Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

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lightheir
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Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by lightheir »

I know the Keurig discussion has been done to DEATH on this forum, but just putting out my n=1 experience for others -

I'm on vacation right now with family and in-laws; 8 people total at a rented vacation home. None of us own a Keurig, and if you asked us if we wanted one, all of us (me included) would pretty forcefully say "no", as we're against the waste of the K-cups and we like smelling the coffee.

However, the rental house came with a Keurig machine. Since one of the seniors in our group has significant limitations in coordination and mobility but loves coffee, I bought a pack of 18 coffee pods, hoping we'd finish them all in the next 3 days, but doubtful it would go that way as I fully expected everyone to still predominantly use the coffee pot as they said they preferred.

ALL 18 pods were gone in <12 hours. I used two of them myself in that period despite the fact I rarely drink more than one cup per day without a Keurig! I think part of the rapidity of use was the 'medium' cups that we all defaulted to - with a drip coffee machine, it's no problem to refill it or partially refill it - with the K-cups, it's a whole new k-cup for that.

I'm actually scared to refill them now - as easy as it is to brew a cup of coffee, I gotta admit that the total elimination of even 1 minute of prep work makes it tooo accessible!

Just throwing this info out there for any who are considering buying a Keurig or switching to one - based on my group, I suspect your coffee drinking behavior may actually change and ramp up so be prepared for what you're getting yourself into! (And contrary to all those who said cost is roughly equal, at least at the grocery store I went to, there's no contest - the Keurig coffee seems at least 2x the cost of regular drip brewed coffee, if not more when you're not buying in bulk and using the 'medium' not 'large' cup setting on the Keurig.)
ulvazell
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by ulvazell »

Love coffee in all varieties; drip, brewed, expresso, whatever, but the convenience of the Keurig is hard to beat...
engineer1969
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by engineer1969 »

We bought ours with the stipulation we'd only use it on weekday mornings when the hustling around makes dealing with the coffee pot a little more annoying. Three years later we only use the Keurig and the pot sits in the pantry.

Something interesting I recently learned is that those fancy machines that grind and brew coffee on the spot can meet or beat the per cup pricing of the keurig -- even the real fancy ones if purchased used. They give you a tray or puck of grounds to dispose of in the trash.
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lightheir
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by lightheir »

I mentioned it above, but the price per cup of the Keurig sucks if you're selecting the medium size cup and not buying in big bulk packages. I haven't done the exact math, but I strongly suspect I'll make over 2x, if not closer to 3x the amount of brewed coffee when comparing a $12 pack of 18 K-cups vs a $12 bag of ground coffee.

I had read a lot of comments about the near-parity of the k-cups to brewed coffee on some big Keurig posts here awhile back, but at least for the use situation I'm in, which I suspect is not atypical for most users, it seems to be a lot more expensive. This actually surprised me - I was expecting it to be a lot closer in price after all the BH comments about Kcups.
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heartwood
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by heartwood »

Funny that in all of the threads few comment on the taste. I've tried most (all?) of the Keurig coffees, many several times, and they all taste like less than I want. In my personal Keurig v. Bonavita (with a blend of Indonesian arabica) tests my Bonavita wins. Not on convenience, but on flavor and taste. My access to Kuerig is free; I pay for my other coffee.
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lightheir
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by lightheir »

FWIW, at least for the K-cups I bought, I DEFINITELY preferred the stronger, fuller regular drip-coffee flavor. Although I know that this is highly dependent on the K-cup you choose, and that the drip methodology is pretty similar with both Kcups and drip coffee so they should taste pretty similar.

And even with that slightly inferior coffee taste for the K-cups I chose, all 8 of us STILL used them all before turning to the coffeepot that we used to use without issue - the Keurig has turned us into lazy bums, no joke!
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by TomatoTomahto »

lightheir wrote:FWIW, at least for the K-cups I bought, I DEFINITELY preferred the stronger, fuller regular drip-coffee flavor. Although I know that this is highly dependent on the K-cup you choose, and that the drip methodology is pretty similar with both Kcups and drip coffee so they should taste pretty similar.

