I grabbed this pack of Cafe Cups to test against other reusable cups I already owned. These are $10.99 for 2, or you can pay a little extra in shipping to get 2 more for free. I opted for the 4 pack.

I got 2 red cups and 2 black cups, and a scoop.

The first cup is a Stainless Steel Elite Ekobrew, middle is a brown plastic Ekobrew and the red one on the end is the Cafe Cups brand.

You can see that the Ekobrews have a pointy “Pre infusion cone”, and the one from Cafe Cups is dome shaped.

The bottoms of each of these filters vary greatly as well. The Stainless Steel Ekobrew filter is molded on the outside and has two small indents to leave room for the puncture needle, the plastic Ekobrew leaves spaces and the Cafe Cup is completely indented.

For some reason, the Stainless Steel Ekobrew does not close all the way, it leaves a gap, and no matter how much I pushed down on it, it pops right back up. The other two close fully. You can also see that the Ekobrews have little “handles” (for lack of a better word) on each side. This is to make sure you don’t put it in your machine the wrong way, because if you did, it could break the needles in the Keurig Machine. The Cafe Cups do not have these, but because of how the bottom is built, they aren’t needed, you can plop it in however you want and it won’t damage the cup or machine.

The Stainless Steel Ecobrew has a tiny opening on each side that is covered with a “microscreen” top let the coffee out. The plastic one has the mesh inside, with the cutouts on the outside, but again, is on the smaller side.

The Cafe Cups has the largest opening of the three. I found that this gave me a faster cup of coffee.

No matter which one you go with, you can use any kind of coffee that you like. My favorite is Starbucks, and my fall back is Folgers. You just fill the scoop (which does not come with the Ekobrew, but the plastic one has a fill line inside, the stainless steel is a guessing game)…

…and dump it into the filter, then make your coffee as usual.

Some things to note

The Stainless Steel Ekobrew did not fit in my Keurig Machine! I was shocked at this. It is the same size as the others, the tops are the same diameter, as are the bottoms and they are the same height, but it did not fit. I have the Keurig K75 Platinum Brewing System, and the Ekobrew is not compatible with the B30, B130, B150, B155, Mr Coffee BVMC-K and Vue, which means it should work with mine…but it doesn’t. I do NOT recommend this one AT ALL, even though it would seem to be the most eco-friendly.

The plastic Ekobrew, on the other hand, does fit, and works wonderfully. I swore by it for the longest time, and still do! I say that if you are going to get this, make sure to get at least 2, but I suggest 3 or 4. It is difficult to get wet coffee grounds out, but if you let them sit for a few hours, or even a full day, then the grounds will be dry and you can just dump them out. By having multiples, you can just cycle through them instead of trying to rinse it out each time, which would use far more water than it’s worth. This is supposed to be an Eco-Friendly approach to a convenience item, and using 14 gallons of water to rinse it out (yes, I overshot that by a gallon or 12) isn’t exactly Eco-Friendly. If you let them dry, it saves water and frustration.

Ultimately, I think that the Cafe Cups may be my new favorite. I like that you don’t have to worry about lining it up right, you can just fill it and put it in. Because of the way the bottom is indented, it doesn’t have to be exactly in the right spot to work. Again, I would suggest getting multiples, and since they come in a 2 pack minimum, you can’t go wrong. If you drink more than 2 cups per day, I suggest getting the 4 pack though.

UPDATE:

I found another one and I was THRILLED with the price of these! They were only $3.00 (when I bought them, they are $3.30 now, prices change quickly) for a set of 3 PLUS a scoop and included free shipping! I didn’t think I could go wrong for that price, but BOY WAS I WRONG!

The first strike against them was when I opened the package and saw that they were the ones that had the two indents in the bottom, making it so that you HAD to put them in the machine in a certain way. Not a problem, I looked past that because it had the half circle handles on them to make sure it couldn’t go in wrong.

The scoop that came with it is TINY, and you need about six scoops of coffee to get the right level inside the cup. I much prefer a 1 scoop spoon, but again…I looked past that. I wasn’t buying this set for the scoop anyway.

I added my six scoops of coffee and put it in my Keurig machine…..it wouldn’t close! The cup is a little too tall for the machine, but I figured, hey, “You’ve gone this far, might as well keep going.” BAD DECISION! When I pressed the button to start my coffee, water started flying all over, instead of into my cup, so I had to quickly pick my cup up and bring it closer to where the water comes out, in hopes of avoiding a huge mess.

Finally, when all was said and done, I added my honey and cream to my cup and found that it was FULL of coffee grounds. So while everything seemed like such small issues, they all really added up to one HUGE failure! I can NOT recommend the Clever Coffee Capsule in any way, shape, or form.