<p>My family received the gift of a Keurig this Christmas, but the family is not impressed. The litany of complaints include:</p>
<p>Not hot enough</p>
<p>Too weak</p>
<p>Grounds or debris in the cup.</p>
<p>I think the weakness stems from them wanting large cups of coffee, but then too make it strong, one would need to use two k-cups of coffee, which seems like a waste and a lot of futzing around for a cup of coffee.</p>
<p>Before letting them return it, I want to make sure we have maximized the possibilities.</p>
<p>We always get a good cup of coffee. Hot, and the right strength (we like it fairly strong and are very picky coffee drinkers). We make sure there is enough water in the dispenser, and go with the largest size. The most important thing is to get a good k-cup. Stay away from the Green Mountain stuff, yuck. Costco has Tullys French Roast (very good) and just got Starbucks Verona (even better). Never use the K-cup twice.</p>
<p>If you are using either of the two coffees I specified, putting in an adequate amount of water and going for the big size, if you are still having problems, return it and get a new one. Our coffee is always hot, no grounds, consistently good. That’s the beauty of the Keurig system. But DON’T use the Green Mountain stuff, it is just bad coffee.</p>
<p>I am laughing right now, because just to the left of this paragraph there is an ad for Green Mountain coffee. I think I’m being mocked!</p>
<p>I think a Keurig is a convenient way to make coffee…but I don’t think it makes “the best cuppa joe”. To be honest, I think a French press does the best job for home brewing.</p>
<p>That being said…if it were me, I would get one of the little thingies…for the Keurig where you can put in your OWN coffee…it’s like a little mini reusable filter that fits in the Keurig and is used instead of a K cup. Then you can get your favorite coffee and put it in there. They have them at BBB and with the 20% off coupon it’s worth getting.</p>
<p>I have a different taste in coffee from busdriver. I prefer weaker tasting coffee. I am not really a Starbucks person. My biggest problem is when I find a few K-cups that I do like, it ends up being discontinued!</p>
<p>I don’t have any problems with temperature or grinds in my coffee, so I don’t really know what that is about. I suggest that you call Keurig (we have when we had some problems with an older Keurig). They are pretty helpful.</p>
<p>I got one of those little cups to grind your own coffee, and put it into, and honestly it ended up being a pain. Effort and grounds in my cup. The beauty of the K-cup is the ease of it, and when they started making the Tullys French Roast and Starbucks, it was really just as good as grinding our own Starbucks. But northeastmom is right, it’s rather strong coffee.</p>
<p>Love our Keurig. We are on our second machine and some days wonder how we will pay tuition next year: buy coffee or pay tuition? Hmmmmmm.</p>
<p>If you get grounds, something is clogged. Any time you run someone sweet through like hot chocolate or apple cider, you need to run through a cup of plain water. You can also take out the thing that holds the cup and run a paper clip through the pin thing that punches the cup.</p>
<p>I like some of the Green Mountain coffees: Lake and Lodge, Vermont Country Blend. I also like Wolfgang Puck’s Breakfast in Bed and Vienna Coffee House. My husband likes the Coffee People Donut Shop. I order on line and try to keep track of what we like and only order that.</p>
<p>Yes, we didn’t have any luck with the little cups, either.</p>
<p>We have a home office, so we brew a regular, large pot of coffee first thing in the morning, then use the Keurig for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>Be gentle when you lift the water reservoir out and put it back on. I jostled it too hard one time, and started getting the “PRIME” message constantly. We called Keurig and they sent us a new reservoir, which took care of the problem.</p>
<p>We’ve had our Keurig for years and when it dies we will go out immediately and buy another, even if it means paying full price (which we NEVER do.) You may have just gotten a defective machine, but we’ve never had problems with ours. Depending on what model machine you have (check your manual), you can program the temperature that you want the water to be at. As for grounds, are you using the K-Cups or the My K-Cup where you put in your own coffee? We don’t like the My K-Cup around here and we also don’t like the cheaper grocery store brands compared to the Timothy’s and Green Mountain. If you continue to have problems, call Keurig, they have great CS, but our machine is going on 6, maybe 7 years, old and it’s still working like a champ and we love it. Also, make sure you’re buying a bold brew coffee. Most K-Cups indicate on the side of the box whether they’re a mild, medium or bold brew. We purchase 100% of ours from Amazon and haven’t ever had a problem with freshness or taste.</p>
<p>What kills me about the Keurig machine (and imitators) is
A - the huge amount of overpackaging, and from what I gather much of it is not even recyclable - how much less earth-friendly can you get??
B - the cost. I’ve priced the K-cup thingies, and even on sale or w/ a 20% off BB&B coupon, we’re talking 45-50 cents a cup, and that’s for a TEENSY cup! And 50 cents for a cup of TEA? When teabags cost 3-20 cents (tops!) each? We get 3 decent-sized mugs of tea when we brew 2 bags in a pot. Most of the flavored tea we buy is 8-10 cents per bag, the excellent Tazo chai is 15-20 cents - love it when SuperTarget has it on sale!</p>
<p>Buy a French press (approx $20) and a good burr grinder (around $50 at Tuesday Morning), a teapot if you have tea drinkers in your family and an electric kettle - you’ll have much better caffeinated beverages at a much better price. Plus you’ll be doing the environment a favor.</p>
<p>I love my Keurig. I grind my own coffee and use a couple of different brands of reusable cups. There are about 3 brands out there. I do find I don’t want bigger than 6 oz. I think Paul Newman makes the best K cup I tried.</p>
<p>Momcat, that kills me too which is why I almost always grind my own and use reusable filters. As with MDmom, it’s a great hot water dispenser for a tea bag. If I wasn’t the only coffee drinker at home, I would probably use another method.</p>
<p>That’s it exactly. I’m the only one who drinks coffee when the kids aren’t home and I think making a pot of coffee that tastes right requires that you make at least 6 cups.</p>
<p>I like Coffee People’s Donut Shop the best.</p>
<p>The environmental issue does bother me. I’m an art teacher and I keep thinking I should save the cups and make things out of them but cleaning out the grounds would be a monumental project.</p>
<p>I’ve heard others say this, too, but I don’t get it. I can make what my coffee maker says is three cups (which is really one and a half mugs full) and it turns out just fine in my six year old Cuisenart cone filter coffee maker.<br>
My mom and MIL both use the Kuerig, and I’ve tried it but I’m just not impressed. The cups are too small, and it’s a lot of “fussing”, as someone said, to get just one cup of coffee, and is expensive and wasteful. If I’m going to go to that much trouble, I’ll break out the French press. Or stop by Peet’s on my way out.</p>
<p>I absolutely love my “Mr. Coffee” brand Keurig-style coffee maker (about one-half the price of Keurig machines) and cannot imagine going back to a “regular” coffee maker. I’ve not had any problems with grounds in the cup (except when using the refillable type, which I’ve given up on) or temperature (it’s always perfect for my taste).</p>
<p>After a lot of testing and tasting (I’m the only coffee drinker in my home), I’ve found that the Revv brands suits my taste perfectly first thing in the morning. Later in the morning I’ll do one/two cups of Emeril’s Big Easy Bold. Both brands give me the “kick” I like from my coffee: strong and bold.</p>
<p>YMMV, of course, but I find the Keurig-system to be convenient and easy, albeit at a slightly higher price than regular ground coffee.</p>