Descale your Keurig Brewer

If you have been using your Keurig brewer for a while, you may have experienced a problem with a build-up of scale within the narrow tubes in the brewer. This is particularly prone to happen in areas with hard water.

Fortunately, the display screen on the brewer will tell you when it is time to descale.

You can descale your brewer either by running vinegar through the brewer, and then rinsing with a few cycles of water, or with a product called Dezcal.

But what if you do all this, but you still have a problem? Some people descale their brewers and find the descale message remains, or they are still not getting a full cup of water coming through when they brew.

The answer is very simple, and has been the subject of a discussion over on the CoffeeDetective.com website.

Sometimes coffee grinds from the K-Cup back up into the steel needle that pierces the top of the K-Cup. If the needle becomes clogged, then it gets harder for water to pass through when you are brewing.

Simply take a toothpick or paperclip and gently scrape away any build-up of coffee grinds in the needle. Then run water through the system to flush out the loose grinds. Be careful when you do this, as the needle is very sharp.

Anyway, this seems to do the trick.

Keurig Office Pro K-Cup Coffee Maker

The Keurig Office Pro B145 Coffee Brewer works in the same way as any other Keurig brewer. You use K-Cups and brew one cup of coffee at a time.

One cup coffee makes a lot of sense for an office environment, where people may have very different tastes in the types of coffee they enjoy most.

Using the Keurig Office Pro means everyone can get their own stash of the coffees and blends they like best.

If you like flavored coffee, make one cup for yourself.

If someone lined up just behind you wants a herbal tea, they just use a herbal tea K-Cup.

Single serve coffee making was developed for the home market, simply because it`s a more convenient to brew one cup at a time, without the mess and bother of traditional filters and drip brewers.

But, in fact, one cup coffee machinesare an even better investment for a small office, or for a group or team within a larger office.

No more conflicts between caffeinated and decaf. So more arguments over whose turn it is to make the coffee. No more worries about that guy who always grabs a cup before the brew cycle is complete.

The Keurig Office Pro has the same features you find in the Keurig home brewers, but is built to deal with about ten times the usage. It is UL Approved for Commercial Use, and includes the special construction and materials required to meet the UL standards.

Learn more and buy the New Keurig Office Pro K-Cup coffee brewer here…

K-Cup Coffee Spinning Carousel

One of the great things about having a Keurig K-Cup Brewer is that everyone in the family, or office, can choose the exact type of coffee they want to brew.

One person wants a dark roast, bold breakfast blend – and someone else wants a decaf. No problem, because everyone can just take the K-Cup of their choice and plonk it into the brewer, one cup at a time.

The trouble is, if you buy two or three boxes of different K-Cups to suit everyone’s taste – where do you store the boxes? Three boxes of K-Cups take up a lot of space, and if they are not on the counter, it’s inconvenient when it comes time to brew.

The great thing about this carousel is that while the footprint is small, and it can fit neatly on any counter top, it has 27 hoops into which you can place your K-Cups.

If you want three different types of K-Cup coffee within hand’s-reach, just fill one row of hoops on the carousel with each type of coffee.

No more ugly boxes on the counter top. No more having to open cupboard doors or drawers to find the coffee you are looking for.

Whether for friends or for your own family, the K-Cup spinning carousel is a great gift idea.

Buy the Keurig K-Cup Spinning Carousel at Amazon.com

Keurig K-Cup Breakfast Gift Basket

It’s that time of year again, and we’ll all be scratching our heads trying to find the perfect gift for friends and family.

Well, if you know someone with a Keurig K-Cup brewer, give them one of these excellent gift baskets.

Each basket includes 24 K-Cups of Green Mountain Coffee’s most popular coffee – their Breakfast Blend.

But that’s just the start. You also get biscotti, pancake mix, maple syrup and granola.

That’s a pretty good combo for anyone with a Keurig brewer who also enjoys a nice hot breakfast on a winter morning.

Order the K-Cup Breakfast Gift Basket here…

Or check out Green Mountain Coffee’s full range of holiday gift baskets for coffee lovers…

Keurig B40 Elite K-Cup Brewer

Elsewhere I have written that the Keurig B60 Special Edition was the most popular among the Keurig K-Cup brewer models. And perhaps at some point it was.

But now it seems the Keurig B40 Elite has become number one.

And that, perhaps, has something to do with the recession, as the B40 is the least expensive of the full-size Keurig brewers.

The Keurig B40 was the first K-Cup brewer made by Keurig for the consumer market.

Being the first, it doesn’t have some of the extra features you’ll find on their more recent models, the B60 and B70.

That said, what it does have is the exact same brewing system.

You simply add a K-Cup, close the lid and press the brew button. And the cup of coffee it makes is just as good as those made by the more expensive models.

Best of all, the Keurig B40 costs less than $100.

While the Keurig B40 is certainly the base model, with only one brew size, it does have one additional feature that is very welcome…

It has an auto-off feature that turns the brewer off if it isn’t used for two hours. This is useful, because if you leave it on all the time, it is constantly keeping enough water hot for your next brew, and adding to your electricity bill in the process.

If you are on a budget, or are looking for a second Keurig brewer for your office or even a dorm room, the B40 may be exactly what you’re looking for.

Learn more and buy the Keurig B40 Elite here…

Perfect Pod Holster

If you have a Keurig K-Cup brewer, there are a couple of reasons why you might want to try an alternative to using box after box of K-Cups.

First, the K-Cup is probably the least environmentally-friendly way to make a cup of coffee. K-Cups are not recyclable and make up quite a mountain of plastic to cart off to the landfill.

Second, making coffee with K-Cups is more expensive than using loose coffee in a drip brewer or French press.