And even with that slightly inferior coffee taste for the K-cups I chose, all 8 of us STILL used them all before turning to the coffeepot that we used to use without issue - the Keurig has turned us into lazy bums, no joke!
I'm the picture of lazy, but I have never had a cup of K-cup coffee that I liked. I've had them at the car dealer and on vacation (a cup to tide me over until I could get real coffee). Life is, imo, too short for bad coffee.

As lazy as I am, I think push button engine starting in cars is comical; when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug. Same feeling with K-cups: if you find one in my kitchen, it's time.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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8foot7
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by 8foot7 »

TomatoTomahto wrote:when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug. Same feeling with K-cups: if you find one in my kitchen, it's time.
LOL. This is funny. :happy I feel the same about K cups but I do like my wife's push-to-start button. (In her car.)
Gary Guss
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Gary Guss »

I drink too much coffee to be a big fan of Keurig.. plus I don't like being ripped off for the pods.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by why3not »

Keurig added a cup to my coffee habit. I still brew a pot in the morning, it is just part of the routine. Takes maybe 1 minute of time (plus a wait during which I do something else). Kuerig makes it very easy to have a quick cup in the afternoon when I need the caffeine boost vs grabbing a soda.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by ResearchMed »

DH *wanted* to like the Keurig, for convenience.

But the Keurig (he tried two models) didn't get the water hot enough, and this was starting with room temperature bottled water, in case cold winter tap water might have been the culprit.

So he finally tried a Nespresso, and that hit the spot.
He ended up getting the type with the hot milk foamer, and loves it.

RM
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takeshi
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by takeshi »

Shouldn't be a surprise IMO. If convenience trumps all else a Keurig or other single serve is a good fit. Convenience is very popular with many people -- not just with coffee but jut about any topic. I can't stand what comes out of single serve machines though so that's a nonstarter for me. I don't generally drink drip anyway and prefer espresso drinks and enjoy using my grinder and semiauto machine. However, we do have a Keurig as my wife values convenience even above cost & waste. We had the Vue for a while which used partially recyclable cups but the Vue never gained wide acceptance so selection was always poor. While our 2.0 can handle Vue cups she mostly uses K Cups these days.
TomatoTomahto wrote:As lazy as I am, I think push button engine starting in cars is comical; when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug.
It's not always about convenience. Start buttons are part of sports car heritage. My S2000 had a start button but you still had to insert and turn a key.
Last edited by takeshi on Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
rgs92
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by rgs92 »

I finally gave up on Keurig because it didn't make the coffee hot enough.
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by TomatoTomahto »

takeshi wrote:
TomatoTomahto wrote:As lazy as I am, I think push button engine starting in cars is comical; when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug.
It's not always about convenience. Start buttons are part of sports car heritage. My S2000 had a start button but you still had to insert and turn a key.
It was mostly a joke. My Tesla doesn't even have a start button, unless you count the one on the phone app. My kids laugh at me when I drive anther car and forget that the doors won't open up when I'm approaching the car, or that pressing the brake pedal won't close the driver's door, or that you actually have to turn off the engine when you're done (imagine that!).

But, I wasn't joking about the Keurig. :annoyed
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by nisiprius »

I like seeing Keurig machines at places like summer rentals, check-in desks at motels, banks that offer free coffee because to my taste they make "reliably OK" coffee. When I substitute teach I bring a refillable cup of my own filled with plain old Folger's Classic Roast because they have a Keurig machine in the break room, and it seems fine. (I lost my investment in a refillable Keurig cup when they swapped the machine for a Keurig 2.0 machine in which their own refillable cups don't work and had to pay for a new third-party refillable cup).

My limited experience with them has been uniform: they have not solved the problem of choosing to make variable amounts of coffee from the same-sized pod and having them come out tasting the same. I generally opt for "6 ounces." If I choose 10 or 12 ounces, I consistently get coffee that is very distinctly too weak. In short, even though my preferred cup size is a nice full 10-ounce cup, when I'm using a Keurig machine I always opt for about "half a cup." Most of my experience has been with my daughter's high-end Cuisinart machine so it's not just a question of using cheap machines.

