An Update On The Keurig And Tassimo Single Cup Brewing Systems

Single serve coffee brewing systems are growing in popularity and consumers are often puzzled as they try to select the machine that will best meet their needs. One of the most important questions that should be remembered is “Which machine makes the best tasting coffee?” Budget is another important question as well as the availability of coffee to use once the brewer has been purchased. Reviews of the various machines can be very helpful and a great deal of information is available now on the internet.

Amazon.com is a place to order coffee brewers on line and it awards stars for overall performance. There is also coffee information and reports on brewing systems on CoffeeDetective.com, while reviews appear regularly on CoffeeReview.com. Consumer Reports publishes research on coffee makers of all sizes, as does Single Serve Coffee, on line.

10 Best Selling Single Cup Brewing Systems 2008
Single Serve Coffee (singleservecoffee.com) released a list in December 2008 of the 10 Best Selling Single Serve Coffee Makers, which included three machines made by Keurig and two Tassimo brewers.

• The Keurig B60, the “Special Edition”, was the top seller
• Second place went to the Keurig B40, the “Elite”.
• The fourth best seller was the new Keurig Mini B30, which was just recently introduced.
• The #7 spot was captured by the larger Keurig B70, the “Platinum” model.
• The Tassimo machine, TA1400, made by Braun made the list in the #5 spot.
• The newer Tassimo Suprema, manufactured by Bosch, not Braun, ranked # 9.
• The Breville Gourmet K-Cup Brewer, also made by Keurig, was #10.

Keurig has a reputation for making a durable machine, which can brew a good cup of coffee, and stand up to years of daily use. Tassimo has been on the market about two years and the original model was made by Braun. When the Keurig brewing system was compared to the Braun Tassimo, all the models: the Keurig B40,Keurig B60, and Keurig B70 performed better in:

• The speed with which a cup of coffee was brewed. Keurig made coffee in less than 60 seconds.
• The noise made while the machine was brewing was loud with the Tassimo.
• Water had to be heated for each cup with the Tassimo brewer.
• The Keurig had hot water in its reservoir, ready to make another cup, after the first was done. The Tassimo required re-heating time.
• The brewhead on the Tassimo was stiff and required two hands to operate.
• There was water spill back after brewing a cup with the Tassimo. This made cleanup necessary.
• Until recently, users of the Tassimo machine had limited choices of T-Discs for brewing coffee, tea, or cocoa.
• Users complained that the coffee brewed by the Tassimo machine was weak or stale tasting.

K-Cups or T-Discs

• All Keurig Brewing systems use K-Cups, small containers of vacuum packed coffee, tea, or cocoa. Today, there are over 200 varieties of coffee from premium roasters, plus quality brands of tea and cocoa.
• Tassimo uses T-discs, which are specially prepared for use with these machines. There are more varieties of coffee available now from Starbuck’s and Seattle’s Best, as well as supplies for making lattes, cappuccinos, espresso, tea, and cocoa.

The newer Tassimo model, manufactured by Bosch, has eliminated some of the earlier problems and is being sold as a hot beverage system. The Keurig One Cup Brewing systems remain focused on producing a great cup of coffee and they all do it well.