How Keurig saved — and ruined — your coffee

Keurig 如何拯救了——又毁掉了——你的咖啡

Before Keurig, the coffee in your office was almost certainly terrible. Old, burned, made by someone who would rather poorly eyeball than properly measure. Just altogether gross. After Keurig? You could make your own coffee, a cup at a time, exactly when you needed it. The single-cup brewer was an elegant solution to an extremely common problem. At least, that’s how it started.

在 Keurig 出现之前，你办公室里的咖啡几乎肯定很难喝。陈旧、焦糊，而且往往是某人凭感觉随意冲泡出来的，根本谈不上什么比例。总之就是非常糟糕。而在 Keurig 出现之后呢？你可以随时随地冲泡属于自己的一杯咖啡。这种单杯咖啡机曾是一个解决普遍痛点的优雅方案。至少，故事的开端确实如此。

On this episode of Version History, we dig into the history of the Keurig, and the ways in which the idea got vastly bigger than anyone expected. K-Cups and Keurig machines became ubiquitous in offices all across the US, then quickly began to invade our homes as well. But as David Pierce, Eater’s Melissa McCart, and creator and champion barista Morgan Eckroth discover, ultra-convenient coffee comes at a cost. To us, to the environment, and to the whole notion of “good coffee.”

在本期《Version History》播客中，我们将深入探讨 Keurig 的历史，以及这个创意是如何超乎所有人预期地壮大起来的。K-Cup 咖啡胶囊和 Keurig 咖啡机在全美办公室变得随处可见，随后迅速侵入了我们的家庭。但正如 David Pierce、Eater 网站的 Melissa McCart 以及创作者兼冠军咖啡师 Morgan Eckroth 所发现的那样，这种极致便捷的咖啡是有代价的。它对我们自身、对环境，以及对“好咖啡”这一概念本身都造成了影响。

Keurig has spent years trying to reckon with all those things, while also trying to catch up to a coffee culture that might be leaving it behind. This is the fourth episode of the fourth season of Version History. If you haven’t yet checked out the story of the Harmony remote, the Roomba vacuum, or the Nest thermostat, make sure you catch up! It’s smart home season this season, and we’re having a blast.

多年来，Keurig 一直在努力应对这些问题，同时也在试图追赶可能已经将其抛在身后的咖啡文化。这是《Version History》第四季的第四集。如果你还没有听过关于 Harmony 遥控器、Roomba 扫地机器人或 Nest 恒温器的故事，一定要去补听一下！本季的主题是智能家居，我们制作得非常过瘾。

If you want to know more about the early days of Keurig, here are some links to get you started: 如果你想了解更多关于 Keurig 早期的故事，以下是一些入门链接：

From The Boston Globe: The inside story of Keurig’s rise to a billion-dollar coffee empire 来自《波士顿环球报》： Keurig 崛起为十亿美元咖啡帝国的内幕故事
From The Atlantic: How Bad Are K-Cups for the Environment? Keurig caught making ‘inaccurate’ recycling claims about its coffee pods 来自《大西洋月刊》： K-Cup 对环境的危害有多大？Keurig 因对其咖啡胶囊做出“不准确”的回收声明而被曝光
Kill the K-Cup Kill the K-Cup（反胶囊运动）
From Mother Jones: Your Coffee Pods’ Dirty Secret 来自《琼斯母亲》杂志： 你所使用的咖啡胶囊背后的肮脏秘密
Keurig’s K-Brew and Chill coffee maker chills out drinks for pod lovers Keurig 的 K-Brew and Chill 咖啡机为胶囊咖啡爱好者提供冷饮功能