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Thursday, May 15

PULSE/Pre-Infusion Method for Keurig

Found within the SingleServeCoffeeForums:

Make all K-Cups "extra bold" by PULSEing your machine!

Simply insert your K-Cup as normal, place mug below and press the brew button. Once the water begins to run through, slightly pull up on the level to activate the autostop feature.

Wait ten-twenty seconds, then when you push the lever back down your brew should resume (Note: do not open the K-Cup holder, only pull up enough to pause the brew).

This method of pre-wetting, or "pre-infusing", the coffee grounds will result in a better extracted cup.

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Tuesday, May 13

Keurig to release Mini Machine

Keurig B30 based on Keurig's hotel model B130

Keurig has announced that it will introduce a new home brewer with the smallest footprint yet. With an estimated footprint of just seven inches, the upcoming Keurig B30 will be perfect for the RV, dorm room, or corner of your office desk.

What makes this machine perfect for those road warriors among us is that the Keurig B30 has skipped the large reservoir, and opting instead to heat and hold only enough water for each cup. This means you would pour in 8 ounces of water, and three minutes later a delicious 8 ounce brew of K-Cup coffee is ready to enjoy. No water is left in the machine to slosh or spill while traveling.

This machine will be available in black and white from most retailers, with red models available through the Keurig website, beginning in late summer/early fall 2008.

Read on:
http://www.singleservecoffee.com/archives/018787.php

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Wednesday, June 22

K-Cups for Keurig Beverage Systems

Keurig Premium Coffee Systems™ is the industry leader in single-cup coffee brewing technology in the U.S. Introduced in 1998, Keurig's innovative single-cup brewing system lets coffee lovers brew perfect coffee, one cup at a time, in less than a minute.

Keurig was founded by coffee lovers who believed that coffee should always be served fresh, whether at home or at the office, just as in a gourmet coffee house. They noticed that people were constantly leaving the office in search of a fresh cup of coffee and asked themselves: "Why do we brew coffee a pot at a time when we drink it a cup at a time?" From this question, the revolutionary concept of Keurig K-Cup® portion pack brewing was born.

CoffeeGIANT.com offers a variety of K-cups for the Keurig B100 and B50 Beverage Systems.

Green Mountain has 23 varieties of K-cups. Every K-cup portion pack contains its own filter and just the right amount of freshly roasted Green Mountain Coffee that has been precision ground and sealed for freshness. The K-cups have been flushed with nitrogen and stay sealed until you start brewing so there are never any worries about the coffee getting stale. Now everyone can chose from a wide variety of blends, light and dark roasts, Fair Trade and Organic, flavored and decaf coffees. No clean up, no hassle, no waste, just a good cup of coffee.

Diedrich roasts 6 different coffee varieties that can be used in the brewer. Diedrich takes its freshest, most delicious coffees, made from 100% Arabica beans, and packs them into the Keurig K-Cup®, a unique patented package that keeps the coffee fresh. Coffees offered include flavored, and origins and blends in both regular and decaffeinated.

Gloria Jean’s offers 12 different coffees and 7 different teas in the K-Cup option. The coffees are produced from the finest Arabica beans and Gloria Jean’s offers some wonderful flavors to choose from. The teas offer a choice of both regular and herbal decaf.

Celestial Seasonings teas are available in K-cups, packaged exclusively by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Celestial Seasonings is the largest herb tea manufacturer in North America and is expanding internationally at a rapid rate serving more than 1.2 billion cups of tea per year.

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Wednesday, March 30

The Keurig B50 Single Cup Home Brewer

The Keurig B50 Single Cup Home Brewer uses cartridges called K-cups engineered to protect the coffee from all of the elements that cause it to become stale (oxygen, light, moisture). Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (makers of the Keurig B50) offers more than 20 varieties of coffee in K-Cups including light and dark roasts, flavored coffees, organic and Fair Trade coffees, and signature blends. In addition, Celestial Seasoning Teas offers six black, herbal and green teas through Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Plus, the B50 Single Cup Home Brewer brews coffee in less than one minute without the hassle of grinding beans, measuring coffee, handling filters, or cleaning up. The B50 is smaller than Keurig's first single cup brewer (the B100), offers two brew strengths, and has a convenient removable water tank. Available at www.coffeegiant.com for only $149.00 and comes with 1 box of Green Mountain Regular Variety pack so you can start your Keurig expirience the moment your machine arrives.

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Thursday, March 10

In search of the "perfect cup"

Why is it that no matter how fancy your coffeemaker or expensive your coffee, every pot you brew tastes different?

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a small Vermont coffee shop that grew into a national coffee wholesaler and mail-order company, thinks it’s because you have to deal with the hassle of grinding beans, measuring coffee, handling filters and cleaning up. So it’s taken all those chores out of the process of brewing the “perfect cup of coffee.”

The company’s Keurig Single Cup Brewer uses microprocessor technology to precisely control every step of the brewing process to deliver a consistent taste profile with every brew. Just insert the Green Mountain K-Cup, which contains the right grind and amount of coffee specific to each variety, into the brewer. The patented engineering of the K-Cup protects coffee from oxygen, moisture, light and temperature changes — all elements that cause it to stale. Because the K-Cup acts as a self-contained mini-brewing chamber, there is no residue left in the brewer to taint the next brew.

