Good to the First Cup Update…

About a week ago, my husband went with me to purchase my Keurig B70 Platinum Single-Serve Coffee Brewer. It’s my Christmas present, but I wanted it before my family came over for a Christmas party at our house. You know – so I could show off. We purchased it at Bed, Bath & Beyond since we had a 20% off coupon that saved us $40.

Once home with my prize, my husband unpacked it for me. I had him do this in case I hated it and wanted to return it. He has better memory than the 2GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM in my Mac. Yeah, I had to look that up. What that means is, he can easily remember how it was packed and return it to it’s pristine packing condition. I would have to wrap it in an old dishtowel, shove it in the box, force the lid as closed as I could get it, and tape the whole thing up leaving it looking like it had been handled and delivered by those apes who test luggage.

I still enjoy that video. Now, on to installation…

Once out of the box, you place your machine where you would like it to live on your counter. You’ll first notice how heavy it is. Not super heavy, but heavy enough to make you feel you purchased quality. You then remove the water tank and rinse it (don’t wash – rinse) with cold water. Fill up the tank and return it to where it belongs. You place a mug in position (do not add a K-cup at this time) and select a priming sequence which runs water into the heating area and deposits a quantity of steaming hot water into your mug. Throw this water away. This water is used to sterilize your machine.

You are now ready to begin brewing coffee, tea or hot cocoa to your hearts content. Easy, huh?

Using the Keurig (I named mine Brew•C – sounds like Bruce) is just as easy. Place a mug in position, select your K-cup and insert by lifting the lever. You can even remove the drip tray for those taller mugs like my Starbucks one seen below. That’s a really nice feature since I’ve found most of the K-cups to be quite strong and I brew mine on the largest mug setting. So far, I like the Newman’s Own Fair Trade Organic Extra Bold – which is stronger on purpose and needs the larger setting for my taste. I also really like the Caribou Coffee Daybreak Morning Blend which is a lighter selection and can be brewed on smaller settings.

I’ve read at some coffee blogs that you can use a K-cup more than once. I gave that a try since the Newman’s Own Extra Bold is too strong for me the first time through. I find it’s much tastier when running it through a second time. This is great if you aren’t extremely particular about your coffee being exactly the same cup after cup. Which I’m not. One of the reasons I loved the idea of a single-serve coffee brewer is to more easily enjoy variety whenever I feel like it. If my first cup is a little strong and my second is a little weak, that’s okay with me. Another idea I read online and loved is to run your extra bold K-cup through twice on a medium setting to fill your travel mug before heading out into rush hour traffic.

Since I had my brewer in time for my family arriving, it was fun to show it off and get everyone’s reaction. My family is comprised of heavy coffee drinkers, but not coffee snobs. Everyone loved the ease of use and were fascinated at how simple the design was. Each person tried a different coffee with most of them agreeing the Newman’s had great flavor but was a bit strong. It is an extra bold after all. They were also impressed with the idea of easily grabbing a cup of coffee and then making a cup of tea if that’s what they wanted next. I have one sister who drinks more tea than coffee and she loved that flexibility. All in all, it was a big hit. The talk of the party. Brew•C won’t let it go to his head.

One final great feature – instant hot water. Let’s say your want to brew some tea using a tea bag. Just pop your tea bag into your mug and you can get hot water from your brewer. Or maybe you want cocoa, but you’re out of your cocoa K-cups. Just rip open the old-fashioned pouch cocoa of your choice and add hot water. It can also be used for cups of soup. Yum.

Final thoughts: This Keurig brewer rocks! I absolutely love it.