12 Aug 2024

The best K-Cup coffee pod

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Which K-Cup coffee pods are best?

For coffee drinkers who want their caffeine kick without the wait, single-serve coffee pod machines such as Keurig’s popular at-home brewers offer a fresh cup of coffee on demand. With so many coffee blends, flavors and roasts available in pods, it can be overwhelming to pick one for your morning routine. For the best tasting K-Cup coffee pod with added vitamins and minerals, the VitaCup Vitamin Infused Coffee Pods is the top choice.

What to know before you buy a K-Cup coffee pod

Coffee machine

The most important thing to know when picking out the perfect K-Cup coffee pod is whether it is compatible with your coffee machine. Not every brand of coffee pod fits with Keurig coffee machines, for example. Check the make and model of your machine, as well as any instructions that came with it.

Coffee preferences

Whether you drink your coffee black or with generous helpings of cream and sugar, there are many K-Cup coffee pods for every palate. Consider what blends, flavors or roasts you typically enjoy and try to find coffee pods that match your usual coffee tastes.

What to look for in quality K-Cup coffee pods

Flavors

If you like flavored coffees that offset the bitterness of the beans, there are coffee pods with added flavorings such as vanilla, cinnamon or hazelnut. There also are pods that create a creamy latte with milk products and sweeteners. Consult the packaging for nutrition information and to check for any food allergens.

Brand names

Many popular brands, such as Starbucks and Cinnabon, sell K-Cup coffee pods of their bestselling roasts. Finding brands you love is a great way to indulge in your favorite drive-through brews at home. Keep in mind that coffee pods from these recognizable names often come with a higher price tag.

Caffeine content

K-Cup coffee pods come in caffeinated and decaf varieties.

Eco-friendly packaging

Some K-Cup coffee pods use 100% recyclable materials, making it easy to toss in the recycling bin after dumping the coffee grounds into a compost bin. Coffee packs that use these materials have a clear label on their packaging.

How much you can expect to spend on K-Cup coffee pods

Most K-Cup coffee pods come in bulk packages of 12, 24, 30 or 48 for between $0.20-$1.50 per pod. Name brands such as Starbucks or specialty brews cost the most.

K-Cup coffee pod FAQ

What coffee roast has the most caffeine content?

A. Technically, light coffee roasts have more caffeine content per cup. Studies show that the caffeine content in coffee beans doesn’t change during the roasting process. However, beans expand through water evaporation the longer you roast them. Therefore, a scoop of light-roasted coffee will give you more beans and more caffeine than a scoop of dark-roasted coffee.

Is decaf coffee really caffeine-free?

A. Not entirely. Decaf coffee removes most of coffee’s caffeine content through water, organic solvents or carbon-dioxide extraction. The green coffee beans release almost all their caffeine before being roasted, ground and brewed. However, decaf coffee is a delicious alternative to regular coffee for those sensitive to caffeine.

Can I buy a single K-Cup coffee pod?

A. No. K-Cup coffee pods are sold in packs. If you want to buy fewer coffee pods to try a specific flavor, find the smallest pack available, which usually is a set of eight or 12 pods. Some manufacturers even offer variety packs, so you can try a handful of new flavors and roasts before finding your favorite.

What’s the best K-Cup coffee pod to buy?

Top K-Cup coffee pod

VitaCup Vitamin Infused Coffee Pods

What you need to know: These K-cup coffee pods are packed with vitamins and minerals, making them ideal for the health-conscious coffee drinker.

What you’ll love: The coffee blend is a light roast that’s easy to sip. The vitamin mixture is a dietitian-formulated blend of vitamins B and D to boost your energy and metabolism. The coffee pods are entirely recyclable.

What you should consider: With added vitamins and minerals, these are pricier than regular coffee pods.

Top K-Cup coffee pod for the money

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Breakfast Blend

What you need to know: This is the best light roast coffee pod on a budget.

What you’ll love: This breakfast blend’s light roast is not acidic and is perfect for your morning cup of coffee. Because it’s so flavorful without being watered down, it’s great for drinking any time of day or brewing iced coffee.

What you should consider: These pods may clog the Keurig needle, so keep it clean after each use.

Worth checking out

Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll

What you need to know: This coffee adds a kick of cinnamon-bun flavor without overpowering your cup of coffee.

What you’ll love: The aroma of Cinnabon’s trademark flavors fills the air when you brew these pods. For those with a sweet tooth, a little cream and sugar turn this drink into a dessert. It’s easy to drink in the morning or as a midday treat.

What you should consider: The name-brand coffee pods can vary in price and occasionally spike.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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12 Aug 2024

The Latest: Harris and Trump paint different pictures for voters as the White House race intensifies

by | posted in: Politics | 0

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are painting much different pictures as they meet with voters on the campaign trail. Harris, by turns, is pushing “joy” — branding the Democratic ticket, which includes her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “as joyful warriors.”

