I'm in a Keurig coffee study

[coffee snob]

In April I purchased a Keurig B50 for my home.
I tried everyting I could to like the taste of the coffee, but I couldn't.

I thought that it was the selection of coffees available.

I called Keurig and asked if there were other coffees available in K-cups or could I somehow brew my own coffee. They said at this time no.

So before I returned it I opened an unsed K-cup , emptied it out and added my own coffee. It didn't taste that good.
So now I was confused. What is it about this that isn't making a great tasting coffee??

Anyway, I sent it back.

4 weeks later (last week) I get an e-mail asking if I would be willing to be in a coffee study and try out a proto-type Keurig machine with a basket and re-usuable filter. I can use any coffee I want...and they would also send me out some newer pre-filled K-cups.

I would need to fill out a log everyday for 4 weeks and at the end of this time, whether I was pleased or not, the Keurig coffee maker was mine to keep... no charge.

I am also to tell them about the ease of changing the re-usable K-cup to the other one.

As far as design goes, I see some flawa already.
But.... I'm still not likeing my own coffee made in this machine. So far it tastes awful

But I will continue experimenting with perhaps different grinds of my favorite coffee and see if that makes a difference.

I really want to have this work for me, because it's so easy.

Right now I have a Krups Moka Brew. I've had it for over a year now and am pleased with it, but I know there is a better cup of coffee out there.

I'm also using TorreFazionne Palermo blend (french roast) that I grind at the store. I use the setting one notch above the espresso grind.

Any ideas on the best tasting coffee and why can't the Keurig make a great tasting coffee?
Is it the water temp?

thanks everyone for reading this

 

[rcs1]

It won't be temperature, since the Keurig's do brew right around 200 degrees. What are you using for a grinder? Think of it this way: these machines brew coffee in just under a minute. This is going to necessitate a very fine, consistant grind, much closer to what you would use for espresso. If you are using the same grind you would normally use for drip, this simply won't work. The coffee would be thin and underextracted.

Try using a finer grind, and see if this helps. You are using a high quality burr grinder right?


Chris

 

[coffee snob]

thank you for your reply.

Yes I am using a burr grinder. It's a Barista. And I grind my beans at the finest grind as for espresso.

The Keurig is just not doing it for me... the coffee just tastes ..blah...

But when I make it in the Krups Moka Brew, I'm happy :grin:

 

[rcs1]

The SB's Barista probably isn't up to the task actually. I find that my slightly different Solis Maestro makes way too many fines to actually pull a shot. I've never been able to tweak it to pull a decent shot from my Silvia or Expobar. That's why it's been relegated to my "loaner" grinder. I use a Cimbali Jr. for home espresso, and a Quaha Lux at work. The burrs on the Lux are up to the task of grinding correctly. They have a bit more precision than the burrs in the Solis or the SB's Barista.

Chris

 

[javahill]

I've given away 6 Keurig machines, a mix of B-100s and B-50s. We have a dozen of them at work. New machines always make coffee that is not up to snuff. The test is whether you can brew water that smells/tastes like water.

Keurig machines when they are new are going to have a plastic flavor to them until you brew about 3 reservoirs of water. You don't need to brew the coffee - just run brew cycle after brew cycle. The plastic taste will fade to something most normal people will not be able to detect. If you are a chef or other foodie, you might need a couple more.

There also are heavy K-cups entering production. By using a filter shaped like a basket filter instead of a funnel, they can put 33% more coffee in the k-cup (12 grams instead of 9 grams). It makes for a richer brew. Without that, I find Keurig brewed coffee often lacks body. 9 grams isn't a lot of coffee, certainly not compared to Golden Cup.