The moment Keurig introduced K-cups to the public, they were an instant hit. Coffee drinkers loved their convenience, the variety of flavors available and their ease-of-use. Nowadays, fans of these cups have even more to cheer about because it’s not just Keurig and Green Mountain Coffee Company making these little cups. Now they’re available in not only different flavors but also in different brand varieties as well.
Increasing the number of available brands, however, does make it harder on the K-cup lover to find the one they feel right for them. And this often leaves them with a number of questions to answer. Are they going to want to buy regular coffee or are they going to want to go with a flavored coffee? Which brand is the best K-cup coffee? To answer some of these questions, we’ve reviewed the available brands and found the ten best ones currently available.
Best K-Cup Coffees Reviews
10McCafé Premium Roast Coffee
Anyone who has ever been through a McDonald’s drive-through is going to recognize the flavor of these McCafe K-cup coffee capsules. That’s because it’s the exact same flavor as you would expect to receive from the restaurant, except it’s in a convenient K-cup form that’s easy to brew at home. Although this coffee might not be strong enough for some coffee drinkers, to others it’s a perfectly balanced coffee that’s rich without being bitter. And since it’s made with 100% Arabica beans, coffee made with these cups is nice and smooth as well.
9Laughing Man Colombia Huila Dark Roast
Although this coffee has a nice taste to it, we didn’t feel like it was as strong as you would expect a dark roast to be. Although it did have a sweet and smoky flavor, it tasted more like a medium-roast than a dark one. However, having said that, it’s a nice coffee that’s not too acidic and has a smooth aftertaste to it. It’s a brand that not a whole lot of people may have heard about among all the other name-brand K-cups available, but it is one worth checking out. Especially if you like a coffee that doesn’t have too much caffeine and is made from Fair-Trade Certified Arabica coffee.
8Tim Horton’s Single-Serve Premium Roast
The coffee served by Tim Hortons is well known in Canada and in a few parts of the U.S., It’s a smooth and rich tasting coffee that’s unlike any other one available. And now coffee drinkers don’t have to miss out on this delicious coffee just because they don’t live near a Tim Hortons. Now, anyone can enjoy this coffee in their home using their favorite K-cup machine. This coffee is made using 100% Arabica beans that have been medium roasted to seal in flavor. These grounds are then placed in a K-cup capsule that’s easy to use in the privacy of your own home.
7Eight O’Clock Original Coffee
Eight O’ Clock Coffee is a brand of coffee that’s been packaged in a number of different ways over its history. From the metal cans that people ended up using as coin banks to their iconic coffee bags, this product has been in the lives of coffee drinkers for decades. Now they have packaged their unique blend of caffeinated coffee in single-serve K-cups, so anyone with a K-cup machine can enjoy this coffee. Although it’s cup form doesn’t taste exactly like its regular coffee, it is a good tasting medium-roasted coffee that’s Kosher and has a smooth taste.
6Newman’s Own Organics Special Blend
Newman’s Own is a company started by the Hollywood actor Paul Newman and is a company known for donating 100% of its profits to charity. This company makes a variety of different products from salad dressings to soups, and now they’ve added K-cup coffee to their line of marvelous products. Although this medium-roast coffee might not be strong enough for some coffee drinkers, for us it’s a smooth caffeinated coffee that is a great morning pick-me-up. It’s also a product that’s Fair Trade Certified, USDA Organic and is Orthodox Union Kosher.
5Keurig Coffee Lover’s Sampler Pack
Although not everyone likes mixing up their morning coffee routine, for those of us who do, then this variety pack of K-cup pods is sure to make them very happy. This 40-count pack features 20 popular varieties of K-cup pods, so adventurous coffee fans can enjoy a different cup of coffee every day. Some of the brands that can be found in this variety pack include Newman’s Own Organic, Caribou Blend Coffee, Tully’s Italian Roast Coffee, The Donut Shop Original Coffee, and Green Mountain Coffee blend. And these pods are compatible with both Keurig 1.0 and 2.0 machines, so a greater number of people can enjoy them.
4Keurig K-Cup Pod 72-Count Variety Pack
This variety pack of pods is the perfect way for Keurig K-cup machine owners to try out a variety of different coffee flavors. In this 72-count pack, coffee drinkers can choose from 6-different varieties from 5 different brands. This includes coffee from Newman’s Own Organics, Green Mountain Coffee, Caribou Coffee, and Tully’s Coffee. Now anyone can enjoy a rich assortment of some of the best coffee blends in the world without having to buy dedicated bags of coffee to try out each coffee individually. This makes it great for anyone who hasn’t decided which coffee is their favorite.
3Gevalia Signature Blend Coffee
This Gevalia Signature Blend is one of the most convenient ways to enjoy this coffee. It’s made with 100% Arabica beans and is capable of being used in all Keurig K-Cup coffee brewers. It’s a medium-roasted coffee that’s never bitter and always smooth, but it does seem kind of milder than drip brewed varieties taste. Having said that, this coffee is a tasty coffee that’s good for starting off your day with or drinking during a coffee break. And since it’s from Gevalia, coffee drinkers can rest assured it’s a high-quality product.
2Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll
Although this Cinnabon inspired coffee may be too sweet for some people’s tastebuds, for others, it’s just what the doctor ordered. This product is compatible with all Keurig brewing machines and has a light-roast taste that doesn’t interfere with the notes of this coffee’s flavors. This coffee has notes of cinnamon, brown sugar and frosting, which makes it more like drinking a dessert instead of drinking coffee. But for some people, that’s a tasty and delicious way to start each and every day of the week.
1Folger’s Classic Medium Roast
Although K-cup capsules come in a variety of different flavors nowadays, sometimes all a coffee lover wants is a wholesome classic taste and that’s exactly what this coffee provides. It contains the same Folger’s coffee that people have enjoyed over the years and is proudly roasted in New Orleans in Lousiana. It’s made out of 100% pure medium-roasted coffee that has a rich flavor and a smooth taste profile. Once you brew up one of these pods and smell the aroma of this coffee, you’ll discover why it’s one of the best k-cup coffees available.
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A Guide To K-Cup Coffees
There’s a number of reasons for anyone to want to try K-cup coffees. They’re easy-to-use, brew up quickly, and a person doesn’t have to follow a complex procedure to enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Probably the best thing about K-cups, however, is that they come in a variety of exciting flavors, different types of brands and different types of roast. They allow the coffee lover to really experiment with their coffee and find the one that fits their personal tastes.
Before a coffee fan can really get the full benefit they deserve from using these cups, they have to first educate themselves on what these cups are and how they’re properly used. Fortunately, that’s the whole purpose of this guide. We’re going to go over everything there is to know about K-cup coffees, so coffee lovers can find the brand, roast, and flavor they desire with the minimum of fuss.
How Does K-Cup Coffee Makers Work?
Although the bells and whistles that can be found on most K-cup coffee machines change from one model to the next, the K-cup coffee capsules themselves are fairly simple in design. K-cup capsules consist of three distinct layers which not only help to keep the coffee preserved while it’s being stored but also helps it get properly brewed when that time comes. Let’s take a closer look at each of these layers so that we have a better understanding of K-cups.
The top layer of the K-cup is simply a tinfoil lid that is affixed to the top of the K-cup. This tinfoil is designed to keep its coffee contents fresh during storage, but to be easily punctured by the machine when it’s time to brew the coffee. The cup itself is actually made from food-grade plastic, and this plastic is designed to keep light, heat, and moisture away from the coffee. This keeps the coffee grounds inside the cup nice and fresh. The inside of the cup not only contains ground coffee, but it also contains a paper filter that’s been affixed to the cup using a food-grade adhesive.
After the K-cup machine is set up and turned on, that’s when these cups really get busy. The coffee maker will take water from its reservoir and warm it up to the proper brewing temperature. Then it will pump this heated water to the K-cup chamber. In this chamber, two needles have punctured the K-cup so that the coffee inside can be brewed. The top needle punctures through the tinfoil and allows the hot water to be injected inside of it. The other needle, as you may have guessed, punctured the bottom so that the coffee flows through the grounds, through the filter and then into your cup.
K-Cup Coffee Types
Okay, we could probably spend the rest of this article and several other articles explaining all of the K-cup types currently available. After all, Green Mountain Company alone makes over 200+ different K-cups. What we can do, however, are to list some of the major brands that are currently available. Although the following list won’t cover the entirety of K-cup varieties available, it will give the average coffee lover a good idea of what’s available.
K-Cup Coffee Manufacturers
- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
- Newman’s Own
- Keurig
- San Francisco Bay Coffee
- Beantown Roasters
- Eight O’ Clock Coffee
- Crazy Cups
- Starbucks
- McCafe
- Victor Allen
- Caribou Coffee
- Tim Hortons
K-Cup Coffee Flavors
- Gloria Jean’s Hazelnut Coffee
- Dark Magic Dark Roast Coffee
- Kahlua Light Roast Coffee
- Krispy Kreme Light Roast Coffee
- Wild Mountain Blueberry
- Half-Caff Coffee
- Nantucket Blend
- French Vanilla
- Green Mountain Holiday Blend
- Green Mountain Island Coconut
- Crazy Cups Chocolate Coconut Dream
- Italian Roast
- Espresso Roast
- Plus…Hundreds of other varieties!
As it’s clear to see, K-cup coffees provide the coffee drinker with a ton of different varieties and a whole lot of different options. It doesn’t matter if the coffee drinker wants to stick with the coffee basics such as light roast, medium roast or dark roast coffees, or want to ramp things up with a flavored coffee, these K-cups are ready to get the job done. Why not grab some of these cups for your K-cup coffee machine?