Trump, meanwhile, has promoted a gloomier view for Republicans, saying at a news conference last week that, “We have a lot of bad things coming up.”

Voters will more from both candidates and their running mates in the days ahead.

Walz will hold his first solo events this week, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

Trump is set to do a live interview Monday on X, the social platform from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Here’s the latest:

Trump campaign says its emails were hacked

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said Saturday that it had been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.

The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024.

It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference “extremely seriously” and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, but said it deferred to the Justice Department on this matter.

Read more here.

Walz to hold first solo events as Harris’ running mate

Tim Walz is holding his first solo events as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

After his speech in Los Angeles, the Minnesota governor will hit five states in three days, beginning with a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California.

He will headline two more fundraisers on Wednesday in Denver and Boston. He’ll speak at fundraisers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York the following day.

Harris introduced Walz as her running mate during a joint rally last week in Philadelphia, and the pair then campaigned together in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. The vice president is set to campaign with Biden in Maryland this week, and also has promised to detail her policy proposals on the economy.

12 Aug 2024

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally crashes down 28% from last year

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STURGIS, S.D. —  As the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew to a close on Sunday, law enforcement in South Dakota reported three fatalities and 47 injuries as a result of rally-related crashes in Western South Dakota.

Over the course of the 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the South Dakota Highway Patrol releases daily information on crashes and crime in and around the city of Sturgis.

Known as the Rally Tally, the daily release includes information on investigations conducted only by the South Dakota Highway Patrol, and does not include statistics compiled by other organizations, including the Sturgis Police Department and various county sheriff’s offices in the area.

Six injured in two Saturday motorcycle crashes

The South Dakota Highway Patrol responded to just two injury crashes on Saturday.

The first crash occurred shortly before 3:45 p.m., when a 2022 Honda Odyssey was traveling northbound on U.S. Highway 16, just to the south of Rapid City. When the Honda slowed for vehicles attempting to turn near a curve in the road, it was approached from behind by two Harley Davidson motorcycles.

One Harley Davidson lost control of their bike while attempting to avoid striking the Honda minivan, causing the motorcycle to overturn, separating the driver. The loose bike struck the minivan from behind. The other Harley Davidson driver lost control of the bike and overturned.

Both motorcyclists were wearing helmets and sustained minor injuries. The driver of the Honda was unharmed.

The second crash happened just before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection of Norris Peak Road and Hat Mountain Drive, about four miles east of the Pactola Reservoir.

In that crash, a 2008 Victory Vision and a 2004 Harley Davidson ElectraGlide were traveling opposite directions on Norris Peak Road when the Harley Davidson failed to negotiate a curve. The ElectraGlide entered the opposite lane, striking the Victory Vision.

Both drivers and passengers on both motorcycles sustained serious, non-life threatening injuries.

Crash numbers down 28% compared to the 2023 Rally

The South Dakota Highway Patrol responded to fewer crashes during this year’s rally.

Troopers this year handled 54 non-injury crashes, 35 injury crashes and three fatal crashes over the course of the annual gathering, a 28% decrease from the 127 crashes handled last year.

Those 92 crashes resulted in the deaths of three people and injury of 47 more along roads throughout western South Dakota. This year’s numbers fell in line with the number of crashes handled by troopers during the 2022 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Despite the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally beginning on Friday, Aug. 5, the South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Rally Tally doesn’t consider crashes that occurred before 6 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3.

Ahead of that date, five people were killed in five separate crashes in western South Dakota.

Highway Patrol seized $71K in cash

When troopers aren’t busy handling crash scenes, they’re also conducting traffic stops and investigating crimes.

During this year’s rally, the South Dakota Highway Patrol seized $71,504 in cash that could be used as evidence in criminal proceedings. That’s a nearly 3,500% increase from the $2,005 seized during last year’s rally.

Though the specific reason for the seizures is unclear, South Dakota law allows law enforcement officers to seize property, including cash, if the officer has probable cause to believe the seized property is directly or indirectly dangerous to public health or safety or if the property is believed to have been used or intended to be used in the commission of a crime.

DUI, drug arrests climb

Authorities made more arrests for driving under the influence and drug possession or use this year.

Troopers reported making 155 arrests for driving under the influence, 134 of which came from within Sturgis. The number of DUI arrests made this year was 29% more than the 120 arrests made last year.

Drug arrests also climbed, with authorities making 281 misdemeanor drug arrests and 163 felony drug arrests, roughly 11% more year-over-year.

The 2023 rally saw drug arrests climb by roughly 60% compared to 2022, making this year the second-straight increase.

