Keurig has brewed up a new kind of coffee pod: First look at the plastic-free Alta brewing system

The history of in-home coffee making is a story in and of itself. Over the past century, home coffee brewing has evolved from simmering pots and boiled water to percolators and, in the 1970s, the automatic drip machine, which became a fixture of modern kitchens. But then the industry saw another shake-up with the introduction of single-serve coffee, which hit the mainstream when Keurig introduced its single-cup brewing system and K-Cups in 1998. Keurig and its machines have since become ubiquitous. They’re in hotel rooms, conference rooms, and roughly 47 million households in the U.S. and Canada. In the subsequent 28-year stretch, Keurig has partnered with nearly every recognizable coffee brand to produce K-Cups, and has introduced numerous machines to the market. But the product and technology—single-cup brewers and K-Cups—remained unchanged. Now Keurig has something new brewing. Keurig goes plastic- and aluminum-free At the end of September, Keurig will officially unveil the Keurig Alta system and the next iteration of K-Cup pods, called AltaRounds. The entirely new system has been several years in the making and, perhaps most notably, it removes plastic and aluminum from the eq…