Keurig B60 Brewer

Speed

Of the users interviewed no one failed to complement the Keurig B60's convenience and speed. Hamed, an economist who is often in a rush to get to work, said that although he did not prefer the taste of the Keurig coffee over what could be achieved with a drip coffee technique, there was no way he could move back to the old system due to the time that the Keurig B60 saved him. During my tests, the Keurig took over four minutes to get to temperature (as is advertised in the manual) and the first cup took over 2 minutes to brew (this time is not specified).

Repeatability

Another item on the list of benefits of the Keurig system is the consistency of the brewing process. Maria, an architect that consumes a 7oz coffee from the B60 every morning before commuting to studio, notes that this coffee is one of the most consistent items of her day. Although 205 different K-Cup products are currently sold by Keurig, several interviewees noted how the stuck with the Tea or Coffee blend they found in their initial purchase. The ability of replicating the same product, with the same material and time requirements makes the Keurig brewing system superior in terms of repeatability to other brewing systems such as french press, drip coffee and moka stove-top.

Waste Disposal

This image was taken from The Atlantic

The controversial K-cups have truly changed the way we purchase and interact with coffee (and tea). The delivery of "freshly ground" coffee in the impermeable cup means that the ground has had limited contact with oxygen, which would normally deteriorate aroma and taste. This allows Keurig to deliver a high quality coffee that can compete with recently produced, local ground. More importantly, the K-cup is the waste disposal mechanism post-brewing. The self-enclosed pods are removed from the Keurig machine with no additional need for scrubbing or cleaning of used coffee/tea. This is quite a game-changer! Unfortunately, this sytem brought with it some challenges. Beyond the embodied energy and manufacturing expense of these single-use K-Cups, their disposal is not a trivial problem when considering the growing number of deployed brewing systems. In 2016, the first recycleable K-cups were introduced to market, and a commitment was made that by 2020 all K-Cups sold in the US would be recycleable. In summary, the K-Cup offers superior functionality to any other means of purchasing coffee, particularly with regard to post-brew waste disposal convenience (at a cost to the planet which Keurig is trying to manage).