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Boondox · 12-04-2004, 08:39 AM

Jeez, I wish you guys could spend a day with me in the lab. We have all the brewers set up on a bench side-by-side for comparison as well as all our competitors' products be they K-cups, pods, or other forms of single serve coffee products. We'd all have a blast and at the end of the day would be thoroughly caffeinated! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Keurig is good, no doubt about it, IF you start with fresh coffee. And that seems to be the issue with our competitors in that market. The Keurig grind is exceptionally fine, which means if you can't package it quickly after grinding it goes stale very fast. Package it too quickly, however, and you get lid failures. So the trick is to find the sweet spot. BTW, we're gearing up now for a heavier K-cup (about 30% more coffee per cup) so look for that line in the near future if you like a hearty cup o joe. Keurig is the king when it comes to high quality single serve; there are other less expensive options out there.

Pods are another issue. Bob addressed that well. Again, we're coming out with our pods very soon. All will be Fair Trade Organic coffees and having tested the competition I believe ours are worth waiting for. Again, it's the freshness thing. In looking for that sweet spot we've produced a lot of little packets that swell up like balloons and burst out of the cases! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] It's actually pretty funny watching a pallet of product swell up and explode into thousands of little pods like popcorn all over the shop floor...then the engineers shake their heads and reexamine their data.

As for the pod brewers, there is one that stands out among those we've tested. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head, but the difference between it and the others is it preheats the pod holder. All of them heat the water to the right temp, but in the others that hot water then hits cold metal and the quality of the brew takes a huge hit. I'll look it up on Monday when I go back to work. This time of year there is NO WAY I'm going near the plant lest I get sucked in to work!

Pete

12-04-2004, 08:39 AM	#5 (permalink)
Boondox Elite Member Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Vermont Posts: 3,565	Re: Keurig coffee brewer Jeez, I wish you guys could spend a day with me in the lab. We have all the brewers set up on a bench side-by-side for comparison as well as all our competitors' products be they K-cups, pods, or other forms of single serve coffee products. We'd all have a blast and at the end of the day would be thoroughly caffeinated! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Keurig is good, no doubt about it, IF you start with fresh coffee. And that seems to be the issue with our competitors in that market. The Keurig grind is exceptionally fine, which means if you can't package it quickly after grinding it goes stale very fast. Package it too quickly, however, and you get lid failures. So the trick is to find the sweet spot. BTW, we're gearing up now for a heavier K-cup (about 30% more coffee per cup) so look for that line in the near future if you like a hearty cup o joe. Keurig is the king when it comes to high quality single serve; there are other less expensive options out there. Pods are another issue. Bob addressed that well. Again, we're coming out with our pods very soon. All will be Fair Trade Organic coffees and having tested the competition I believe ours are worth waiting for. Again, it's the freshness thing. In looking for that sweet spot we've produced a lot of little packets that swell up like balloons and burst out of the cases! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] It's actually pretty funny watching a pallet of product swell up and explode into thousands of little pods like popcorn all over the shop floor...then the engineers shake their heads and reexamine their data. As for the pod brewers, there is one that stands out among those we've tested. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head, but the difference between it and the others is it preheats the pod holder. All of them heat the water to the right temp, but in the others that hot water then hits cold metal and the quality of the brew takes a huge hit. I'll look it up on Monday when I go back to work. This time of year there is NO WAY I'm going near the plant lest I get sucked in to work! Pete