The price per cup of Keurig can't be ignored. It's not just a question of paying a little more for convenience, you are paying a lot more. There's no way you can do the math and come up with less than "four times as expensive." A K-cup contains about 12 grams = 0.0264 pounds and costs about $0.45 = $17 a pound. You are paying very high end gourmet coffee prices to get a fairly decent cup of very ordinary coffee. The coffee we usually buy at the supermarket currently costs $8.99 for 30.5 ounces = $4.75 pound. Do your own math based on your bargain-hunting habits and what coffee you'd really buy, but we're taking, ballpark, four times as much. We drink a small pot a day, equivalent to about four K-cups, so if we switched to Keurig our monthly costs would rise from $12/month to $54/month. No, that wouldn't break us but it's an item.

We could fix that by using refillable cups but then you need to clean them afterwards, so the convenience advantage is less. Plus it is now obvious that Keurig hates refillable cups and is going to do everything in their power to force you to buy prepackaged pods so it might not be a viable long-term strategy. ("Someday: congratulations! Your Keurig 3.0 IOT machine has now updated itself to Keurig 3.1. By the way, to insure the quality of your coffee, those purple cups with the dolphins we see you've been using won't work any more...")

It's fun having all those choices of weird flavors, all the pods that make things like cocoa or tea are actually pretty awful but still fun. But I am not happy about the way K-cups are crowding out traditionally-packaged coffee on supermarkets, the choices for traditionally-packaged inexpensive mass-market coffee are shrinking. If things go on I predict that in a few years the only choices will be $15/pound Ethiopian Harrar bean coffee in the gourmet aisle, Keurig cups, and one little dusty shelf of Maxwell House....

I won't even talk about disposal and landfills.

Nevertheless, Keurig machines do a decent job of what they are supposed to do: they make single cups of perfectly OK coffee fairly quickly.
Last edited by nisiprius on Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Luke Duke »

heartwood wrote:Funny that in all of the threads few comment on the taste. I've tried most (all?) of the Keurig coffees, many several times, and they all taste like less than I want.
This. My Kuerig now collects dust since I got a french press a few weeks ago.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by bloom2708 »

There is certainly a place for our Keurig.

I can have 6 or 7 varieties of coffee and do not have to worry about it going stale or grinding too early. Turn it on, come back in a couple minutes, pop in a pod and you have coffee.

When I have more time, I use our Melitta pour over with a paper cone filter. It takes a bit more time and each cup is less.

Like most things, there is more than one viable option. Most probably keep a drip coffee maker for when you want to make a full pot.
book lover
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by book lover »

We use a Keurig but buy our single serve cup supplies at Ollie's Bargain Outlet which lowers overall price of the coffee and we are happy with the taste. In our more frugal days, we would use each one twice to lower the use price.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Casper »

We have small kids, so we put a small Keurig in our master bathroom so we can secretly make coffee in the mornings without having to go down our creaky wood stairs and wake them up. But we also use a drip coffeemaker after that first surreptitious cup is gone.

I've had no problems with Keurig coffee not being hot. We buy the San Francisco k-cups in packs of 80 or 120 from Amazon. It's about 30-35 cents per pod, depending on the variety, and is as good or better than our coffeemaker. They have a mesh pod so there's minimal waste.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by El Greco »

I use an old-fashioned electric percolator because nothing else gets the water hotter. The hotter the water the better the coffee. People who own Keurigs RAVE about my coffee. Keurig is Ok in a pinch, most drip coffee makers flat out suck. End of sermon. :happy
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by SmileyFace »

nisiprius wrote: The price per cup of Keurig can't be ignored.

I won't even talk about disposal and landfills.
You don't need to use the throw-away-pods. You can use your own coffee and use a re-usable filter (Here's one example: https://www.amazon.com/Ekobrew%C3%82-Re ... ds=ekobrew)

This gives you the convenience of being able to quickly make a cup at a time with the ability to buy whatever coffee suits your budget and taste. It only takes a few extra seconds over the disposable pods to scoop some coffee into the re-usable filter.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by nisiprius »

DaftInvestor wrote:
nisiprius wrote: The price per cup of Keurig can't be ignored.

