Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System
by Keurig
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List Price: Our Price: $139.49 You Save: $50.46 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days Buy Used: from $94.99 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System
Customer Review: Worth Every Penny!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Updated review (Feb 5):
I deleted my original review (below) so that I could post an update and kick my rating up to 5 stars.
After one month of heavy use this machine is nothing short of remarkable. The ability to serve everyone exactly what they want whether it is bold, mild, decaf, flavored or tea is well worth the price alone. I am also happy to report that I have not experienced any more "clogs" as mentioned below. My wife loves the brewer especially since I dropped by the local Sam's and picked up a pack of 20oz insulated cups w/ lids. No more stopping by the coffee shop before the long drives, trips to the store or the kids' games. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but I find myself drinking much more coffee than I did before due to the convenience.
The ability to control your brew size has really been a welcome feature. The 20oz cups perfectly hold 2 "travel mug" cycles. Most mugs work well with one "travel mug" cycle but we do have some that will hold 2 "mug" cycles or 1 "mug" plus 1 "cup". Of course, the brew size and type of coffee will determine its strength and you might prefer different sizes. This works particularly well with tea bags if you just want to fill the cup and steep to your desired strength.
Based on my experience I really wouldn't recommend the K-cups for brewing tea. Many of the teas available in K-cups are also available at your local store in bags for much less and it is much easier to control the strength with tea bags depending on how long you let it steep. I also noticed that the Keurig formulated hot chocolate is now available. Again, you are probably better off with a bulk mix so you can better adjust the quantity instead of pre-measured packets that are priced at a significant premium. I'll admit I haven't tried it and maybe the "Premium Double Chocolate" is worth the price -- but not for me.
Lastly, the reusable K-cup is now available as an accessory. I ordered one along with the additional filters but have not had a chance to try it out.
I bought my wife the "Special Edition" Keurig for Xmas after reading many favorable reviews (OK, I wanted it too). We just finished putting it through its initial paces and wanted to comment on a few issues.
After unpacking the brewing system ordered from Amazon, I was surprised to find no reusable K-cup. Other reviewers gave the impression that it wasn't just the WS "exclusive" brewers that included the K-cup. This is a huge disappointment as the reusable K-cup was the deciding factor in purchasing the B60. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long for it to be offered as a separate accessory.
So far we have brewed three cups -- tea, flavored coffee and regular coffee. The first two worked very well. On the third K-cup I hit the brew button and a little water dripped into my mug then it stopped. I opened and closed the lid and hit the brew button a second time. Again, very little water went into the cup and I could hear water being drained back into the reservoir. After a little troubleshooting I decided I had a clogged exit needle. When I found the section in the user guide dealing with cleaning the exit needle (the troubleshooting chart referred to the wrong page) I was amazed. It instructs you to stick a paper clip or "other similar tool" into the exit needle to clear the clog. Come on, I just spent $200 on a brewer and you're telling me I need to find a paper clip to ram in the brewer instead of providing a cleaning tool. Since I didn't have a paper clip I used a sewing needle.
Well, once the clog was cleared I continued to brew the third cup (which happened to be mine). Coffee wasn't bad however, when I got to the last swig I really wasn't paying attention and ended up with a mouth full of coffee grounds. I hope this was due to the clog and not a regular occurrence.
I'll add to the review later as it gets more use. I just wanted people to be aware that not all "Special Editions" come with the reusable K-cup.
Customer Review: Problems encountered and how i fixed them. Great brewer overall.
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying that the Keurig brewer is a great brewer. I decided to write this review since it might help people who encountered the same problems that i did. I purchased my first Keurig brewer 7 months ago. Per the instructions, i only used filtered water from my fridge and it worked perfectly for those 3 months. No complaints whatsoever. And then the problems started occurring. The pump didn't quite always work right. I had to reseat it every now and then. The brewing(heating) element didn't always brew. It sometimes sat there trying to brew to no avail unless i tried 2 or 3 times until it finally kicked in (overflowed?) and brewed 2 or 3 cups in one cycle, overflowing whatever recepticle (cup) i had to contain the coffee. You just can't fit 3 cups of coffee in a single cup and the coffee was watered down.
