Maybe you like a certain coffee and it doesn’t come in a K cup. Maybe you don’t like to clean that little basket after each use on the K cup reusable thing a ma jiggy. Maybe you mistakenly threw the basket away!

No worries... - REUSE the K cups you have! Save time and money by preparing a batch of several! Don’t throw away your used K cups. Collect a few and when you have about 8 or so make a new batch with your favorite coffee.

Materials you will need:

- used K cups
- heavy duty aluminum foil
- a small brush to clean the used K cup filter
- ground coffee of your choice. Do not grind too fine as you will get too much oil from the beans. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being coarse and 10 being fine, I grind at about 8.

Here’s how it works:

1. Using a pointed knife, cut the top off of the old K cup being careful not to insert the tip too far (this could pierce the filter). Just start the cut and peel off the foil top. (see pic 1 upper left corner)

2. Discard the coffee grounds in the K cup.

3. Wash your Kcup with warm water using the sink spray to get as much coffee out as possible. Depending on what was in the K cup you may have to use your brush to gently clean out any small grounds from the filter folds. The filter is surprisingly strong, so don’t be afraid to get as much gook out as possible. You can even swish the K cup through some soapy dishwater to help - just be sure to rinse well.

4. Drain upside down until dry.

5. Cut circles from aluminum foil about a quarter inch larger than the top of the K cup. To do this fold a piece of foil several times, put an empty K cup down on it (upside down) and trace the outside of the K cup onto the foil. Use your best judgment to cut the foil outside of the line you just traced by about a quarter inch. Cut the foil and unfold. Depending upon the size of the piece of foil you should have about 8 - 16 circles.

6. Fill the dried empty K cups to about 3/4th full.

7. Cover the top with your foil circle and use your fingers to “crimp” the foil around the edge of the K cup.

8. To use, be sure that you line up the hole in the bottom of your K cup with the pin in the machine. You will feel it sit in when you have it right.

9. Shut the Keurig machine and ENJOY!!!

Picture 1 is an old K cup to be reused, some foil circles, clean used K cups and what the reused K cups look like when they have been reused and come out of the brewer.

Picture 2 is filled K cups to be covered and some shown covered and “crimped”See More

I'm assuming yours has an indentation in the top of it like mine did. Take a wine cork, cut it to approximately the same thickness as the indented ring on top of the k-cup filter "lid" and lay it in there. (it can be a little thicker, the idea is to seal the area between the little metal piece the coffee comes through, and the lid hole that's obviously too far away from the metal piece - that's where it leaks and why it comes down the side) You will need to punch some type of little starter hole in the cork, and the first couple of times you use it, it will probably stay stuck to the metal piece when you lift the lever up, but just pull it off carefully. This little fix worked perfectly for us, it hasn't leaked since. You should be able to fill it to within 1/2 to 3/4" from the top with grounds after this fix.
Our problem was that we don't drink wine, so had to beg some corks from wino friends at work. One cork should last indefinitely though, as you can make 4 or 5 adapters with one cork.

The regular k-cup pods work fine.

IS THERE A TRICK TO USING IT?
This is driving us batty.

I clicked on the link earlier in the day and it was $8.99. My guess it was only on sale for a limited time and now it is back to it's "normal" sale price.

And if you don't have one, check back next Wednesday to enter to win one!

http://www.coffeehabitat.com/2007/05/refilling_kcups.html