Now I can have Coffee in the Morning!

I usually drink my coffee when I get to the office. I definitely wish I could start a little earlier and have my own selection of flavors to choose from instead of the office favorites; Dark or Not so Dark. I’m also a night time coffee drinker. I like to have a cup with dessert or while wrapping things up before bed (coffee just doesn’t affect me that way).

My wife and I have been looking for a new coffee maker for the last month or so. Our old one started brewing any flavor of coffee to have the same strange taste and it just wasn’t heating it up enough. I dislike having to microwave a fresh cup of coffee. I was also throwing out ¾ of a pot of coffee each time I made it and I never made any in the morning because it just took too much time. I also didn’t take advantage of the scheduling feature because I still had to put it all together the night before and I’m just not that together.

I finally started shopping on-line, I basically told myself I’d buy something nice so I set my budget pretty high. I looked at a lot of brewers including some “professional” models that grind the beans and brew a single cup and can even froth cream, etc for upwards of $750. I knew I wanted something that would make good tasting, hot coffee. While I’m not a coffee connoisseur by any means and I can barely tell a French roast from a breakfast blend I just like it to taste like coffee (with cream and sugar added, of course).

I set out with two simple goals; Hot and Tastes like Coffee. I must admit I had some hidden secondary goals too (impress my guests and easy to use).

Well, I was just looking here, at epinions.com, and searching for coffee makers. I clicked on sort by rating and there it was right on the first page in a price range I was comfortable with. The Keurig B60… I started doing my research on the Keurig and it looked really good; 1500 watts (hot coffee), 1 cup at a time (convenient and easy to use), don’t see many of them (impress the guests), K-cups offer variety in flavor (I can find a coffee that tastes good). It met my main goals and my secondary goals, hooray!

I had one major concern. Who was this Keurig company and how long will K-cups be available on the market? Well, the answer that satisfied me came soon enough. I finally set my mind on the Keurig as my #1 choice, now it was time to present my selection to my wife. She stood behind me at my computer and declared “That’s the same type we have at work, I love the K-cups… I can have tea, coffee or hot chocolate if I want!” I turned around and said “you have one at work?” she said, “Actually we can two, a big one and a small one”. I asked her how long they had them and she basically said as long as she can remember. Now I was a little jealous because she obviously has a lot more coffee selection when she gets to the office than I do! She mentioned that a large company in town distributes the makers and the coffee to many businesses in our area. Well my fear of Keurig being a closet manufacturer and that K-cups would disappear from production the moment I made my purchase was diminished.

To wrap things up, I found one locally, took advantage of some coupons and gift cards and brought one home. I had considered the B70, but I’m just not that serious about my coffee so I saved $50 and got the same wattage (heat) and K-cups (taste) that I would have gotten from the B70.

Am I happy with my decision? You bet! I’ve ordered my first new batch of K-cups and I’m down to my last few from the 18-pack sampler that came with the coffee maker. It makes HOT coffee and it TASTES good too.

A few of the features that I really like about this coffee maker:
- You make one cup at a time
- It can have hot water ready immediately when you walk up to the coffee maker in the morning. If you don’t use the scheduler (or leave it on all the time) it still barely takes a minute to get up and running.
- The K-cups are so convenient and neat, there is no drip or mess since the Keurig machine pushes the water through under pressure so you get every last drop out.
- They include specific instructions for cleaning the internals of the coffee maker and it alerts you when it needs to be cleaned.
- You can leave the K-cup out and just make “instant hot water” for cocoa or tea.

As an amateur coffee drinker just looking for a relaxing cup of joe I am 100% happy with my decision to go with the Keurig B60. It meets all my requirements and, in my opinion, exceeds them. It’s so painless to use and it makes a great tasting, hot cup of coffee on my schedule! What more could I ask for? Oh yeah, my mom was impressed!