These Are the Best Alternatives to Keurig
When it comes to coffee, there are essentially two types of people: those who will take a cup from any convenient source, and those who grind their own beans and have a drip spoon. For those of us near the end of the “I’ll drink anything as long as it’s easy to get” spectrum, the introduction of the Keurig Pod Coffee System was a milestone. Suddenly, you can make a wide variety of coffees at the touch of a button and without messy grounds and filters to contend with. And yet, Keurigs… are not great.
First of all, I will say this: they don’t actually make great coffee. In addition, cars are expensive and have a reputation for being delicate. They have also been widely criticized for their negative environmental impact – even their inventor said he ” sometimes feels bad ” that he ever created them. This convenience may seem hard to beat, but there are alternatives that offer the same convenience with a superior cup of coffee and fewer downsides.
Nespresso Vertuo
Nespresso offers a similar pod system to Keurig but produces much better coffee. It still can’t compare to a cup made with love using time-honored methods that take about five minutes longer to brew, but it’s at least in the same time zone as a real good coffee. Nespresso uses aluminum capsules that are 100% recyclable and even offers a pretty convenient mail-in return system to ensure that your used capsules are handled properly. The Vertuo offers a wide range of coffee drinks that are just as convenient as your Keurig but without most of the downsides.
BUNN Single Cup Home Brewery
The BUNN Single Cup homebrew is never sexy, but it’s incredibly easy to use and specializes in brewing just one cup at a time. It can use K-cup pods or ground coffee so you have the flexibility and it has a special feature that extends the brew time to get the best coffee taste. The fact that it’s optional is great: that way you can take the extra minute to get the best cup when you have the time, and you can speed up the “adequate” setting when you’re in a hurry.
Kuzinart SS-10P1
This coffee maker offers convenience and choice as it is compatible with both K-cups and ground coffee (using a refillable filter cup). It doesn’t offer a ton of options, but it’s incredibly easy to use, and since you can switch to ground coffee at any time, it expands the options for you – on days you’re feeling trendy, make great coffee with some good beans. On days when you barely make it out of the house on time, toss in a capsule and enjoy minimal coffee.
Kuzinart DCC-3000
When we think of the convenience of coffee, we tend to think of that single cup of coffee that can be ordered on demand. The DCC-3000 takes a different approach: it can prepare up to 12 cups at a time and hold coffee in a reservoir that can be dispensed at will. This is perfect for people who need coffee for multiple people at once, and you can program it to brew at a specific time so the caffeine is available the moment you wake up. There are no capsules for this, so it sits on the edge between an old-school coffee maker and the soulless future we now live in.