[pcthrowaway]

Probably if it factors in how much R&D went into the DRM, the production price per unit increases. Nothing else about it is terribly complicated.

[nirvdrum]

The Boston Globe Magazine had a pretty good piece on them a few years back. It was far easier to read in print, but I think this the article:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/2011/0807/

Most of the R&D went into the cups themselves. Simple as they seem, it appears the company went through a lot of iterations to get the right gas mixture and volume right to have fresh coffee with long shelf-life.

[rancur]

if by right gas mixture you mean 100% nitrogen, it's inert, and is used in tires and bags of chips. When the bags of chips are opened, however, the other special ingredient 'crisp' that they put in escapes

[nirvdrum]

That's not what I meant.

[rancur]

what else would they use? it's perfectly inert, there's nothing to engineer. Traditionally coffee is vacuum packed, but nitrogen works fine too

[rancur]

IE, you got marketed to. That's fine, I'm just saying, I don't think they did something new

[annnnd]

Direct link: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/07/the_insid...

EDIT: single page.

[nirvdrum]

Thanks for the direct link. I probably should have discovered that was an option.