NA Coffee / Keurig

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
So I'm usually a Dunkin Donuts and Mr. Coffee kinda guy, but...

The office recently put in a Keurig coffee maker that I'm mildly addicted to. :rofl:

So as I head to Google to see how much one of these things and these "K-cups" are going to set me back, I figured I'd ask the crowd...

Any other aficionados?

Any good places to get the cups at the best prices?

Any problems with the machines?

Anyone else think it's dumb to throw all these little plastic cups in a landfill, but still addicted to the better cup of coffee they make?

Anything else to know? ;)
 
denverpilot said:
So I'm usually a Dunkin Donuts and Mr. Coffee kinda guy, but...

The office recently put in a Keurig coffee maker that I'm mildly addicted to. :rofl:

So as I head to Google to see how much one of these things and these "K-cups" are going to set me back, I figured I'd ask the crowd...
Click to expand...

Several different versions. Price depending on version.

Any other aficionados?

Any good places to get the cups at the best prices?
Click to expand...

Depends on the kind you like. If you drink hi-test (caffinated), Costco is a pretty decent deal. Costco also sells the mid-size machine.

You can also get a cup that allows you to use your own grind, should you have a preference for something that's not pre-made (or something fresh)

Any problems with the machines?
Click to expand...

The fully-auto version in our office broke last week. after about 4 years.

Anyone else think it's dumb to throw all these little plastic cups in a landfill, but still addicted to the better cup of coffee they make?
Click to expand...

Don't go green on us. I suggest a good dose of flying a plane with leaded avgas.

Anything else to know? ;)
Click to expand...

I think not. Just do it.
 
I have one, I have the rig from Costco, probably the best place to buy it from. I got addicted to them at the FBO I visit and we went and bought one. It "jams up" a lot but so far I've been able to keep it running for about 8 months now. They get pretty bad reviews in the "well made" department.
 
denverpilot said:
So I'm usually a Dunkin Donuts and Mr. Coffee kinda guy, but...

The office recently put in a Keurig coffee maker that I'm mildly addicted to. :rofl:

So as I head to Google to see how much one of these things and these "K-cups" are going to set me back, I figured I'd ask the crowd...

Any other aficionados?
Click to expand...

I don't drink the swill, but it reminds me of one of my favorite Barry Ritholtz posts: Your Coffee Sucks!

denverpilot said:
Any good places to get the cups at the best prices?
Click to expand...

Just saw this a few days ago:

http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1263769


denverpilot said:
Anyone else think it's dumb to throw all these little plastic cups in a landfill, but still addicted to the better cup of coffee they make?
Click to expand...

Weird. I did not know they are not recyclable.
 
wsuffa said:
Don't go green on us. I suggest a good dose of flying a plane with leaded avgas.
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lol! :D

Fly FULL RICH! Increase emmissions! :D


(no I do not fly full rich, I am the king of lean)
 
Are they actually that good? We have Flavia at work and it's awful. Even with sugar and real half and half.
 
woodstock said:
Are they actually that good? We have Flavia at work and it's awful. Even with sugar and real half and half.
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They have good coffee for them, somewhat limits your selection and grind preference. but works great when it works and the coffee is better that the average break room coffee.
 
denverpilot said:
Anyone else think it's dumb to throw all these little plastic cups in a landfill, but still addicted to the better cup of coffee they make?
Click to expand...

wsuffa said:
Don't go green on us.
Click to expand...

I don't think these massive garbage generators count against going green. I say that because they seem to be everywhere in the very green conscious western Europe.
 
My in-laws (to be) have one of those, and it never makes more than a half cup. Is that the collective experience here as well?
 
ScottM said:
You say that like it is a bad thing.

Although I am not sure what Starbucks has to do with the Keirig single cup coffee making.
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I thought we were talking swill. No?