I won't even talk about disposal and landfills.
You don't need to use the throw-away-pods. You can use your own coffee and use a re-usable filter (Here's one example: https://www.amazon.com/Ekobrew%C3%82-Re ... ds=ekobrew)

This gives you the convenience of being able to quickly make a cup at a time with the ability to buy whatever coffee suits your budget and taste. It only takes a few extra seconds over the disposable pods to scoop some coffee into the re-usable filter.
As I think I said, I do use the re-usable filters. But there are two real problems with them and one potential problem.

1) You need to clean the filter each time. The inconvenience of filling them is negligible, the inconvenience of cleaning them not quite. In a "social" situation, like sharing a break room with teachers, it's a little bit awkward. It takes several knocks on the filter to get the grounds out, and sometimes a bit scatters on the floor and needs to be wiped up, and it's probably not "polite" to be putting even small amounts of grounds down someone else's sink. And you're taking up space and time in a small space fiddling with paper towels and so forth.

2) You are fighting with Keurig. Keurig doesn't want you to use disposable filters. It's always setting yourself up for annoyance when you try to save money by doing something the manufacturer is trying to stop you from doing. Keurig made their very own Keurig-branded reusable filters quit working in Keurig 2.0 machines, and wouldn't even market new reusable filters until there was a loud outcry.

3) Not sure about this and I'm not finicky enough to tell, but when I've torn open a Keurig pod the grind did look a little finer than the usual "auto drip coffeemaker" grind, so it's at least possible that the contents of the pods is not identical to cans of ground coffee of the same name.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by flamesabers »

I don't think I'll ever own a Keurig, particularly due to how expensive the K-Cups are. I don't drink coffee, but I do like drinking hot chocolate and hot apple cider. It's not a huge inconvenience for me to heat up water in the microwave and then mix it with a packet to get the drink of my choice.

I use a Keurig at work. While it's convenient, I doubt I'll ever want to pay for one in my home.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by KlangFool »

OP,

How does this compare to cold brewed coffee in term of convenience and taste? I know it definitely cost a lot more. Cold brew coffee is more cost efficient than typical drip coffee.

I have frozen coffee concentrate in my freezer. I brought my concentrate in an ice chest on my recent trip. If I need cold coffee, I mix cold water with my concentrate. If I need hot coffee, I add hot water with my concentrate. I can do this on my road trip anytime and any place.

I only need to cold brew my coffee once every 2 weeks.

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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by ResearchMed »

KlangFool wrote:OP,

How does this compare to cold brewed coffee in term of convenience and taste? I know it definitely cost a lot more. Cold brew coffee is more cost efficient than typical drip coffee.

I have frozen coffee concentrate in my freezer. I brought my concentrate in an ice chest on my recent trip. If I need cold coffee, I mix cold water with my concentrate. If I need hot coffee, I add hot water with my concentrate. I can do this on my road trip anytime and any place.

I only need to cold brew my coffee once every 2 weeks.

KlangFool
Interesting.

What is the concentration of your "concentrate"?
Did you make it by using much less water, using your regular brewing technique, or ...?

How does the "hot version" taste in comparison to what you usually drink at home?

RM
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Kababayan »

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, as I skimmed the last few posts, but roasting your own coffee beans is very easy to do and will make a flavorful and bitter free cup of coffee. I alternate between a French press and a Bonavita and both produce great coffee. There are tutorials online about how to do it but the popcorn popper method(no joke) is the easiest.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by KlangFool »

ResearchMed wrote:
KlangFool wrote:OP,

How does this compare to cold brewed coffee in term of convenience and taste? I know it definitely cost a lot more. Cold brew coffee is more cost efficient than typical drip coffee.

I have frozen coffee concentrate in my freezer. I brought my concentrate in an ice chest on my recent trip. If I need cold coffee, I mix cold water with my concentrate. If I need hot coffee, I add hot water with my concentrate. I can do this on my road trip anytime and any place.

I only need to cold brew my coffee once every 2 weeks.

KlangFool
Interesting.

What is the concentration of your "concentrate"?
Did you make it by using much less water, using your regular brewing technique, or ...?

How does the "hot version" taste in comparison to what you usually drink at home?

