Keurig – Convenience over quality

The last couple of days I have been visiting my parents and trying out their new Keurig.  It is truly one of the most convenient ways of making coffee on the market.  Turn on, open, pop in a premade plastic cup full of coffee, hit brew, and your morning cup of coffee is ready to go.  Coffee machines excite me!  I wanted this machine to produce A Good Cup of Joe, or even a descent cup of Joe.  However, I was greatly disappointed with the brown liquid that it made.  It was one step above instant coffee, and at about the same level as Starbucks Via (the packets of finely grounded coffee that you stir into hot water).

Yet, my hopes for this machine had not been completely destroyed.  The machine comes with a micro screen filter that allows you to add your own fresh ground coffee.  I began the laborious process of trying to get my fresh ground coffee into the tiny screen without spilling coffee grounds all over the place.   Then I started to brew and water started shooting out of the sides of the machine.  This is a frequent problem with Keurig machines.  The water is moving too fast, and instead of all of the water going through the filter some of it overflows and pours out the side of the machine.  Creating a balancing act where one tries to catch all of the liquid in their cup.  Once again I was trying to avoid a mess all over the counter.   I was left with a cup of coffee that didn’t taste any better than one I could get out of a $25 drip coffee machine at Target.

Is there a solution out there for the person looking for in-home convenience when making their morning Cup of Joe?  First, I recommend coffee machines with built in grinders.  These machines do not produce the greatest cups of coffee.  However, they add convenience, fresh ground beans, and a descent cup of Joe.  Second, there is the fully automatic espresso maker.  Check out the Equipment Corner for more info.  This is no cheap investment.  However, at the rate of $0.50 a day for a Keurig cup of coffee and the cost of a Keurig machine it wouldn’t take a person long to pay for a low-end fully automatic espresso machine.