My wife''s Christmas present this year is a Keurig B70 coffee maker. We have a B100 at work that I was very impressed by and we decided that a home machine would nicely fill the need when we might want a cup or two, but might not want to make a full pot.
Long story short: we love the machine. So far, our favorite coffee is Timothy''s Kona Blend -but we haven''t tried more than a handful of the scores of varieties of coffees and teas available for the beast. We got the extra filter for when we want to grind and use our own coffee in the machine, but have not yet had the opportunity to try it yet. It is a nice option to have.
We''ll still use our Zojirushi thermal carafe brewer when we need a full pot, but the Keurig is wonderful for lesser amounts. Highly recommended.
I learned today that one of the coffee roasters that supplies the K-cups, Green Mountain, just bought Keurig (an American company with a Dutch name). I hope this won''t limit the variety of coffees available for the machines -that would be a major bummer if other roasters bowed out and would cause me to pull my glowing recommendation.
UPDATE 7/30/07: The B70 died today after 8 months of yeoman service. A call to Keurig revealed that the symptoms matched a "bad element" (one would assume heating element). A replacement machine in on its way (arrival in 3-4 days). Keurig doesn''t want the old machine back, just a part. Keurig customer service was extremely pleasant and professional. Assuming the replacement machine arrives in good form, the five star rating is intact. I do wonder if there is a generic problem with heating elements in this model -I''ll have to look through the newer reviews to see if I should worry.
UPDATE 1/12/11: The replacement B70 is still going strong 3.5 years later. Still very happy with the unit.
UPDATE 11/16/12: The same B70 is now at my wife''s workplace and is still going strong. No additional repairs have been needed.
I received a B77 as a gift at the end of Nov 2009. 3 days later it would not push water out through the K-cup.
Exchanged it at Costco, worked great until 2 days ago. 1 month of light usage and it''s having problems filling from the reservoir.
Going to exchange it for a third but I''m not confident that the next unit will be trouble free.
My brother''s same unit that''s a year old (and works fine) had a very loud fill pump.
Keurig changed the pump design in the B77 to a small dc motor driven impeller pump. Much much quieter when filling, but apparently cannot always overcome the check valve after the pump.
I always use RO water, and the unit is only 1 month old so scale is not the issue. I refill the tank when it''s still on the machine, so no air to get in there to screw up the pump''s priming.
Google B70 pump problems.
Edit: I did not bother to exchange the 2nd unit as from what I''ve read here and on SingleServeCoffee''s website, all the B70/B77 are plaqued with this problem. Even ones directly purchased or replaced by Keurig. Maker will for for a few days or weeks, then suffer the "not ready" and then shutdown problem as it is unable to pull water from the reservoir into the heater.
I put a review in on Keurig''s website itself but it looks like they censor what gets posted or not, hence the glowing reviews there.
Buy Keurig B70 Platinum Brewing System Now
Being one who loves convenient, but great tasting coffee, I''ve bought several single-serve coffee machines. The Home Cafe, My Bunn Cafe, and the most recent, Tassimo.
They all worked quite well, considering how "new" they were to the field, and how fresh the field really was at the time, for consumers. I was happy with each purchase(save the Home Cafe, which had a serious mechanical flaw).
I''m not going to spend all my time just comparing the Keurig machine; I''m simply going to say "I wish I''d bought one of these[any Keurig machine] earlier". It meets almost all the desires I had in a single-serve coffee machine.
Tons of variety in K-cups (which actually can be difficult, I didn''t know where to start or what to try!)
Simple to use
Beautiful, functional design
4 brew size choices
Keeps water hot for the next cup instead of waiting until you fiddle with the machine
Can be used with a custom filter K-Cup so you can brew any coffee you like (I''m looking forward to using this with tea too!)
Much quieter than some machines I''ve used (the Tassimo is freakishly loud in my opinion)
Those are just some reasons I love this machine. The fact that it makes very good coffee is a big plus too, right? It seems as if the coffee from the Keurig machine tastes less "burnt" than most single serve coffee I''ve had in the past.
My biggest complaint is the cost. Whether it''s worth $200 to you or not, is entirely up to YOU. If you''re as obsessed with quick, easy, tasty coffee like I am, maybe you''ll agree that it is worth it.