Personally, I don't drink coffee. At all. Tea, strong preference for green tea. If it's tea bags, I'll aim for Sencha as opposed to the Jasmine flavored stuff.
 
bluesky74656 said:
My in-laws (to be) have one of those, and it never makes more than a half cup. Is that the collective experience here as well?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy one as a long term investment. You have to dial it all the way up to the max amount to get a decent sized cup MAYBE 10 oz for the largest setting.
 
Don't do it. I looked at the price for those stupid little cups... $.65 each? Holy crap! And I drink a LOT of coffee.

A few years ago we were visiting friends in Germany and fell in love with their automatic espresso machine (it makes regular Americano coffee, too). Bit the bullet and bought a De Longhi Magnifica and now miss it deeply whenever we leave home. Dump beans in the top, fill the reservoir with water -- it grinds, tamps, heats & makes you a cup whenever you like. You pick the size from a little demi espresso, up to a real honest-to-God coffee mug. In fact, we fill 16 oz insulated travel cups when we're leaving on a road trip. Strength and grind are adjustable. The used grounds are dropped into a bin in the form of little pucks. If you're into it the machine will also dispense hot water for cocoa or tea, and it'll steam milk like nobody's business.

The machine is pricey, but you can buy beans instead of cups, and buy whatever kind you like. Use a 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon, and you'll have the machine for around half an AMU. If you drink 2 cups a day, unless I'm badly misinformed on the little cup thingies, that's under a year break-even over the Keurig solution. And you'll never regret it, not for a single day.
 
wsuffa said:
I thought we were talking swill. No?
Click to expand...
No, I was talking about how those single cup coffee makers create a lot of trash and are used all over Europe where people tend to worry more about being green and their carbon footprint than here in the USA. The large amount of trash per cup is also the OP was mentioning too.
 
We've got three of them. Addicted? Sure but there are worse things. I love the convenience of having my office machine heating up water to make my cup of Donut Shop at almost the precise moment I walk through the door. Coffee is good.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
 
I know both my flying buddies bought them for home use after seeing the in an FBO (MillionAir Addison). They were trying to convince me to buy one but I am not much of a coffee aficionado or a kitchen geek. I put so much cream and sugar in that any coffee flavor will do, even instant. :redface:
 
bluesky74656 said:
My in-laws (to be) have one of those, and it never makes more than a half cup. Is that the collective experience here as well?
Click to expand...

I'm not a big coffee person, but I have a Keurig machine at the office too. The novelty is kinda fun.

It depends on the coffee, but I've found you can run a K-cup through the machine twice with no noticable reduction in flavor. This works bests with the "Bolds" and other stronger blends. Not so well with the lighter French Vanillas and such.

My employer buys the K-cups through Staples.com... I've seen the invoices, works out to be about $.62/k-cup.

There are teas and iced beverages available besides coffee.

I guess the biggest benefit is having a wide variety of flavors ready to go....not just one.
 
The best you can do is get a K-cup filter where you can use your own grind. Pack it in and make yourself an 8 oz cup. For me it would be Dunkin Donuts or something from Royal Coffee. I think the devices are pretty good in certain places but why would I spend $100 for a machine at home. I only ever make coffee in the morning and drink the 8 cup pot within 2 hours.
I do have a couple of single cup makers which do okay. Melita does a one cup maker available through Amazon or you can get a single cup filter through Rombout's. I found a US distributor (noted above). It is good coffee.
 
Appreciate all the thoughts. I still haven't decided. That fancy one that grinds and brews sounds nice. I've looked at those before, but never pulled the trigger. Good to know a good brand.

Co-workers say the Keurig makes excellent tea, far better than the coffee, but I haven't tried it yet. My wife hates coffee, but loves tea, which is one of the draws to the K-cup format. She'd like being able to have a fast cup of tea with the same machine, I think.

I think just for me, I'd stick with good ol' Mr Coffee with the thermal carafe. It works great. Especially on weekends. Hot coffee well thru noon if/when I'm ever home that long (quite rare right now).

Someone mentioned the Keurig doesn't make a full cup. The machine at the office is probably one of their higher-end machines, it has a touch-screen where you select anything from 4 oz of water to 12 oz. 4, 6, 8, and 12 are the options. I'm guessing the home/cheaper machines don't have that selection.
 