RM
ResearchMed,

https://toddycafe.com/cold-brew/why-toddy-cold-brew
https://toddycafe.com/cold-brew/instruction-manual

1) To make concentrate -> 1 pound of coffee plus 10 cups of waters.

2) 3 parts water and 1 part concentrate -> To drink the coffee

<<How does the "hot version" taste in comparison to what you usually drink at home?>>

3) I do not understand the question. I only drink cold brewed coffee at home too.

KlangFool
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by new2bogle »

ResearchMed wrote:DH *wanted* to like the Keurig, for convenience.

But the Keurig (he tried two models) didn't get the water hot enough, and this was starting with room temperature bottled water, in case cold winter tap water might have been the culprit.

So he finally tried a Nespresso, and that hit the spot.
He ended up getting the type with the hot milk foamer, and loves it.

RM
This post sounds like my wife wrote it.....

:D
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by celia »

OP, I think you need to consider that you may be drinking different "flavors" in the K-cups vs at home or different levels of "freshness".

I think there is also an emotional/social component here. If you walk by and see a relative or two drinking a cup of coffee while on vacation, why not join them? Then when they are done, they are more likely to join you in another cup. If you are building/strengthening a bond during the conversation, the coffee is not what matters, although you probably associate the two. Then when you want more emotional/social connection, aren't you going to gravitate towards that same kind of coffee?

Since you're on vacation, go out and buy some more and enjoy them!


Here's an experiment you could also do: have a coffee taste test. Have one person be in charge of making a cup (or half cup) of Keurig coffee and of regular coffee. Then in another room (where they didn't see what went into each cup) offer both to each person, have them taste both, then "vote" on the one they like best. We did that with small kids and orange-flavored drinks (and juice) one day on vacation. We even blind-folded each other. They also got the sense of how to run an experiment.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by ResearchMed »

new2bogle wrote:
ResearchMed wrote:DH *wanted* to like the Keurig, for convenience.

But the Keurig (he tried two models) didn't get the water hot enough, and this was starting with room temperature bottled water, in case cold winter tap water might have been the culprit.

So he finally tried a Nespresso, and that hit the spot.
He ended up getting the type with the hot milk foamer, and loves it.

RM
This post sounds like my wife wrote it.....

:D
Oh, DH, My Love, is that you????
(Hmmm... I thought you were working... :shock: )

:wink:

RM
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by retire57 »

El Greco wrote:I use an old-fashioned electric percolator because nothing else gets the water hotter. The hotter the water the better the coffee. People who own Keurigs RAVE about my coffee. Keurig is Ok in a pinch, most drip coffee makers flat out suck. End of sermon. :happy
+1 !!!
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by inbox788 »

nisiprius wrote:It's fun having all those choices of weird flavors, all the pods that make things like cocoa or tea are actually pretty awful but still fun. But I am not happy about the way K-cups are crowding out traditionally-packaged coffee on supermarkets, the choices for traditionally-packaged inexpensive mass-market coffee are shrinking. If things go on I predict that in a few years the only choices $15/pound Ethiopian Harrar bean coffee in the gourmet aisle, Keurig cups, and one little dusty shelf of Maxwell House....
IMO, convenience is the main thing going for it. You can easily get better taste and cost with other methods. All the other pods I've tried, and I've tried many are poor to awful. Still, I use my 1.0 and won't be upgrading to the newer incomparable units. I'm actively looking for a replacement and will speed up the decision if the unit breaks. I've still got a good supply of pods to finish off.

Food stores are adapting to the new realities and chasing profits. High margin is winning out over low margin high turnover, so it's not surprising they're adopting these anti consumer tactics. They don't want us average profit customers, when a single high profit customer probably makes them 10-30x as much.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Clever_Username »

A friend of mine won a second (to him) Keurig a while back and was trying to get rid of it. He gave it to me as a housewarming present (at my now-old apartment) 14 months ago. It's great.

(Edit: this statement makes it look resentful; I'm not. It's a great gift and I don't intend to demean how my friend acquired it.)

I used to make 1-2 cups of coffee at a time, living alone. And I'd rarely get good coffee (to me, this means Dunkin' over my then-usual Kroger brand) because it wouldn't last as long as it'd take me. Having a variety was out of the question for the same reason.

