Coffee Beans and K-Cups...

Coffee is a sacred word to John, my hubby of 41 years. Each morning he brews a full pot of his favorite Colombian brew, made from whole coffee beans that have been freshly ground. Then each evening he would use a second, smaller, coffee maker to brew a small pot of decaf Colombian roast. Every morning I would end up with two coffee pots sitting at the edge of my sink waiting to be washed; the big morning pot and the small evening pot.

Knowing John’s an aficionado of coffee, I was intrigued by the commercials that appeared shortly prior to the Christmas holidays advertising single serve coffee brewers. It struck me that with one of these in my kitchen perhaps there’d be no further use for the small evening coffee pot and one less pot to have to wash daily…plus, this could be THE perfect gift for John. However I wanted to check them out and also find out if he would have any interest in such an appliance. Casually I mentioned the TV ads to see if he’d show any signs of enthusiasm but his interest appeared lacking, or at least distracted.

It got down to the hectic finale last 2 weeks of shopping before the big C day (Christmas) that we headed up to the big outlet mall in Parrish. Our prime mission was to replenish our dwindling supply of Harry and David, Moose Munch and also to detour over to the kitchen specialty shops in search of a “chef’s cutting glove”.  I of course had an ulterior motive and that was to scope out the single serve brewers and possibly see if John would show a bit more interest in them.

The sales associate at the Kitchen shop was most courteous and helpful, finding us the cut proof glove we were searching for and directing me to their display of single serve brewers. Of course the more the sales lady talked about these brewers, the more interested John became and he began to flood her with questions. I found out an awful lot about the different units available, about K-Cups, filters, and the fact that Keurig has a special little option that allows one to brew a single cup using their own blend of coffee.

Now John was interested, too much so, and it was a hassle to get him out of the shop before he ended up purchasing a brewer on the spot.
I hoped that John would let the adventure into single serve brewers fade from his memory as I had every intention of returning to the mall and claiming one of these lovely machines to gift him with. Alas, as soon as we got home, John was on the computer learning all there was to know about the different manufactures, makes and models of these coffee makers. He was scouting out the best buys and before I knew it he had committed us to the purchase of a lovely black and chrome, Keurig unit. So much for surprising him!

In review we both love the unit and it is used frequently throughout the day. My youngest daughter, who was home for the Christmas Holidays, even enjoyed it so much she’s put it on her wish list, not the big unit like we have but the smaller unit…kitchens in NYC are mostly tiny and counter space is very limited.

Photo above...cabinet full of K-Cups

We’ve tried several of the different K-Cup blends; I’m partial to the Hazelnut, the Breakfast Blend and the French Vanilla, while John prefers the Colombian Roast. Since my taste in coffee is clouded by the fact that I used to drown it with creamer and sugar, I found many of the dark roast blends too bitter or with a scorched flavor for my taste. However K-cups come in just about every imaginable brand name (over 200 varieties) from famous Starbucks to Green Mountain, Donut House, and Timothy’s etc. We also tried the Ghirardelli hot coco mix that came in the sampler package. Though it was rich in chocolate flavor and delightfully tasty it really doesn’t require a single cup brewer to make as one could easily microwave a cup of hot water and pour it over the coco mix…of course we always add miniature marshmallows.
If I were professionally reviewing our Keurig single cup brewer I would give it a 5 star rating, but that maybe because I’m thrilled to no longer have to wash that small coffee pot every morning.

Photo above...However with our own limited counter space, our collection of K-Cups will require a slight kitchen remodel .  Stay tuned.