I looked it up and read alot of reviews talking about how the pump was defective, etc, etc. I tried cleaning it as instructed in the manual. Customer support wasn't very helpful and there was no resolution there. I had purchased it from a certain warehouse that has a very good return policy. So, i returned it. As soon as i walked up with it, she asked if i had purchased it 3 months ago. That was when they started selling it. I told her yes and she said that she thought they had a defective batch because all the Keurig returns were purchases from that same period. She said that i might want to try Keurig again if it was only that one defective batch and that they hadn't had any returns for the brewer for other periods purchased. So, i bought another Keurig.
Lo and behold, exact same thing happened another 3 months down the road. I was frustrated and ticked off. I was about to return it again and just pick up a cheap 30 dollar brewer. My wife told me to give it another chance so i thought about it and decided to do a really thorough cleaning(my way this time). Bought 3 bottles of vinegar (32oz each). Dumped 32 oz into the tank and flushed out the water and vinegar by brewing. Dumped another bottle in and flushed again. This time i kept the heated vinegar and continued recycling it back through the tank over and over again. I must have brewed it like 2 dozen times. flushed the vinegar down the sink. Took my last bottle and cycled it a couple times. This time i let it sit inside the unit for 6 hours. I then flushed(and later cleaned) everything with filtered water over and over again until there was no more residual vinegar smell. Don't forget to clean the tank and the nozzle that connects the tank to the unit when doing the vinegar thing. I used a medical grade q-tip(very thin). Crossed my fingers and brewed some coffee. Seemed to work fine. A month later, it hasn't failed on me once. Brews like it was new. This brewer works great when it's clean but since it has elements inside that you can't clean manually with your hands, it seems to require a very through cleaning with vinegar every 3 months.
One thing i should mention is that, not once has either of the 2 units i purchased ever shown the "descale" message requiring that i clean it. I believe "most" of the problems with the brewer is just that users are unaware of the necessity to clean this unit thoroughly. Customer service isn't very good at explaining how thoroughly it needs cleaning. They'll just tell you to follow the instructions in the manual. That just doesn't cut it. My first return could have been avoided entirely if they had better instructions. It is not a simple cleaning and if you are not willing to waste the time cleaning it every 3 months, don't buy it.
EDIT: Funny thing about this machine. It's been over half a year since i've last descaled it, and it hasn't malfunctioned once since that time. Go figure.
Customer Review: An awesome, polished machine
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased a competing machine Bosch Tassimo and was very happy with it until... I discovered Keurig.
After purchasing Tassimo I felt in love with it and decided to buy 3 more machines for different office locations. At the same time I discovered Keurig and decided to try the Keurig Special Edition Brewing System before committing to buying more machines. After brief testing I found there are no substantial differences between the quality of coffee that both machines make. Yet, several important factors made me dump Tassimo and go exclusively with Keurig.
The first, key factor is that I drink mainly tea and hot chocolate (although my family and employees drink coffee) and I can quickly make tea or hot chocolate on the cheap by using Keurig only for providing hot water, while placing a tea bag or cocoa mix directly in a mug or cup. Even Keurig sells great and highly rated hot chocolate on its website in packets of loose powder that needs to be placed directly in a mug, not in the machine. I couldn't find such basic function in Tassimo as it requires to place a special service t-disc in the machine to obtain hot water. That's more trouble than its worth, plus the service t-disc doesn't allow to specify the amount of water, while Keurig has size-selection buttons. Of course I could buy a separate hot-water dispenser for getting just the hot water, but that's not the point - Keurig is simply a more universal machine that has two functions in one.