Hmm. Bloomberg article points out that their key patents on the K-cups expire next September. Maybe I'll wait and see what happens then...

Silly Bloomberg doesn't provide URLs in their "Share" button on their iPad App or I'd post one. The text is too big to not be obnoxious as a post.

Article is titled "Green Mountain
 
DaleB said:
Don't do it. I looked at the price for those stupid little cups... $.65 each? Holy crap! And I drink a LOT of coffee.

A few years ago we were visiting friends in Germany and fell in love with their automatic espresso machine (it makes regular Americano coffee, too). Bit the bullet and bought a De Longhi Magnifica and now miss it deeply whenever we leave home. Dump beans in the top, fill the reservoir with water -- it grinds, tamps, heats & makes you a cup whenever you like. You pick the size from a little demi espresso, up to a real honest-to-God coffee mug. In fact, we fill 16 oz insulated travel cups when we're leaving on a road trip. Strength and grind are adjustable. The used grounds are dropped into a bin in the form of little pucks. If you're into it the machine will also dispense hot water for cocoa or tea, and it'll steam milk like nobody's business.

The machine is pricey, but you can buy beans instead of cups, and buy whatever kind you like. Use a 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon, and you'll have the machine for around half an AMU. If you drink 2 cups a day, unless I'm badly misinformed on the little cup thingies, that's under a year break-even over the Keurig solution. And you'll never regret it, not for a single day.
Click to expand...

Just watched a few videos on this unit. Is it easy to clean? Do you have hard water? Are you using the descaling solution, vinegar, or your own method? We have really hard water and even with a softener and I use vinegar to periodically clean my regular drip coffeemaker.

Vinegar is tough on the machine, so I just started buying cheap coffee makers and throwing them away every 6-9 months. You can buy a drip coffeemaker with a timer for under $20. HOwever, the quality of the coffee is less than ideal.....

Here's the main problem - I set the timer to have coffee when I wake up, but now the dogs use that as their alarm clock; thereby demanding we wake up 15-30 min earlier than our alarm clock :nonod:

I googled around a bit about cleaning coffeemakers and I may need to try citric acid.
 
I have a Keurig coffee machine at work. It is real handy when I need to do an all nighter. I just keep popping in cartridges for a fresh cup and no waste from a big coffee maker. My favorite brand of K-cups so far is Caribou Coffee. My wife just found some Starbucks K-cups and I will try them out today.
 
If you're really interested in getting one, you might look at Breville's. It comes complete with a separate filter so you can use your own grind right from the start. I got to try this at a B&B in Port Colburne, Ontario, Ca. It makes a great tasting cup and there are 3 different size cups you can choose.
 
DaleB said:
Don't do it. I looked at the price for those stupid little cups... $.65 each? Holy crap! And I drink a LOT of coffee.

A few years ago we were visiting friends in Germany and fell in love with their automatic espresso machine (it makes regular Americano coffee, too). Bit the bullet and bought a De Longhi Magnifica and now miss it deeply whenever we leave home. Dump beans in the top, fill the reservoir with water -- it grinds, tamps, heats & makes you a cup whenever you like. You pick the size from a little demi espresso, up to a real honest-to-God coffee mug. In fact, we fill 16 oz insulated travel cups when we're leaving on a road trip. Strength and grind are adjustable. The used grounds are dropped into a bin in the form of little pucks. If you're into it the machine will also dispense hot water for cocoa or tea, and it'll steam milk like nobody's business.

The machine is pricey, but you can buy beans instead of cups, and buy whatever kind you like. Use a 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon, and you'll have the machine for around half an AMU. If you drink 2 cups a day, unless I'm badly misinformed on the little cup thingies, that's under a year break-even over the Keurig solution. And you'll never regret it, not for a single day.
Click to expand...


That sounds like a really neat machine. I'll have to look into one.
 
I am somewhat of a coffee junky.