Now I have a small collection of pods; the Aldi has really inexpensive ones. I got a 12 or 16 pack of Folger's from the local Vons for $4 or so and that'll last me a bit too. I sometimes get specialty flavors.

In terms of cost per ounce, sure, it's more expensive. But even with small packs of coffee, I used to find they'd get bad part way through. And then I was left with the question of whether I wanted to throw it out and get new, or continue drinking because I didn't want to throw out something I paid for.

Not the best coffee, but for what little coffee I drink at home, I'm fine with it. It's a very small line item on the budget.

Plus when having guests, I can very easily say "here are the mugs, here are the pods, help yourself."
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queso
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by queso »

engineer1969 wrote:We bought ours with the stipulation we'd only use it on weekday mornings when the hustling around makes dealing with the coffee pot a little more annoying. Three years later we only use the Keurig and the pot sits in the pantry.

Something interesting I recently learned is that those fancy machines that grind and brew coffee on the spot can meet or beat the per cup pricing of the keurig -- even the real fancy ones if purchased used. They give you a tray or puck of grounds to dispose of in the trash.
We bought one of those several years back (a Jura Capresso). It gets used a couple of times a year, usually over the holidays when we have family visiting since everybody thinks it is fun to make a fancy coffee. I only drink coffee from my French press, which was probably less than $30 and tastes much better than the Jura (in my opinion). My wife only drinks coffee from the coffee shop. I tried to sell it once, but got in trouble because "guests like it". Oh well. :happy
spectec
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by spectec »

Keurig for my wife and me. We have one at home, one at my office, and one at the beach house. Very convenient and taste is just fine. But I'll admit we aren't coffee snobs. My preference is "Jet Fuel" from Bed Bath & Beyond.
Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it. - Will Rogers
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by chuckb84 »

KlangFool wrote:OP,

How does this compare to cold brewed coffee in term of convenience and taste? I know it definitely cost a lot more. Cold brew coffee is more cost efficient than typical drip coffee.

I have frozen coffee concentrate in my freezer. I brought my concentrate in an ice chest on my recent trip. If I need cold coffee, I mix cold water with my concentrate. If I need hot coffee, I add hot water with my concentrate. I can do this on my road trip anytime and any place.

I only need to cold brew my coffee once every 2 weeks.

KlangFool
Good points. After using and loving my Aeropress for years, I'm thinking of adding a cold brew system to the arsenal. Because: The concentrated cold brew makes itself overnight, and then you have enough to serve at least 4 people rather effortlessly. Aeropress is great for 1 or 2 people each morning, but tedious for a crowd.

On the scale of things I care about, price wise, "cost efficiency" in coffee doesn't make my top 50 list. But, I'm interested in cold brew because of the time efficiency and I hadn't thought of freezing it. Interesting idea.
KlangFool
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by KlangFool »

chuckb84 wrote:
KlangFool wrote:OP,

How does this compare to cold brewed coffee in term of convenience and taste? I know it definitely cost a lot more. Cold brew coffee is more cost efficient than typical drip coffee.

I have frozen coffee concentrate in my freezer. I brought my concentrate in an ice chest on my recent trip. If I need cold coffee, I mix cold water with my concentrate. If I need hot coffee, I add hot water with my concentrate. I can do this on my road trip anytime and any place.

I only need to cold brew my coffee once every 2 weeks.

KlangFool
Good points. After using and loving my Aeropress for years, I'm thinking of adding a cold brew system to the arsenal. Because: The concentrated cold brew makes itself overnight, and then you have enough to serve at least 4 people rather effortlessly. Aeropress is great for 1 or 2 people each morning, but tedious for a crowd.

On the scale of things I care about, price wise, "cost efficiency" in coffee doesn't make my top 50 list. But, I'm interested in cold brew because of the time efficiency and I hadn't thought of freezing it. Interesting idea.
chuckb84,

1) It matters to me because normally I buy good expensive coffee at $16 per pound. Cold brew lets me make as little or as much coffee with nothing going to waste.

2) I have Aeropress. I cannot afford to use Aeropress regularly with my expensive coffee since it uses 3 times more coffee. It is only for special occasions.

