's Market, easily accessible by bicycle. Illy beans which come in steel cans remain a reasonable alternative I think.
I have therefore ordered a suitable coffee machine and will report back on findings.
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