I recently purchased the new Keurig B-70 Gourmet Single Cup Home Brewing System that was released on October 1st, 2006 and have been very happy with it. The machine is extremely well designed, simple to operate, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, brews an excellent cup of coffee. I am very impressed with how quickly it is able to brew a cup of coffee, the selection of brew
sizes, and how simple clean up is.

There are a variety of single cup brewers on the market now, many utilizing pre-packaged coffee “pods” for brewing. Personally I was not comfortable purchasing a product where I would be locked into the selection and pricing of a specific manufacturer, or one that would only brew coffee and not tea and cocoa. This is just one area where Keurig really shines above their competition.

Keurig has gathered support of a variety of gourmet coffee, tea, and cocoa manufacturers and there currently there are over 140 different types sold pre-packaged in K-Cups including Green Mountain Coffee K Cups, Diedrich, Gloria Jean’s, Timothy’s K Cups, Tully’s, Coffee People, Newman’s Own, Van Houtte, Celestial Seasonings, Bigelow, Twinings, and Ghirardelli. Not only is there a large selection to choose from, there are a variety of resellers online offering K-Cups, and pricing is extremely competitive.

In addition to the pre-packaged offerings, Keurig offers the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter allows you to use your own gourmet ground coffee in your Keurig home brewer. This option provided the extra level of comfort I personally needed to make the jump into a single cup brewer. Frankly I don’t find myself using it very often as I had originally thought, as there are so many options
available in pre-packaged K-cups.

The pricing of the Keurig brewers are extremely reasonable, and brews gourmet coffee in just a fraction of the cost of purchasing it from a Starbucks, Coffee People, or similar. I expect that my machine will pay for itself in savings in just a couple months of use.

The only suggestion I have for Keurig is that the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter be included with the sale of the brewer, and not an optional accessory. It is such an inexpensive accessory that I am surprised it was not included. Overall the Keurig brewers are excellent value and quality and would recommend them to anyone interested in a single cup brewer.

Fast and Easy
On April 25, 2009 by Babs “Barbinator” (Minnesota)

I love this coffee maker. It is quiet and neat. There are so many different k-cups to choose from. It’s fun to find a coffee, tea or hot chocolate that I really love. One thing I found is that I don’t like flavored coffee very much. I like my cup of coffee with a drop of milk. The coffee maker is very simple to use and very quick in it’s brewing. Less than a minute and you can have a delicious cup of coffee. This machine is not cheap, but it is very well made and looks soo good on my counter! I’m happy with my purchase.

Great Coffee Maker

By K. McGraw (Bay Area, Northern California)

I absolutely love my Keurig, and I’ll tell you why…I’ll also tell you why I’m only giving it 4 out of 5 stars. I bought the Keurig when I decided to purchase a traditional electric coffee maker, but the good quality coffee makers were all the large 12-cup kind, and the smaller ones weren’t very good. Amazon reviews pointed me to the Tassimo and Keurig pod-type machines, which turned out to be the perfect solution.

First off, I think it is a well-built machine. After a couple of years of use (granted, I don’t use mine every single day), it’s still running strong. I like the aesthetic styling of it, and it fits okay into the tiny amount of counter space I have available. I like being able to make a single cup of coffee for myself easily (I can even set the timer to have the hot water ready when I get out of bed, so coffee is instantaneous), or fill up the tank and have guests each pick their own drink, tea and cocoa (haven’t tried the cocoa yet) included.

As for the quality of the coffee, I’ve had many good ones, but you have to find what works for you. Not all of the pods will brew to the same strength. If you like your coffee strong, or want to fill a giant commuter mug, try the “Bold” varieties. (Or maybe 2 pods for a huge mug). Personally, I went out of my way to find a smaller thermal container that is only about 12 oz., since I don’t drink my coffee by the gallon. But even the larger mugs were easily filled with a good strength of coffee when using the bolder blends. My current favorite is Coffee People Donut Shop, but I’m also a fan of the Green Mountain Bold varieties.

I have also bought and used the refillable K-cup, which is not bad, and I still think cleaning that out is easier than dealing with wet, drippy filters full of coffee grounds or even my old French Press. The trick is to find a coffee that works for your preference for brew in this size.

Now, for the reasons it gets less than a perfect 5-star review:

1. The less than “green” aspect of the Keurig: I hate throwing away another disposable plastic item each time you use a pod… I’m pretty conscious of the amount of consumer waste I generate, and this works against that. (The reason I bought the reusable K-cup). On the other hand, I’m still probably generating less trash than back when I went to Starbuck’s and threw away a double layered
cup, lid, and java jacket each day…

I saw one review complaining that it’s on all the time…well, turn the damned thing off, there is a power button. I actually unplug mine between uses, so I can’t say power-consumption is an issue.

2. I have a little trouble really cleaning the tank. I have found that if I have not used the machine for a while and left water in it, it will start to grow algae (?) in the little hard-to-reach corners of the water tank. These have proven difficult to clean out, and I finally resorted to buying pipe cleaners that I can bend and fit into the areas the sponge and bottle brush can’t quite get to. Not a deal-breaker, but kind of a pain.

That being said, I was still hard-pressed not to give it a full 5 stars, because I do love it so much. I have recommended this to others, and I’m pleased to see the popularity of these rising, as I can now find the cups more readily available, when I’m not filling my own.