KlangFool
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Jim Profit
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Jim Profit »

I just about gave up on our Keurig because the coffee was too weak which is a common complaint. Thankfully after a lot of searching I found a solution:

Barista Prima French Roast K-Cup
Barista Prima Italian Roast K-Cup

Both of these K-Cups have .47 ounces of coffee in them which is far more than the other "extra bold" K-Cups that only have 0.40 or maybe 0.42 ounces if you are lucky. These are so packed full of coffee that they have a special hard protective ring around the inside bottom to keep the lower needle from puncturing the filter, which is hanging low full of coffee. You can feel the ring if you try to pinch opposite bottom edges of the K-Cup.

The French Roast is the second strongest K-Cup I've found (yes stronger than Jet Fuel or Double Diamond) and is great served black, strong but smooth. The Italian Roast is the strongest and more bitter; it is borderline too bitter to drink black but should hold up very well to creamer and/or sugar. If you can find these for 0.50 a K-Cup you are doing well on pricing.
spectec
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by spectec »

Creamer? Sugar? Only black for me. But not when I was first learning to enjoy it.

Reminds me of an experience when I was serving in the Air Force many, many years ago. As I was adding creamer and sugar to my coffee, tasting, then adding some more. After 2 or 3 times of my doing this, an NCO who was waiting for me to finish remarked "Ahhh, I see you really don't like coffee, do you?"
Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it. - Will Rogers
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vinvedi
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by vinvedi »

I am a bit surprised that no one seems concerned about exposure to K-cup plastic. I love my ceramic coffee dripper :P
MGBGTV8
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by MGBGTV8 »

takeshi wrote:Shouldn't be a surprise IMO. If convenience trumps all else a Keurig or other single serve is a good fit. Convenience is very popular with many people -- not just with coffee but jut about any topic. I can't stand what comes out of single serve machines though so that's a nonstarter for me. I don't generally drink drip anyway and prefer espresso drinks and enjoy using my grinder and semiauto machine. However, we do have a Keurig as my wife values convenience even above cost & waste. We had the Vue for a while which used partially recyclable cups but the Vue never gained wide acceptance so selection was always poor. While our 2.0 can handle Vue cups she mostly uses K Cups these days.
TomatoTomahto wrote:As lazy as I am, I think push button engine starting in cars is comical; when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug.
It's not always about convenience. Start buttons are part of sports car heritage. My S2000 had a start button but you still had to insert and turn a key.
The "start button" on the original Austin Healy Sprite is a pull cable that physically moves the contacts in the starter relay. The key is just a kill switch for the electrical system.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by MGBGTV8 »

For the iced coffee season, I switched to the french press in the fridge. Bodum makes a 51 oz press so I can make 2-3 days worth at a time. Cuts the number of times I have to mess with anything, so is even easier than the Keurig. For hot coffee, I still use Keuring.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by indexonlyplease »

I have a Keurig and 5 cup coffee maker. I use the Keurig when in a rush. What I don't like is the limit on the coffee choices with Keurig. Not all coffe comes in the k cups. I like organic coffee, somtime not easy to find a the store. Also the K cups coffee is week and I feel don't have much taste. My wife likes Dunkin Donuts so she uses their k cup. I think its like drinking water.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by CppCoder »

My wife waits until the k-cups go on sale at Kroger, and then she uses coupons and stocks up. She usually gets a box of 12 for $4.50. Yes, it's still more expensive than buying beans, but for my maybe 2-3 cups of coffee per week (weekends only), the $50/year total cost won't kill me :happy. As an infrequent home coffee drinker, I find it really convenient for guests. It's so much easier just to stock a few varieties and then brew one or two cups for company vs. a pot that gets spilled out.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Artful Dodger »

I have both, traditional carafe at home, Keurig at office.

I make 6 cups each morning in the carafe, so maybe 4 or 5 mugs. Sometimes I'm the only one who drinks it so a lot goes to waste. I'll have one or two mugs. Based on actual drank coffee, we're probably paying $.25 / $.30 per mug.

