First, have to admit that I did not buy my Keurig K Cup machine, but instead received it as a Christmas gift...thanks Santa. I have always owned a Mr. Coffee, so sort of feel like I am cheating using any other brand of coffee maker at the age of 55, and since Mr. Coffee does have a one cup machine out, I would probably have gotten that if I had been shopping for myself. That said, lets get to the good, the bad and the ugly where my new Keurig K Cup machine is concerned.The Good
The machine is pretty sweet, very easy to use, and convenient...oh, did I mention attractive? It also makes a pretty good cup of coffee...not a GREAT CUP OF COFFEE, but a pretty good cup of coffee. When you come in from say shoveling snow and want a quick hot cup of Joe, Keurig is there and READY TO BREW.
The Bad
Their system makes a very small cup of coffee. Seriously, if I want to use the Keurig to make my morning cup of coffee, it requires the use of two single serves to make one decent sized cup of coffee...since I usually have two of my cups of coffee each morning, that is four single serves that have to be loaded up and brewed, two per cup. Also think Keurig is screwing the consumer selling the filter as a separate item...give us a break, at what these machines cost, you could give us a filter for use with our own coffees as a part of the deal.
The Ugly
First, the machine leaks...not sure where, but if I leave water in my water tank, by the next morning I have to take a kitchen towel and do a little bit of wipe up around and under the machine.
Secondly (and this goes for EVERYONE selling single serves) we the consumers are seriously being RIPPED OFF. I know most people are not paying attention, but when I went shopping for coffee today to use in my machine, I paid attention to the price...seems the average price comes out to around 60 cents a cup give or take a few cents...this sounds reasonable only if you compare said price to stopping in at Starbucks. However, if you do a bit of math, you realize that Keurig, Green Mountain and everyone else is laughing ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK as we are paying between $26-$33 PER POUND for these single serve brew cups.
Lastly, these new Single Serves are the next plastic bottle problem that will end up taking hundreds of years to decompose in our land fills. The machines may be great for brewing a cup of coffee, but those little plastic cups are bad for the environment.
The long and the short of it...the Keurig is a great little machine for brewing a cup of coffee, but really only affordable if you invest in the filter that allows you to use your own coffee. As a big coffee drinker, I could easily use six of these single serves a day at a cost of 60 cents each. do the math, and it amounts to a drink at home coffee habit of well over 1000 dollars a year. Catching coffee on sale at $5.00 a pound, that is 200 pounds of coffee a year, and trust me, I do not drink that much coffee. Even going top drawer, I would be hard pressed to spend that much money a year, and to be honest, if I did I would be drinking a GREAT CUP OF COFFEE instead of just a pretty good cup of coffee.
My suggestion...if you are a big coffee drinker, don't waste your money unless you want to have it around as a convenience for that occasional quick cup of coffee for you or a guest. By the way, pardon the plug in my photograph, but I JUST LOVE the Coffee Mate Gourmet Creamers.
