I’ve been researching several new coffee makers in anticipation of switching from the common drip brew thermal carafe I currently own to one of the increasingly popular single-serve brewers. I was shocked at how many are out there. This is a burgeoning market.
Naturally, when considering a purchase like this, you want to do your research but finding consistently reliable feedback and reviews can be daunting. So check out this great website – Single Serve Coffee. They have reviews on a wide variety of topics – single-serve brewers, K-cups, pods, hacking your brewer… yes, I said hacking your brewer. Lots of great reading material to digest while having your favorite brew.
And in case your wondering (and who wouldn’t?) I will very likely purchase the Keurig B70 Platinum model for myself. I’ll let you know…
Why would I choose this brewer? It has a generous 60 ounce tank – but so do some of the others. It uses proprietary coffee (K-cups) – like most other brewers (i.e. T-discs, pods, etc.). But this brewer comes with a reusable My K-cup for your own ground coffee and I’ve even seen ways to use pods from other companies in your Keurig brewer. The main reason I would choose this brewer over the many other formidable offerings is for the immense variety of coffee available – several hundred choices. And then there is tea and cocoa too! No other brand of brewer I’ve looked at so far can even come close. I also feel more confident that my purchase will only improve in variety in the future because the Keurig is a popular choice for hotels, offices and other businesses making it a more sustainable brand.
The big drawback – the ecological footprint. Single-serve coffee is having it’s effect on the environment. Some more than others. K-cups, which are used for my chosen machine, are particularly hard to recycle. They have a foil top (recyclable) with a filter (bio-degradable) insert which holds the coffee inside a plastic “cup” (recyclable). The problem is that you have to disect the little bugger to recycle it’s parts.