Second, also important, factor is the long-term cost and variety of coffee. They are somewhat related because you can buy couple varieties of Tassimo coffee t-discs that cost the same a Keurig k-cups, but most of Tassimo t-discs cost much more, while there are tons of coffee varieties available for Keurig at the same price level as the lowest priced ones. In fact, there are probably couple hundred low-priced varieties of coffee and tea for Keurig, while maybe only five for Tassimo, plus fifty or so high priced. And just trying different coffees and teas is a cool experience in itself and a great reason in itself to get a Keurig. You can buy a 100+ variety samplers on eBay and everyone is just amazed with all the coffees and wants to try each one.
Third, less important factor is the cup size selection available on Keurig. I found the Tassimo bar codes that automatically select the amount of water for each type of drink a nice gadget but not really necessary, while I prefer to have control over how much coffee or tea I make (which also relates to how strong it is).
Currently the only advantages of Tassimo that I see are:
- Tassimo is a 20% smaller machine while accommodating 20% more water in its tank, thus requiring less refills than Keurig. Although later I bought an optional larger water tank for Keurig.
- Cappuccino, latte and espresso t-discs are available for Tassimo, although they seem primitive and half-baked, as espresso is not a specific bean or roast level but a method of making coffee. A good espresso requires freshly ground coffee and high pressure water for emulsifying it. I don't see any of this in Tassimo, although it might be utilizing some limited approach for brewing espresso, while mainly just serving smaller cups of coffee. I can manually select a small cup size on the Keurig and have half-baked espresso as well.
(and an espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato, mochas, and americanos)
So if you too are deciding between both machines, go with Keurig.
If you don't have any automated coffee machine, go with Keurig as well :-) It is an amazing discovery not only in terms of coffee making process but the variety of choices as well.
Customer Review: Best Machine for Coffee AND Tea Drinkers Alike
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great machine for coffee drinkers. I'm sure by the time you read this review, you've already read countless other reviews telling you that, and are pretty much set on getting it as long as the price is right. However, what other reviews might not tell you, is that this is also a great machine for tea drinkers as well.
I'm the only coffee drinker in my household. For me, the single serve system makes great sense as it's usually overkill for me to brew a whole pot just for myself. The nice thing with the Keurig system though, is that there are a wide varieties of other k-cups available too. My girlfriend is a casual tea drinker (and by that I mean she enjoys a cup of tea...but is by no means a snob about it), and there are plenty of teas for her to choose from. And now that Winter has started to set in, hot chocolate is fast becoming a staple evening ritual over here. And in regards to hot chocolate, neither of us cared much for the hot chocolate k-cups that we've tried so far, but it's quite simple (and inexpensive) to use regular powder mix from the supermarket and just use the Keurig to provide us with instant hot water for it.
As far as the pros and cons of the machine go:
Pros:
- Wide variety of coffee to choose from
- Wide variety of tea to choose from
- Instant hot water for hot chocolate, cooking, soups, etc.
- Very aesthetically pleasing. Easily the best looking small appliance in our kitchen
- Pretty good sized water reservoir. It's not as large as the B70s, but it's still not that bad.
- Extremely simple to use. The hardest parts for us are still deciding which variety K-cup to try next and restraining ourselves from drinking more coffee or tea than is good for us.
- Availability of k-cups not only online, but at retail stores as well. At first I was afraid that I would be limited to buying all my k-cups from Amazon. And while I do love Amazon and their prices are pretty much always the best, sometimes when you need a quick fix, you really don't want to wait for shipping (even if you're a Prime member). So far, I've found good stockpiles and good varieties at Kohl, Wegman's Supermarkets, and Bed, Bath,& Beyond. Not only is this convenient, but it sometimes leads to that impulse buy that you can immediately reap the benefits from (as soon as you get home). So far one of my favorite varieties was an impulse buy that I just happened to come across while grocery shopping.
