Are you a Keurig fan? Or a brew a whole pot of coffee fan? Or a tea kettle person?
We’re mostly coffeemaker, whole pot of coffee, people in this house. Well, the husband and I. The kids still don’t drink coffee or tea. Hot chocolate is their warm beverage of choice. And that’s mostly J.
Back when we used to travel to Oklahoma, my husband’s aunt had a Keurig. Bigger than the one pictured. And she loved the flavored coffees and coffee creamers. Plus there was always a regular choice as well. My husband despises flavored coffee.
For a long time, I asked for a Keurig. My husband always vetoed the idea. His opposition dated back to a cabinet filled with tea choices I’d tried and not liked. Still have the tea cabinet, just limit my choices now to things I do like. So if you come for tea, your choices are Green Chai or Earl Grey. Might be some Yogi Sleepy Time in there (I wouldn’t serve you that though!).
Finally, last year…for my birthday, he relented and I got a mini Keurig! Our compromise was that I’d use it while he was away hunting to enjoy flavored coffees. So, after enjoying it through Christmas last year, I put it away until hunting season this year.
My Thoughts on the Keurig
The good:
It’s easy! Convenient if you are the only one drinking coffee.
Flavored Coffee! And other beverage choices!
(This is where I must intervene and tell you that the Target hot chocolate in that photo up there is disgusting! Big time weird aftertaste. It is milk chocolate (yuck) and contains both sugar and stevia. I should have paid better attention. Or not been so cheap and just paid for the brand name stuff.)
It’s kind of fun!
I know exactly how many cups of coffee I’m consuming (this could also go under “the bad”)
The bad:
I can’t find individual K cups anywhere making it a bit expensive to experiment. And my husband might have been right (don’t tell him), now I have a box of hot chocolate we don’t like. I’ll probably donate it to work. Of course, it’s so yucky I’m not sure I’ll even do that.
It’s LOUD. Are all of them that loud? I don’t know.
There’s no way to refresh your coffee if you drink half of it and then, it gets cold. You have to just make another cup.
My Thoughts on the Coffeemaker
The good:
It’s convenient if more than one person is drinking coffee in the morning. And it smells nice while it’s brewing.
The coffee in the pot stays warm so you can simply refresh your cup with a little warm coffee if needed.
Definitely less wasteful: 1 coffee filter vs who knows how many k cups (and yes, I know you can buy the keeper kind).
The bad:
Brewing good coffee is a bit of an art form, getting the scoops of ground coffee to water ratio right. My husband is very good at this, me not so much.
No choice, if I want flavored coffee and my husband wants plain old Folgers (which we do both like), we aren’t going to brew 2 pots of coffee.
I have no idea how many cups of coffee I’m actually consuming (this could also go under “the good”)
Takes up a fair amount of counter space.
The Winner
For me, the coffee maker wins but I still plan to pull my Keurig out and enjoy flavored coffees/hot chocolates over the holidays. Currently, I’m boxing it back up for a bit. It will come back to the counter probably around Christmas Eve until the New Year.
I just can’t get past not being able to refresh my coffee without making a new cup. I mean a fairly full cup you can of course, microwave. However, there’s always that not quite a half-cup that needs refreshed with me.
What about a tea kettle? I admit to kind of wanting an electric one of those or maybe even an old fashioned heat it on the stove kind. For now, I just boil my water in the microwave.
What about you?
Are you a Keurig or a coffeemaker person or tea kettle person?
I had wanted a Keurig so bad many years ago. My husband drinks tons of coffee, but I was a hot chocolate lover. I got one for Mother’s Day and the thrill of having it did not last long at all. We had all the same concerns as you. The increased waste from the K cups, the price, not having the big ol’ pot of coffee to go back to . . . all the same thoughts. It was the water though, the killed it all for us. I don’t know if Keurigs are different now, or if people just use them so often that it’s not a popular problem, but I hated that there was no way to fully drain the water out of the machine if you weren’t using it often. Hubby was drinking LESS coffee with the ‘convenient’ Keurig and I wasn’t guzzling cocoa every day so it became a big concern that water was just sitting in there. I read some things online about people having mold in theirs. Nope. We pretty much hated having a Keurig, sold it to my sister, and happily went back to his coffee maker.
Oh, I didn’t think about the water part of it. Of course, the one I do have is a “mini” so it brews basically one cup at a time and then you have to add more water. Guess that’s a benefit to the one I have instead of the annoyance I was thinking. I do think they make some now that have a one cup thing on one side and pot on the other but I’m not sure how they work.
I enjoyed your review and comparison of keurig verses coffeemaker, but, for me, it’s a tea kettle all the way. I don’t coffee at all, but have done hot tea ever since I can remember. I prefer just regular tea from Aldi’s most of the time, but enjoy some flavored teas, as well. My favorites are Angel’s Dream and Blueberry Vanilla. Those I order in loose-leaf form online. As for tea kettles, I have both kinds. My husband bought me a beautiful, large, on-the-stovetop, stainless steel type several years ago at the Amish store; my son bought me an electric one for Christmas last year. I use the stovetop one when I’ve got a crowd in and am serving hot tea and cocoa; I use the electric one multiple times a day and absolutely love it. It’s honestly one of the best gifts I’ve ever received and I’ll never be without one again. Thanks for the fun post! Happy Hot Beveraging!
Thank you and thanks for letting me know abut the electric kettle, sounds like something I may need to look into a bit more.
Hello! This is a good post! I have been back and forth and up and down with all of this! Ask my husband! LOL Anyway, I have a coffeepot. But I am the only person in my whole family that drinks coffee! So I got a single-cup Keurig, and I use it every day. If we have company, I use the coffeemaker. This week! LOL
Thank you, I think the one I have is the single-cup Keurig (embarrassed to say it took me a bit to figure that out…why isn’t it working? Oh, I need to add water again. And yes, I probably should’ve read the directions.) Hope you enjoy your company and have a wonderful holiday!
We have neither as no one drinks coffee at our house. At my mom’s, sister’s, and brother’s homes its Keurig all the way. They all swear by it.
I didn’t drink coffee for a long time but my husband somehow made me become a coffee drinker. One nice thing about the Keurig is that you can make the other beverages with it. I don’t think I’d make a whole pot of hot tea 😉 Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!