Friday, November 9, 2012

OH K:  Ascribe it to my general cluelessness or not being a coffee drinker, but did I miss the moment at which Keurig single-cup brewers became completely ubiquitous? Would you recommend one for folks who mainly sit on the tea/hot chocolate side of the hot beverages divide?

18 comments:

  1. I have seen K-cups for tea, but they do not seem to be as readily available as those for coffee.

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  2. Hot chocolate K-Cups are similarly difficult to find,though they are out there. Unless you are regularly drinking a hot beverage every morning at home, I don't see the need for one at home. The office may be a different story, depending on how frequently you have clients in.

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  3. bill.9:33 AM

    I am also a tea drinker and the keurig teas and hot chocolate I've had have been extra weak. Based on my coworkers most coffee drinkers will drink any swill labeled coffee. Pretty easy to boil water for a single cup of tea.

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  4. I'll add my voice to the chorus of those recommending against Keurig tea
    & cocoa. Invest in a decent electric kettle, and you can have a
    proper cuppa without any extra hassle.

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  5. bill.9:47 AM

    there are also electric hot water pots that heat up quicker than a microwave. These are much cheaper than a keurig.

    Also, I tend to drink teas such as Darjeeling or lapsong souchong. If you're happy with any old bag of dried leaves plopped in hot water, you'll probably do fine with a keurig.

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  6. I was a Darjeeling guy, 'til I discovered a really good, malty Assam (Manohari Estate, for anyone interested). It ruined me! Now Darjeeling just tastes grassy. So Assam it is and shall remain (though I'll do a pot of Keemun for a change of pace once in a while).


    And I adore our electric kettle. Worth every square inch of counter space!

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  7. Matt Brown9:56 AM

    the ones I've had tend to be too watery anyway

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  8. bristlesage10:30 AM

    We just run the Keurig without a K-cup in it, and out comes water hot enough for tea.

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  9. Jessica10:38 AM

    I am a coffee lover and the keurig at my office certainly leaves much to be desired. Some of the pods are OK but give me a nicely brewed pot any day of the week.

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  10. andrewraff12:04 PM

    I'm not the pickiest coffee coinesseur in the world, but I'm not a fan of the K-cup. I like grinding good beans and brewing in a plain ol' Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker.

    For tea, especially, an electric kettle + good tea is going to provide a much better experience than a Keurig. If you're a family that has a combination of coffee and tea, then a Keurig is OK, or if you're only making one cup of coffee at a time.

    That said, of the single-serving brews I've had, the Keurig ones are far better than the Tassimo or Flavia.

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  11. Sophietje12:15 PM

    It might be worth having a small k-cup machine around for the occasional cup of coffee (that's what we do.) But I rely on an electric tea kettle or old fashioned water kettle when I want tea or hot chocolate. Both of those are pretty gross in the k-cup variety.

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  12. sconstant1:19 PM

    True of many instant hot chocolate mixes too, but the hot chocolate k-cups have ridiculous per-serving amounts of saturated fat. Palm oil, coconut oil, etc, standing in to provide the creaminess you get from milk & cocoa butter. And they don't taste as good as instant (imho) and add me to "the tea tastes terrible".

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  13. Janet Brindle Reddick3:49 PM

    If you have one at home for coffee for guests, and you want to use it for hot tea with YOUR teabag, but have instant hot water, just run it without the K cup in it. (with your mug and favorite teabag below.) Also, I recently got some of the iced tea flavors, and they're actually not bad. (Be sure to use a plastic cup)

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  14. I would skip it. Like others have said, get a kettle and some good tea or hot chocolate mix. And if you want to brew single cups of coffee, get a small French Press. I can only speak for coffee, but coffee from a K-cup isn't very good, while a French press is one of the best. The other thing to consider is cost - you can buy really good tea and a kettle for far less then you can buy a Keurig and tea cups. The cost of the coffee is even worse - it's about as expensive as going and buying the coffee at Starbucks per cup.

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  15. I haven't been to a Starbucks in a very long time -- have they really dropped their prices to fifty cents a cup?

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  16. Yeah. Especially for tea/hotchoc, hat's wrong with a kettle?Admit I'm biased. I love coffee and hate Kcups, Nespresso, "pod" brewing of any kind. Just think it's awful. Better than instant, similar to average streetcart/deli, but awful.

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  17. K-Cups have always seemed like an ideal business setting solution to me, and nothing else. Ecologically, it's completely irresponsible as a home machine, unless you're using the loose grounds filter (most people aren't).


    We have a coffee machine that has both a carafe and single-cup setting, completely K-cup free, and we are very happy.


    As for tea and hot chocolate, if you have a solution already I'd stick to it.

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  18. Mel Umbarger8:51 AM

    I don't use them, but the past few years I've bought my brother a selection of the cups for his machine for Christmas, and I've always found the hot chocolate at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and on Amazon.

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