Cons
- The "Travel mug-size" isn't exactly enough for our travel mugs. This is one benefit that the B70 model has over this model by having the "Extra-large travel mug-size" as well. While it's true that the coffee may be "watered-down" a bit and not as strong if using the larger brew size option, frankly, if I'm on the go and won't be able to immediately make another cup, I'd rather have weaker coffee than less coffee.
- It does make a bit of noise in between brews. It's not a problem for us, but it might be if there's a light sleeper in the house, and they happen to be sleeping in relatively close proximity to the kitchen.
Overall, we couldn't be happier. Our B60 is used multiple times, all throughout the day and was definitely worth every penny to us. And remember, not all coffee is created equal. I'm still going through the variety packs to settle on which I like best, and there are some that I really did not care for (I won't name which ones because we all have our own tastes). If you don't like the first k-cup you try, chances are it's not because of the machine. You just need to try a different one. With the variety available, I do believe there really is something for everyone with the Keurig system.
Customer Review: FAB
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay. So I'm a coffee snob. I drink a lot of coffee and I usually pay for it at a nice shop that grinds their own beans. I've worked in food service my whole life and I have had many a cup of coffee. My biggest gripe about home brewers is that the flavor isn't there at all and it is just so unsatisfying that it is difficult to justify making it part of my daily routine as opposed to stopping at the coffee shop in the morning and also picking up a bagel.
What is the allure?? Well I have honestly only heard great things about the Keurig and they say out of every ten positive experiences that only one person will actually rave about it. I've heard at least 4 people rave about their keurig so I think I can safely say that is similar to hearing it from about 40 people.
Anyway, I really would like to shave about 15 minutes from my day (time going to a coffee shop), and still get a really darn good cup of coffee. Not to mention that I can't always drive past my favorite place (I am on the road a lot for work) and sometimes have to settle for a weak comparison. Not to mention the cost! About $1.70 for the better shop and about $1.50 at a C-store... about $1.10 if I remember to bring a refillable mug (which I never remember).
Okay so back to the coffee maker. What I love... I have tried Donut Shop brand coffee and have fallen in love at first cup. I don't know if it is the coffee or the Keurig but I have never had anything this good home brewed. EVER. I also love that I don't have to have paranoid thoughts in the back of my mind about the coffee I'm not drinking burning away while setting on the warmer. I always have a fresh cup brewed for me and if I want another it takes minimal time to have another one quickly. I don't have to worry about washing a decanter either. Many complain about the cost of the K-cups. My take on it is that it is much cheaper than getting a cup from the shop AND I can have good coffee at home which is actually worth more to me than the actual cost. So yes it is less expensive in the long run but despite that, I would still buy this brewer even if it cost me as much as coffee at a shop because I love coffee so much and it is a very important part of my personality, day, lifestyle.
What I don't like... Honestly I am not sure I should even bring it up because I'm essentially being a hypocrite. The idea of throwing away the little K-cup after every use is sort of sad. It seems very wasteful. Also, someone mentioned if it is actually healthy to send boiling water into a little plastic cup (a very good question). This really can't be any worse than the amount of trash I was creating previously with my cup of coffee every morning and my napkins, bagel paper and all the
other things from my previous life as a coffee shop dweller. You can however purchase the "my K-cup" to put in your own coffee grounds (reusable cup and grounds make for great garden compost).
Bonus feature: I didn't know about it or expect it, but you can program the brewer to have a cup of coffee brewed the next day at a specific time. Great for someone with a routine but not so great if you might happen to forget to put a cup under the machine.
I'm completely satisfied with this product. It is very simple to use. There is little cleanup involved. 4 minutes is about how long it takes for the water to warm up and that is only for the first cup you have when you turn on the brewer. The K-cups make for a fresh cup every time and make it super easy to trade flavors with others and try new types without having to buy a whole lot. It also has some cute mood lighting that shines through the water pitcher on the side when it is on.