Fewer citations, more warnings issued

Though it’s not an indication of the South Dakota Highway Patrol becoming more lenient, troopers were more likely to hand out a warning to motorists in western South Dakota than a ticket.

Troopers issued 1,455 traffic citations and 4,445 written warnings during this year’s rally. That’s 20 fewer citations and 149 more warnings compared to last year’s numbers.

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12 Aug 2024

A Rough Road to the Christmas Mountains

by | posted in: Adventure | 0

Dawn was spreading like a giant egg yolk on the horizon when we reached the gate. It was 16 miles from State Highway 118 to the office where visitors pick up the key, past the Bad Rabbit Café, then a bit farther on unpaved roads to the Christmas Mountains property. The key was attached to a long piece of wood, like the restroom key at old gas stations.

My friend drove the white rented Jeep through, and I locked the gate behind us. For four hours, we’d have the Christmas Mountains, a small range on the northern boundary of Big Bend National Park, near Terlingua, to ourselves. The locked gate enforced the one-group-at-a-time rule: The 3.5-mile road is only a few feet wider than a car and bends back on itself like a coiling snake. There’s no place to turn around until you get to the 5,728-foot summit. A broken-down vehicle would back up traffic until help arrived, and, in the beautiful emptiness of the Big Bend, that could be a long time.

The switchbacks along the single-lane road to the top of the Christmas Mountains take more than an hour to ascend.

It’s been more than 30 years since the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Conservation Fund donated the Christmas Mountains property—9,269 acres of former ranchland—to the state for public recreation purposes. Only in the last few years have the mountains’ current owners and stewards, the Texas State University System and the Texas Land Conservancy, been able to increase access for researchers to study the biology, geology, and cultural history of the property. Rare plants, abandoned mercury mines, Lipan Apache-related sites, and 500 million years of geologic history are just part of what attracts researchers.

But Big Bend-loving Texans are lucky that these mountains in Brewster County have remained in public hands at all. Ex-Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson tried to sell the arid, remote property to private owners in 2007 and again in 2010 because, he said, maintaining the land was too expensive, the conservation covenants on it were too restrictive, and it was too hemmed in by surrounding private property. Some 3,000 people emailed Patterson objecting to the proposed sale. Mellon Foundation officials said if the sale went through, the state should never again expect donations from their coffers. Even some of the commissioner’s fellow Republicans found his efforts repugnant.

Following the outcry, the state General Land Office announced in 2011 that the property had instead been transferred to the Texas State University System (comprising Texas State, Sam Houston State, Sul Ross State, Lamar, and several other institutions) to use as an outdoor classroom and preserve. But it took another decade for the Legislature to appropriate the $11.2 million needed to build a field research station at the base of the mountains, just outside the preserve. Engineering work has now started on that station. The Texas Land Conservancy is charged with monitoring the preserve’s habitat and wildlife.

Since 2013, scientists have been meeting for symposia in West Texas to share research about the property. BotanistDavid Lemke organizes the events, which include trips up into the mountains. He’s been working for years on a survey of local vegetation, including “an interesting little milkweed vine” that’s only been found at one site in Mexico and one other site in Texas. 

For about a decade now, researchers and other visitors have been able to access the Christmas Mountains with help from a key group of private property owners. At the 200,000-acre Terlingua Ranch resort, subdivided into small-acreage plots, the Terlingua Ranch Lodge oversees access to the summit road. There is no fee, but visitors must reserve a time slot and register at the resort office. With only two slots per day, resort manager John Sellers said, it’s wise to call ahead of time, especially around holidays. Vehicles must be four-wheel or all-wheel drive with high clearance. Hiking, biking, and horseback riding are also allowed.

For those with a tolerance for heights, boulders, and skinny roads, the drive to the summit is worth the effort. In our case, we left Alpine at 6 a.m. to be at the gate by 8. In the flat approach through Terlingua Ranch’s scattered homesites, the rising sun backlit an adjacent peak and glinted off the window panes of a mobile home.

West Corazon Peak’s slender summit is one of the striking views along the Christmas Mountains summit road.

On the summit road, our top speed was just a couple of miles per hour, the Jeep moving like a large bear beneath us, one paw at a time over the boulders. The first vista, of West Corazon Peak’s slender cone and tilted strata of rock, like a geologic quilt, left me feeling off-balance. At the top, beyond a rock cairn, the view opened to the south across the vastness of Big Bend National Park to the Chisos Mountains, Santa Elena Canyon, and Mexico. 

A hundred years ago, per Sellers, this land housed mercury mines that alongside others nearby produced 80 percent of the world’s quicksilver. Thousands of years before that, sophisticated trade routes established by Indigenous peoples stretched from here as far away as Guatemala. Today, the land’s present stewards say they’re planning to invite writers, photographers, and painters to share the Christmas Mountains with the world.