I''m a happy customer, either way. ;)
Read Best Reviews of Keurig B70 Platinum Brewing System Here
I recently purchased the new Keurig B-70 Gourmet Single Cup Home Brewing System that was released on October 1st, 2006 and have been very happy with it. The machine is extremely well designed, simple to operate, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, brews an excellent cup of coffee. I am very impressed with how quickly it is able to brew a cup of coffee, the selection of brew sizes, and how simple clean up is.
There are a variety of single cup brewers on the market now, many utilizing pre-packaged coffee "pods" for brewing. Personally I was not comfortable purchasing a product where I would be locked into the selection and pricing of a specific manufacturer, or one that would only brew coffee and not tea and cocoa. This is just one area where Keurig really shines above their competition.
Keurig has gathered support of a variety of gourmet coffee, tea, and cocoa manufacturers and there currently there are over 140 different types sold pre-packaged in K-Cups including Green Mountain, Diedrich, Gloria Jean''s, Timothy''s, Van Houtte, Tully''s, Coffee People, Newman''s Own, Celestial Seasonings, Bigelow, Twinings, and Ghirardelli. Not only is there a large selection to choose from, there are a variety of resellers online offering K-Cups, and pricing is extremely competitive.
In addition to the pre-packaged offerings, Keurig offers the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter allows you to use your own gourmet ground coffee in your Keurig home brewer. This option provided the extra level of comfort I personally needed to make the jump into a single cup brewer. Frankly I don''t find myself using it very often as I had originally thought, as there are so many options available in pre-packaged K-cups.
The pricing of the Keurig brewers are extremely reasonable, and brews gourmet coffee in just a fraction of the cost of purchasing it from a Starbucks, Coffee People, or similar. I expect that my machine will pay for itself in savings in just a couple months of use.
The only suggestion I have for Keurig is that the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter be included with the sale of the brewer, and not an optional accessory. It is such an inexpensive accessory that I am surprised it was not included. Overall the Keurig brewers are excellent value and quality and would recommend them to anyone interested in a single cup brewer.
Want Keurig B70 Platinum Brewing System Discount?
My husband and I decided to buy this coffee maker for two reasons. One, we wanted to break our Starbucks habit/addiction and two, because we both have really different tastes in coffee. A traditional coffee maker just wasn''t cutting it for us because we couldn''t both drink out of the same pot of coffee and ended up wasting a lot of coffee. So this allows us to each brew our favorite coffee without a lot of waste. The coffee maker is very quick to warm up and it''s not any louder than our old coffee pot. You can set the brew strength to suit your taste which is really helpful and it even has an iced coffee setting. The large water reservoir is a really nice feature because we don''t have to constantly refill the pot, unless of course we are drinking a lot of coffee or tea!
Now, I know the coffee maker is relatively expensive initially so the return on investment will take a little bit of time. With all the myriad of types and flavors of coffee and tea available, we have truly cut down on our Starbucks addiction and have both tailored our K-Cup purchases to suit our individual tastes. My husband makes two to three of his own Vanilla Latte style iced coffees everyday. I''ve branched out into trying all kinds of different teas in addition to making my own coffee. It does help that several cream companies have come out with some truly delicious flavored creamers to compliment the wide variety of coffee flavors available.
While we can get a few flavors of the K-cups at our local grocery store, Amazon by far has the best selection and best prices. This particular model of coffee maker came with an assortment of coffees so we could try a variety. When you are first starting out with this coffee maker, I would definitely recommend finding an assortment pack so you can decide what your favorites are without having a whole bunch of extra K-Cups left over of things you don''t like. Another nice feature that is available for purchase separately is a filter assembly for use with your own coffee. This comes in handy if you have a special coffee flavor that isn''t prepackaged by any of the K-Cup makers. Just be sure to use care when you grind your own beans and ensure you read the instructions so you don''t use too fine or too course of a grind.
We are extremely please with the quality of this coffee maker and the wide variety of quality coffees and teas available for it. If you have the cash and you are a dedictated coffee drinker, you can''t go wrong with this purchase!
Save 31% Off
My husband loves this coffee pot. The problem is, it is a little sensitive. He was washing it with a brush and barely bumped it on the sink, and while it did not break it did put a large crack around the carafe. We are very careful while handling it, primarily for the reasons listed by other reviewers, and we''ve only had it about 6 weeks. Maybe the glass is a little thin or not tempered properly? Either way, be careful while washing it.
