A Closer Look at a Few K-CUP Flavors

Here are five of my favorite K-Cup varieties:

1.  Donut Shop by Coffee People.
             This blend is your typical get up on a weekday moring, toss your suit on quickly and realize you didn't set the coffee maker the night before, so you skip breakfast and hit the drive through at your local donut shop.  There's nothing really flashy or exotic up this one, just some plain old joe to start your day.

2.  Golden French Toast by Green Mountain Coffee

             I have to admit I had no intention of purchasing this flavor initially.  Yet two things combined, providing reason for addition to the cart.  First, I was some ten or so dollars away from free shipping and second, I thought it said golden French Roast.  But I'm so glad I bought it.  This flavor is easily my favorite coffee Keurig has on the market.  Subtle notes of cinnamon and maple syrup to go along with a smooth medium roast.  Only bad thing about this flavor is that it'll be gone soon.  I really wish they would do the Limited Editions.

 3.    Paul Newmans Special Blend

If you like extremely amped up coffee, this is for you.  If you like to be edgy and wired all day, this one is for you.  If you like a punch in the chest to wake up in the morning, yep, this one's for you.  My father loves this flavor.  Personally I don't like it very much at all.  I had two cups, on different occasions, and each time I felt shaky and my entire body was unsettled for hours after consumption.  It's weird because I used to guzzle down Latte's at Starbucks all the time and never had any trouble. But for some reason this and Black Magic (not reviewed) produced the same edgy, uneasy feeling each cup.

4.    Chocolate Raspberry Truffle by Van Houtte

This one's a hit in this house.  Everyone that comes over tries it and loves it.  I had to buy a few boxes the last order, just to make sure I had some around.  It's basically like having your cake and drinking it too.  The aroma as it's brewing is intoxicating as it overtakes the whole house.  There isn't any need for sugar or sweetener as this one's pretty sweet on it's own.  I froth myself some milk and pour it over the coffee and then dip biscotti into it, and yummy.  The coffee has a nice full bodied Chocolate taste with just the right proportionate notes of raspberry flavor to make for a very nice after dinner cup of coffee.

5.  Wild Mountain Blueberry by Green Mountain Coffee (Not Pictured)

I'm the only one in the house that likes this one.  The others who had a cup thought it repeated on them too much.  While I do agree there is an aftertaste with this one, I don't mind it very much.  Again we have a brew that doubles as a air freshener, as it fills the house with a nice blueberry scent.  I find the blueberry flavor refreshing and tasty.  My mother feels it has too much the artificial taste.  But I guess to each their own.  I bought the sample pack first and then went and bought a full pack. 

I'll add more K-Cup reviews as I try them.  If you have any you'd like to share please drop it off as a comment and I'll review it and add it to the reviews.

Enjoy.

Butter Toffee K-Cup by Gloria Jean's and Keurig Milk Frother

BonJour Frother, Manual Caffe Froth Maximus, Brushed Stainless SteelGloria Jeans Butter Toffee K-Cup, for the Keurig brewing systems offers a pleasantly tasty aroma that fills the kitchen upon brewing.  The taste is good, but not as Heathbar-like as I would prefer.  It has that toffee flavoring to it but I've found to really enhance the satisfication with this flavor go and froth yourself some milk and pour butterscotch syrup all over it.  Yummy.

Keurig offers a stainless steel frother, which does a very good job and cleanup is simple too.   Link above review.

Keurig K-Cups

Like many of you, I'm a big coffee drinker.  I kept hearing people talk about how great the Keurig system was, so this past Christmas I bought one, and overall I'm very pleased with the ease of use and the variety of flavors the system offers.  What I'd like to get down in this posting is some quick takes on positives and negatives I've experienced so far using the Keurig system.

Positives:

How easy it is to use, really can't be grasped until you make your first cup.  Literally ten minutes after my dad opened it on Christmas day, (yes I gave it as a gift), we were all enjoying our first k-cup.  The version we have has 3 settings, depending on the size cup you want to fill.  One thing to keep in mind though is the lower the setting, the stronger the brew.  Of course the opposite holds true as well.  Making yourself a cup is as easy as filling the water area, popping in the k-cup, waiting a few minutes for the lights to flash, and then brew.  It really is that easy.

The variety of flavors offered is expansive.  Whatever your taste preference is, you can probably find
a cup to go along with it.  They carry everything from a normal cup of coffee, to an extra, extra bold cup.  They have a decent variety of tea flavors for the tea drinkers out there.  And then they have every flavor from Cinnamon to Peach to Wild Blueberry available.  The system also boasts a nice variety of vendors, green mountain being the largest, which would be expected seeing they are the parent company of Keurig.  That said they don't lack for big name's either, having coffees from Paul Newman to Emeril to Wolfgang Puck.

For the most part the flavors all pretty much taste good too. I've had a few "don't think I can finish this one" moments, as well as a few "meh" experiences, but overall pretty good quality as far as taste goes.

Availability for the staple coffees in their java arsenal can be found everywhere from grocery stores to convenience stores to online vendors.

Negatives:

Cost is the biggest negative on the list.  In my area, at the grocery stores, you can typically find a 12 pack for around $9.00 to &10.00 dollars.  Occasionally you can find them on sale at retail outlets such as Macy's and Bonton for around $11.00 for 18 packs, which is a better value.  Although when not on sale they run around $16.00 dollars for 18 packs.  So the cost is a little pricy considering you're paying between .45 and .65 cents per cup, which is much higher than buying the grounds and making them in a traditional brewer.  However when you are buying a large coffee from a donut shop for roughly $2.00 a cup it does save you substantially in this respect.

Another negative is that not all the flavors are available everywhere.  Some you just have to order online from Keurig.com  or from Amazon.com, but the positive spin from ordering online is you'll get more for less.  Only real drawback is waiting the 3-10 days for delivery.  I've shopped both locales and have had pretty good luck getting them within a few days from the order, and by spending over specified amounts you get free shipping in some cases.

The final drawback is, well, a subjective one.  I was drinking roughly 2-3 cups a day before getting the Keurig and now I'm drinking between 5-7 a day.  It's just so easy to make them, and most of the coffee is so good, the temptation just stares at you from it's counter perch.  Not for those with low or weak will power.

Keep an eye out for a follow up post I'll be writing a little later on featuring many of the individual K-cups I've tried so far.