Haven't jumped on the Keurig or single cup coffee (and tea) brewing system bandwagon yet? Read on to learn about Liz's experiences with it, both good and bad.
"The Keurig hates me," my husband tells me.
It's a coffee maker. How can it hate you?
"I don't know but it doesn't give me a full cup anymore. I press the big button and it gives me a small size."
My husband and I have always been Coffee People. When the Keurig brewing system came out we both saw it and thought it was a cool idea, but not for us. A friend gifted me a brewing system for my birthday in 2012 and thankfully she gifted us a basket of coffee pods, otherwise we may never have switched from our coffee pot.
Once we tried the coffee brewed by the Keurig though, we were hooked. It tasted 200 times better than our drip coffee maker. And that's saying a lot. And it's so quick and easy - you grab a coffee pod, put your cup under, push a button, and coffee. Bam.
But with any great thing come a different set of problems. We have hard water, so we typically have to de-scale the brewer more often than friends with soft water do. So we keep vinegar around so we can de-scale it if it starts giving us a smaller cup or if it tells us it needs to be cleaned (there's a notification, just like everything else in life now). When we try to de-scale, we follow the instructions from Keurig and it never goes as it says it will in the manual. So we end up turning it off and turning it back on after each "brew" so that it will let us keep cleaning it. It's way more of a PITA than de-scaling our drip brewer was. But it doesn't need to be done often. If it notifies you or starts giving you less coffee, my first suggestion is to turn it off (because I know we never do) and back on, and my second suggestion is to de-scale it.
The coffee pods, while easily available, are definitely more expensive than buying regular coffee. We've tried to buy loose coffee and use the insert to brew in the Keurig, but it's not the same. It's really not. It always comes out way more watery than what we want. You can get the coffee pods cheaper at places that sell in bulk or the club-type stores. You can even get them delivered monthly to you from Amazon. If you sign up at Keurig they also send out coupons and deals for coffee pods so there are ways to make it more affordable.
My husband and I have always been Coffee People. When the Keurig brewing system came out we both saw it and thought it was a cool idea, but not for us. A friend gifted me a brewing system for my birthday in 2012 and thankfully she gifted us a basket of coffee pods, otherwise we may never have switched from our coffee pot.
Once we tried the coffee brewed by the Keurig though, we were hooked. It tasted 200 times better than our drip coffee maker. And that's saying a lot. And it's so quick and easy - you grab a coffee pod, put your cup under, push a button, and coffee. Bam.
But with any great thing come a different set of problems. We have hard water, so we typically have to de-scale the brewer more often than friends with soft water do. So we keep vinegar around so we can de-scale it if it starts giving us a smaller cup or if it tells us it needs to be cleaned (there's a notification, just like everything else in life now). When we try to de-scale, we follow the instructions from Keurig and it never goes as it says it will in the manual. So we end up turning it off and turning it back on after each "brew" so that it will let us keep cleaning it. It's way more of a PITA than de-scaling our drip brewer was. But it doesn't need to be done often. If it notifies you or starts giving you less coffee, my first suggestion is to turn it off (because I know we never do) and back on, and my second suggestion is to de-scale it.
The coffee pods, while easily available, are definitely more expensive than buying regular coffee. We've tried to buy loose coffee and use the insert to brew in the Keurig, but it's not the same. It's really not. It always comes out way more watery than what we want. You can get the coffee pods cheaper at places that sell in bulk or the club-type stores. You can even get them delivered monthly to you from Amazon. If you sign up at Keurig they also send out coupons and deals for coffee pods so there are ways to make it more affordable.
Do you use a Keurig? What do you like about it? What do you dislike?