So why do we love the Keurig brewers so much? Because they work so well and provide us with a very convenient and mess-free way to make one cup of coffee at a time.

There are a couple of ways to cut back both on the waste and the price.

You can use the My K-Cup reusable coffee filter, which we have written about before. It’s a great alternative to using K-Cups, but does involve a little clean-up after use.

The Perfect Pod Holster also enables you to use your Keurig brewer without buying boxes of K-Cups, but is also a low-mess alternative.

What you do is add a coffee pod to the pod holster. (Coffee pods are like plump tea bags and are used ordinarily in coffee pod brewers like the Senseo SL7810/65.) The coffee pod holster itself is the same size as a regular K-Cup. You simply unscrew the lid, drop in a bunched up coffee pod, replace the lid and then place the pod holster in the brewer.

The advantage here is that once you have brewed your coffee, there are no loose coffee grinds to deal with. You simply unscrew the lid and shake the wet coffee pod into the garbage…or into your compost pile.

You can get the Perfect Pod Holster through Amazon.com…

A box of 50 Keurig K-Cups.

Up here in Montreal, Canada, I usually pay $15.75 for a box of 24 K-Cups. That comes to about 67 cents per cup of coffee brewed.

But just this morning I was doing some shopping at Costco and found boxes of 50 K-Cups selling for just $24.95. That reduces the price per cup brewed to just 50 cents. Quite a saving.

That said, this is the first time I have come across this kind of pricing. But if you have a Costco or similar warehouse store close by, it may well be worth checking them out.

The Costco near us has always sold plenty of coffee, but the K-Cups didn’t appear until they decided to stock the Keurig B60 brewer. The B60 isn’t the latest in the Keurig line, nor does it have the most bells and whistles. But it seems to be the model most often stocked by offline retailers.

Good luck with the hunt for K-Cups in boxes of 50. If you find them any place other than Costco, leave a comment and let us know.

When you purchased your Keurig brewer it probably came with a few K-Cups. After that, you found a store locally that sold boxes of K-Cups, or you ordered them online.

But there is an alternative. Instead of always using K-Cups, you can use the My K-Cup reusable coffee filter.

As you can see from the video, the My K-Cup unit comprises both the holder and a K-Cup sized filter with a fine screen.

Why would you bother?

There are three reasons.

1. It’s handy to have a My K-Cup unit on hand for those times when you unexpectedly run out of K-Cups. There is nothing more frustrating that having a Keurig brewer and not being able to use it.

2. The My K-Cup filter enables you to use any coffee you like. While there are plenty of coffees already available in K-Cups, not EVERY coffee can be found in this format. With the My K-Cup you can buy any coffee you like, grind the beans and still use your Keurig brewer.

3. When you buy coffee by the bag and then use it in your My K-Cup, you will save on the price of the coffee you brew. It’s a matter of only a few pennies per cup, but if you drink a lot of coffee, by the end of a few months the saving could be significant.

Whichever the reason that matters most to you, there is no harm in at least having the My K-Cup filter tucked away in a drawer somewhere. You can keep it to one side and take it out only when you need it.

Buy the My K-Cup Coffee Filter here…

Learn about the Keurig K-Cup brewers here…

Keurig K-Cup Brewers

A year ago it was a tough call as to which of the one cup coffee formats would come out on top.

Now the picture is a little clearer. Keurig’s K-Cup coffee makers are flying off the shelves.

This isn’t just a story of success for Keurig. The coffee pod format took a big blow in April when the Senseo line-up of brewers was withdrawn due to some safety concerns. I wrote about this in an earlier post.

Senseo was leading the charge for the coffee pod format and plenty of other manufacturers were happily creating their own pod brewers. And a ton of roasters were offering their coffees in the pod format. With Senseo out on the sidelines, at least for now, a lot of the momentum for coffee pod brewers has been lost.

So how about the other proprietary one cup coffee formats, like the Tassimo with its T-Discs, the Nespresso with its coffee Capsules, and others?

These formats and brewers are fine, but they lose out to the Keurig brewers in some important ways.

First, they don’t offer as broad a range of different coffees.

Second, they don’t have an equivalent of Keurig’s My K-Cup, which allows you to use your own, loose coffee with the Keurig brewers.

Third, the brewers, and the T-Discs and capsules cost more.

Fourth, the Keurig brewers are better built. They are totally solid compared to the flimsy feel of the Tassimo brewers in particular. (That said, the Nespresso brewers are very nicely made, but you have to pay a lot more for them.)

Keurig has achieved excellent penetration with some outstanding brewers and coffees. Even when Senseo comes back, it may be too late for the coffee pod format to catch up.

Keurig brewer reviews:

The Keurig B60

The Keurig B70

The Keurig B40

The Keurig B30

The Breville BKC600XL

Fair Trade Autumn Harvest Blend K-Cups

I’m not a big fan of how retailers herald the change of seasons. Just yesterday I was in a hardware store and found the lawnmowers gone, and replaced by snow blowers. Ouch.

But it is good to see some new K-cup coffees appearing. That’s one of the nice things about the K-Cup format – there are always new choices. And, of course, if you are a big fan of one K-Cup coffee, that doesn’t mean others in your home need to like it as well. You can all choose your own favorites and enjoy them one cup at a time.

The Fair Trade Autumn Harvest Blend from Green Mountain Coffee isn’t a flavored coffee, it’s a blend of coffees and roasts designed to give you that warm, comfy feeling as the cold weather approaches. Crisp, clear and smoky, it makes a delightful brew.

Fair Trade Autumn Harvest Blend is also made with Fair Trade coffee beans, so with every purchase you’ll be supporting the small farmers who grow the beans.

Get it here: Fair Trade Autumn Harvest Blend