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In reply to the discussion: Keirugs? I think I want one. Not the 2.0 version though. Thoughts? [View all]Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The Keurig is very well suited for the office environment where ease of cleanup and convenience are big pluses. Some people really like them for home use for the same reasons. They work really well if you need or want a variety of different things like different roasts, flavored coffees, tea, hot chocolate, etc.
The biggest down side is the expense. A pound of coffee will yield about 55 cups when brewed the traditional way. So let's say you pay $11 for a 2 pound can at the supermarket. That works out to about 10 cents per cup. The Keurig will easily cost you 5 times that, if not more. While it's true that you can use one of the reusable cups and fill with your own coffee, the use of those things has mixed reviews as you can see from this thread, and even if you like the coffee produced, it still defeats many of the advantages of the Keurig.
Here's an Amazon review on the K40 which contains some information that might interest you:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R13R4C5A9O2RCV/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B004978NKY
I'll offer some alternatives if you decide against the Keurig. I'll assume that ease of cleanup and the convenience of making one cup or one large mug at a time are your primary requirements.
All of the options I'm going to list require some way to produce hot water. This can be as simple as a stovetop tea kettle, or a microwave. If you want to buy a kettle, this is a nice one to get:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/accessories/kettles/bonavita-electric-pour-over-kettle-3310.html
1) The Aeropress is a very nice single serve coffee maker and at $26 they are pretty cheap. I have two of them. They are very simple to use and cleanup is very quick and easy. The coffee they produce is excellent. In fact, I don't know of any better way to make brewed coffee in terms of quality in the cup. Short of going with a true espresso machine or making Turkish coffee, there's no better way to extract more flavor from ground coffee beans. It really is just that good.
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/aeropress/aeropress-coffee-maker.html
My other suggestions are various single or double cup pourovers which offer ease of cleaning and convienience:
2) http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/clever-dripper-with-lid-3068.html
3) http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/porcelain-immersion-filtercone-by-bonavita.html
If you want to grind your own coffee (and I recommend you do), here's a nice little complete kit that will set you back about half of what a K40 will cost:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/store/brewing/coffee-brewers/filtercones/small-clever-coffee-dripper-brew-kit.html