When I get to my office, I have one cup from the Keurig. I usually drink pretty robust coffee, but often get a second pull (middle setting) from the Keurig, and am satisfied with that. I sometimes have decaf, or more often green tea in the afternoon from the Keurig. I have bought some large boxes at Bed Bath & Beyond of Barista brand. They have a lot of varities in a mixed box, but last time I got their Italian Roast which is pretty robust. After a 25% promo and the usual 20% coupon, a 48 count box was $18, so $.38 per pod, so not too bad.

We also have a Nespresso, which my wife uses all the time, and those are $.65 - $.75 a pod. My brother has the newer Nespresso, which will make the standard coffee cup/mug, and I really like that, but those are $1.10 / $1.20 per pod.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by wilshuer »

Surprised it wasn't mentioned higher in the thread, but has anyone looked at a super automatic espresso machine? Years ago my wife and I needed to replace our drip machine, and being tired of wasting a pot of coffee too often, looked at the Keurigs. On average between the two of us we drink 4-5 coffees per day, figuring on the Keurig pods at the time close to $.75-1, seemed the cost would add up quickly. I researched the super automatics and came across a refurbished Delonghi for $500. Steep up front investment, but doing an analysis, figured out it would pay off quickly. It is very convenient, and when we have numerous guest, easy to crank out a lot of drinks - plus the fancy stuff - although we only drink plain coffees. We've had it about 8 years now, and just passed 10,000 cups. I've had to replace a few orings, but other than that it is solid. Cranking out a quick analysis, if bought new, the break even price for the Keurig pods would have to be $0.35, and that's purchasing a lower end Keurig machine and assuming it would last the same 8 years.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by bertilak »

TomatoTomahto wrote:As lazy as I am, I think push button engine starting in cars is comical; when I can't turn a key in the ignition, that's a signal to my loved ones to pull the plug. Same feeling with K-cups: if you find one in my kitchen, it's time.
I love push button start in my Passat. It's not the push button per se, but the fact that the key never leaves my pocket. The car senses its proximity and enables the button. Same with locking and unlocking the door(s) and trunk -- it's jut a matter of me touching the handle (in just the right way). Again, the car senses the key's proximity. The key folds into its key fob and never needs to come out. It's for emergency use only, if the electronics somehow fail.

I don't even need to touch the trunk handle, although I can if I want to. I just stick my foot underneath and the trunk pops open -- as long a the force key is with me. Great when holding an armload of stuff destined for the trunk.

I bask in my laziness! 8-)

But I still use a drip coffee maker (Moccamaster).
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TomatoTomahto
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by TomatoTomahto »

bertilak wrote: I bask in my laziness! 8-)

But I still use a drip coffee maker (Moccamaster).
I'm unabashedly lazy, but you and I both love the Moccamaster. I previously used a coffee maker with a timer (Remington iCoffee), and while it's nice to come downstairs to an already made pot, I decided that coffee ground the night before lost something, and water left out overnight lost something, and not giving the grounds a stir lost something also, so I switched to a Moccamaster.

As a lazy but loving husband, I set my alarm for 10 minutes before DW has to wake up, so that she gets to come downstairs to a perfectly made pot of coffee :D

Keurig? Where's the love in that?
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
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Just sayin...
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by Just sayin... »

Keurig is OK if in a hotel, a corporate environment, etc. where good coffee is not available. At home I would LOVE to use a French Press, however due to Cafestol concerns (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 6912002360), I'm forced to use a paper-based drip filter. So I grind my own beans, then brew my coffee in a Bunn VP17 with a tea thermostat so that I can get the water temp at the spray head up to about 210. Yes, it is hot and delicious.
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Re: Keurig vs coffeemaker - and the Keurig won

Post by SmileyFace »

Just sayin... wrote:Keurig is OK if in a hotel, a corporate environment, etc. where good coffee is not available. At home I would LOVE to use a French Press, however due to Cafestol concerns (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 6912002360), I'm forced to use a paper-based drip filter. So I grind my own beans, then brew my coffee in a Bunn VP17 with a tea thermostat so that I can get the water temp at the spray head up to about 210. Yes, it is hot and delicious.
Too bad they didn't look at Keurig in that study :) Since Keurig doesn't pass through a paper filter - but rather an itty-bitty hole - I wonder what the result would be (probably somewhere in-between french-press and paper-filter).
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