In my house in Virginia I have a Miele Coffee Station which is one of the automatic expresso machines (beans in, expresso out). The periodic maintenance takes some time (it takes about an hour for the thing to go through the descale cycle). At work we have two Jura Capresso S9's.

I also roast my own beans, primarily Kona from one of two plantations I buy from there.
I have a HOTTOP roaster.

Down in NC in the house I spend infrequent weekends at, I have a Keurig machine. It's real handy and it's good for guests who may want cocoa (we have one) and I drink decaf (which is inconvenient to switch to in the expresso machines) and flavored coffees (which you can't do in those machines) from time to time.

All K-CUPS come from the same source (Green Mountain Coffee, I beleive...Keurig would have you believe there is competition but that is not true) who does package some other name brands in them and market them that way. I have been primarily buying mine from Black Cat Coffee but they increased the threshold for freeshipping so I shop around now. You can often find good deals at Costco on the K-cups.

There are two ways to put your own coffee in the K-Cup machine. First, the machines come with a gold filter basket you can use. Also there is some guy up there who sells plastic lids (K-caps) which you can recycle some used K-Cups (pull the foil lid off, rinse out the grounds, add your coffee and snap one of their caps on). I bought five of these, but frankly I've never gotten around to trying to use them.
 
silver-eagle said:
The best you can do is get a K-cup filter where you can use your own grind. Pack it in and make yourself an 8 oz cup. For me it would be Dunkin Donuts or something from Royal Coffee. I think the devices are pretty good in certain places but why would I spend $100 for a machine at home. I only ever make coffee in the morning and drink the 8 cup pot within 2 hours.
I do have a couple of single cup makers which do okay. Melita does a one cup maker available through Amazon or you can get a single cup filter through Rombout's. I found a US distributor (noted above). It is good coffee.
Click to expand...


+1 here. We actually have 2 of the K-cup make your own filters, and we regularly pickup the grind from good 'ol double D. Works like a charm and the k-cup filters can go through the dishwasher. No cups in the trash, no more washing the coffee pot, no more hassel or mess. I love ours. It's been running strong for about 3 years with daily multiple use. We also use it to make hot cocoa, iced tea, and many other assortment of drinks. GO FOR IT!!!!!
 
jhausch said:
Just watched a few videos on this unit. Is it easy to clean? Do you have hard water? Are you using the descaling solution, vinegar, or your own method? We have really hard water and even with a softener and I use vinegar to periodically clean my regular drip coffeemaker.
Click to expand...

If you have hard water and an expensive machine it may just be better to buy gallons of distilled water to run through the machine. I have city water that isn't hard but still run distilled water in my iron and other steam generating cleaning appliances. Prevention is better then cleaning.
 
Geez-o-pete ... I just cut open the Folders can, dump some grounds in the glass stove top percolator, visit with Mrs. Olson while's it's perking and then sip some of the finest moutain-grown coffee around! :)
 
gkainz said:
Geez-o-pete ... I just cut open the Folders can, dump some grounds in the glass stove top percolator, visit with Mrs. Olson while's it's perking and then sip some of the finest moutain-grown coffee around! :)
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Yeah, we thought our Bunn drip coffee maker with Folger's was making good coffee. Then we tried something else. We haven't touched the Bunn since the Magnifica came into the house, and we're unlikely to. We'll give it to one of the kids whenever someone needs it. And the Bunn is by far the best drip maker we ever had.
jhausch said:
Just watched a few videos on this unit. Is it easy to clean? Do you have hard water? Are you using the descaling solution, vinegar, or your own method? We have really hard water and even with a softener and I use vinegar to periodically clean my regular drip coffeemaker.
Click to expand...
We have fairly hard water, but also have a water softener. I think the kitchen faucet is direct from the supply, though. Anyway, we have a Brita pitcher that we use for the coffee maker. We buy the regular cleaning solution -- I have some citric acid for other uses, and may try some of it eventually. The cleaning cycle only takes about 20-30 minutes. Since we use the Brita I set it for the minimum water hardness. I could probably just skip the cleaning altogether, but I don't want to run the risk of having it scale up. I wouldn't use vinegar though. This one would get rid of it a lot quicker than the Bunn did, but still... even a hint of vinegar is bad juju for your coffee.