Ideal for the office that wants to keep its employees from nipping out to Starbucks twice a day, the Keurig B100 Single Cup Brewer has an 80-ounce water tank. It costs $255.00 and comes with 100 K-Cups. The new, smaller B50 model is designed for home use. It offers two brew strengths, has a convenient removable water tank and has an introductory price of $149.95 with 24 K-Cups.

Based on its performance, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has been recognized for the past five years as one of Forbes magazine’s 200 Best Small Companies.

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Wednesday, March 9

Keurig v. FLAVIA

Which single cup coffeemaker is right for you?

Three of the most widely popular single cup coffee brewers are the Keurig B-100, Keurig B-50 and the FLAVIA SB100. Choosing the one that best fits you and your needs can be a daunting task. They are all three solid machines backed by solid companies so lets dig a little deeper into the pros and cons of each to help you make the best choice possible.

FLAVIA
FLAVIA Beverage Systems introduced the FLAVIA Brew-by-Pack to North America in 1995 and the popularity has sky rocketed ever since. The ease of use and wide selections of gourmet coffees, leaf teas and hot chocolate has kept the demand for this unit high.

The FLAVIA SB-100 uses a patented filter pack technology to brew its proprietary coffees, teas and hot chocolate. Each foil filter pack is a sealed packet with a sealed nozzle. When placed in the FLAVIA Beverage System the seal on the nozzle is pierced and water is injected into the pack. After a few seconds of infusion the bottom of the packet pops open and the coffee pours through the micro-perforated filter built into each packet into a cup. A small quick “puff” of air pushes any remaining water from the pack and you have an 8 oz. cup of freshly brewed coffee.

Currently FLAVIA offers 16 flavors of gourmet coffee, three of which are decaf, 9 are leaf teas including the “Wellness tea” line up and 1 hot chocolate. All beverages and packaging are completely proprietary to the FLAVIA Beverage System and are only available through FLAVIA distributors. www.coffeegiant.com offers the FLAVIA packet both by the rail as well as by the case. Each rail holds 20 packets of coffee and tea or 18 packets of hot chocolate and Creamy Topping. There are 5 rails in a case of coffee, 7 rails in a case of tea and 4 rails in the Chocolate and Creamy Topping due to the size of the packet. Choice and convenience are the advantages to this particular product line.

The FLAVIA SB100 brewer itself is a dark, grey brown in color and stands 14.5 inches tall, 9 inches wide and 13.5 inches deep. The water tank has a large opening when the lid is lifted, and holds 0.8 gallons of water or 14 – 8 ounce cups of water. Initial heat up of the water when first turned on is 3 minutes before you can brew a drink. After initial heating is finished, brew time per packet is 35-40 seconds.

Keurig B-100
The Keurig launched B-100 in September 2003 to give the users of the larger Keurig commercial models the opportunity to have a have a Keurig machine in a home or small office setting. The B-100 uses the same patented “k-cup” that the commercial models use. Keurig has partnered with Green Mountain to offer the full line of Green Mountain coffees in the k-cup for use with the B-100. However, Keurig has also allowed other roasters to package their individual lines of coffees and teas in the k-cup packaging allowing for not only a variety of flavors but also a variety of roasters. Besides the Green Mountain you can get Diedrich, Gloria Jean’s, Timothy’s and Van Houtte coffees along with Celestial Seasoning and Bigelow teas. K-cups come in a standard size box and have 25 cups per box.

The K-cup is a small plastic cup that is sealed on the top with a foil covering keeping the coffee fresh until used. When the cup is dropped into the Keurig machine, and the door is closed, a large needle pierces the top and hot water shoots into the top of the cup. The water is allowed to sit for a moment before the bottom needle pierces the bottom and allows the coffee or tea to flow through the enclosed filter into a cup.

The Keurig B-100 is a high tech looking unit in black and silver with a neon blue light showing through the water level indicator. It stands 15 inches high, 17 inches deep and 8 inches wide. The water tank is accessed from the top and holds 80 ounces of water or 8 – 8oz cups. It takes 8 –10 minutes to heat the tank when first turned on after which it has a brew time under 60 seconds. The Keurig B-100 has proven itself to be a solid machine and the wide choices of coffees and teas make this a convenient and popular machine to use.

Keurig B-50
The B-50 is the newest machine in the Keurig line, designed for home use only. Keurig presented this machine to the market place the end of 2004 for the holiday season. Using the same k-cup options it is also designed in the high tech black and silver design. The B-50 stands 13 inches high, 13 inches deep and 11 inches wide.

With the option of cup size the large cup setting brews a 7.25 ounce cup and the small cup brews a 5.25 ounce cup. The water reservoir holds 48 ounces of water or 6 large cups/ 9 small cups. It takes approximately 3 minutes for the initial heating of the water and 15 seconds to reheat between cups. Lower in price than the B-100 it is a great choice for the home use.

Now with a bit more knowledge of each of the three machines it may not be any easier to make a choice. The biggest differences in the three are pricing both initially and going forward. Keurig while slightly higher in price offers a wide variety of coffee and tea choices from various manufacturers. FLAVIA is less expensive but you are limited to their coffee and tea flavors, so it’s nice that they offer so many choices. Both companies have tea options but only FLAVIA offers hot chocolate, this may be important to you. Keurig has wider distribution and is easily ordered online, FLAVIA has limited distribution and it can be difficult to find a supplier.

CoffeeGIANT.com believes all 3 machines are well built single cup solutions that offer convenience and easy use, with no waste. That is why we offer all three to our customers.

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