There is ONE drawback though. Once you punch the button for a cup of coffee, you can pretty much discard any crazy ideas you may have had about carrying on a conversation for the next half minute or so. The grinder is noisy as HELL. I think it uses an O-320.
 
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gkainz said:
Geez-o-pete ... I just cut open the Folders can, dump some grounds in the glass stove top percolator, visit with Mrs. Olson while's it's perking and then sip some of the finest moutain-grown coffee around! :)
Click to expand...

To each his own. I like wine that comes in a bottle too.
 
ahhh - I'm ready to relax with a pipe and a good magazine.


You guys and your fancy coffee making machines are working too hard.


 
DaleB said:
There is ONE drawback though. Once you punch the button for a cup of coffee, you can pretty much discard any crazy ideas you may have had about carrying on a conversation for the next half minute or so. The grinder is noisy as HELL. I think it uses an O-320.
Click to expand...

O-320 :lol::lol::lol:

I figured that. I had one of the early Nespresso machines and that pump was crazy loud.
 
Brewed beats instant all the time. But I'll add this, you can make a great cup of coffee with a $19 mr coffee or the $300 Breville mentioned above. It just takes a little work and knowing your maker.
I used to have (and swear by) a Faberware perculator. Mr Coffee type machines were heresy. But then it is all what you grow up with. Dad ALWAYS had perked first thing.
 
Wifie still uses her Poly-Perk ( a plastic perkolator) at the shack. Her mom had, like, eight of 'em.

You can never have too many plastic cooking devices with heating elements inside 'em.
 
Oops. I mentioned the idea to the wife... she saw all those other things it'll do besides coffee, and I have a feeling there will be one of these machines in the house before year-end. LOL!

(She started laughing when I told her that she REALLY just wanted one of those little K-Cup trees to organize her collection of K-Cups... it's so fun to mess with control freak anal personality types... she was laughing because she knew I was right... she wants the big basket full of her teas and other things off the counter, and one of those goofy organizers for the K-Cups in its place.)
 
denverpilot said:
Oops. I mentioned the idea to the wife... she saw all those other things it'll do besides coffee, and I have a feeling there will be one of these machines in the house before year-end. LOL!

(She started laughing when I told her that she REALLY just wanted one of those little K-Cup trees to organize her collection of K-Cups... it's so fun to mess with control freak anal personality types... she was laughing because she knew I was right... she wants the big basket full of her teas and other things off the counter, and one of those goofy organizers for the K-Cups in its place.)
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Nate, one of these hung inside the cupboard door above or near the machine frees up counter space!
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Nate, one of these hung inside the cupboard door above or near the machine frees up counter space!
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Don't encourage her. :)

She's sitting here saying, "I don't think that'd fit. It'll hit the shelves. But what a great idea!"

:ROFL:

It's fun to be married to an anal-retentive nurse sometimes. She's hours of entertainment. :)
 
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MSPAviator said:
It depends on the coffee, but I've found you can run a K-cup through the machine twice with no noticable reduction in flavor. This works bests with the "Bolds" and other stronger blends. Not so well with the lighter French Vanillas and
Click to expand...

The corollary is actually more true - the flavor gets no worse the second time through.


Generally these make crap coffee. First, the coffee grounds in that little plastic cup was ground 3 months ago. It's oxidized by the time you buy it. Plus, the water in the kuerig has been sitting there for 1/2 hour to over a day. Water does go 'flat' and quicker than you think. Combine the two and you get a pretty bland cup of joe, for a relatively high per cup $. Most definitely not gourmet. That is pure marketing.

If you absolutely have to have one of these.... I think i heard that the k cup patent expires next year, so there will be a flood of new brands and models at reasonable prices then
 
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