How Natural Are K Cups
K-Cups come in all varietals: from light to dark roast, mild to bold flavors, and a broad range of additional flavors. There are literally dozens of different types of K-Cup coffee flavors to choose from, with classics like French Vanilla, Irish Cream, Cinnamon Swirl, and White Mocha.
But how natural are these flavors? Are they natural at all, or are they loaded with artificial ingredients?
Heres the truth: K-Cups are packed with the same coffee ground you would buy in your grocery store or supermarket. Flavored coffees are made by spraying propylene glycol on the coffee beans/ground, then adding the flavoring oils or liquids afterward. The propylene glycol helps the beans/ground to hold the flavor, and it acts as a preservative. Every time you drink flavored coffeewhether its in a K-Cup or a regular coffee machineyoure ingesting propylene glycol and natural and artificial flavorings.
Propylene glycol is a potentially harmful ingredient, with side effects that include skin irritations and allergies, respiratory issues, cardiovascular problems, neurological symptoms, and potential organ toxicity. While the FDA recognizes it as generally safe, those trying to live a clean life may want to avoid anything that contains the chemical.
Sadly, this includes flavored coffees of all sorts!
Peets Coffee Variety Pack 40
Peets Coffee is the holy grail of Keurig pods, and this offering serves up an ideal amount of variety. This 40-pack comes with a dark roast house blend, a medium roast, and a light roast. There arent any fancy frills or artificial flavors here just good coffee that tastes fresh. The dark roast is beautifully full-bodied and seems to be the star of this pack, but the other two blends garner excellent reviews as well with all three reaching the perfect balance of flavor and strength.
Which Starbucks K Cup Is The Strongest
The strongest Starbucks K cup is the Dark Roast. The Dark Roast coffee pods contain two times more caffeine and pack a bold punch of flavors. It also has a lot of really healthy elements incorporated into the coffee. The Dark Roast has B vitamins, biotin, and spices, including turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon, to enhance your experience.
In conclusion, there are many different types of strong and flavorful coffee on the market. But the strongest K cup coffee that you can buy is the Death Cups by Death Wish Coffee Company. With four times the strength of a regular cup of coffee and notes of bold flavors, these coffee pods come out on top. But the nice thing about the Keurig coffee machines is that it is so versatile with lots of options of coffee to choose from So no matter how you like your coffee there is a K cup perfect for you.
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Some Powerful Caffeinated Coffees For When A Regular Brew Wont Cut It
There are certain times when we need more than just a regular dose of caffeine to get things done.
Maybe we need to wake up early to go to the airport, perhaps we need to drag ourselves out of bed after a big night and head to the office, or sometimes we might need to pull an all-nighter studying.
If any or all of these situations sound familiar to you and youre looking for an extra-strong coffee that will help you function normally when youre lacking sleep, any of these five high-caffeine K-Cups brands will do the trick.
Just make sure you dont plan on sleeping too soon after you drink them.
Do you drink high-caffeine coffee? Whats your favorite brand? Or perhaps you cant drink coffees like this because they make you jittery and give you insomnia?
Do you have anything to add? If you do, please leave a comment we love hearing from you. And if you enjoyed reading, please share!
How To Make A Strong Cup Of Coffee With Keurig
Now that weve listed our favorite strong K cups, lets dive a little into how you can make a really strong coffee with Keurig. Since Keurig machines are so automated, its really difficult to control the usual factors that influence the strength of coffee:
- grind size
- brewing time
- water temperature
To make a really strong cup of coffee with a Keurig, you need to be a little imaginative.
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Is There A Difference Between K
Technically the terms K-Cup and pod refer to two different things. A K-Cup is a hard plastic cup designed to fit in Keurig brewers. True coffee pods are soft and look more like teabags.
Theres some confusion around this terminology, however. Some people use pod to refer to any pre-packaged coffee, including K-Cups or Nespresso capsules.If you see something described as a K-Cup pod, most of the time they mean a typical hard-sided K-Cup. Thats the form used by all the products weve reviewed here, so you can count on them to fit a Keurig brewer.
Keurig Coffee Maker History
Keurig was invented in the early 1990s when inventor John Sylvan set out to fix office coffee. Instead of whole pots that sit on a warmer and get bitter, he envisioned a single-serve brewer, so employees could make a quick cup to order.
The first Keurig coffee makers used pods. In 1997, the K-Cup design was developed. That same year, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters signed on as the first roaster for these new cups. Their first brewerthe B2000, released in 1998was built for offices and plumbed directly into the water line.
Keurig moved from the office to the home in 2004. They werent the first company to do so, but the flavor and reliability of the Keurig home coffee brewer beat out its competition. By the end of the decade, they dominated the home single-serve brewer market.
Since then, Keurig has focused on improving its coffee makers and expanding the potential of the K-Cup brewer. This has included experimenting with different pod styles, such as the Vue brewers released in the early 2010s. Theyve also released K-Carafe pods for full pots and K-Mug pods for large travel mugs.
Not all of Keurigs experiments have succeeded. In 2015 they branched out into soft drinks with the Keurig Kold, designed to work with pods from soda brands like Dr. Pepper and Coca-Cola, but it didnt have the same success as their coffee brewers. Keurig continues to innovate, however, finding new ways to make drinks in both the home and office.
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Strong Button And Caffeine
Many also wonder if the Strong Button will not only result in a bolder cup, but one that contains more caffeine.
The answer to this question is no.
This is because the pre-measured amount of ground coffee in the K-Cup does not change, so the caffeine amount will stay the same regardless of which brewing method you choose.
However, if you are looking for a larger caffeine boost in your mug there are a lot of high caffeine K-Cups available on the market today.
In addition to a bolder taste, another benefit of the Strong Button is that it will produce a slightly less acidic cup. Acidity is defined as the level of acid in a substance.
Slow-steeped brewing methods, such as using the Strong Button can lower the acidity in your coffee. Which is yet another reason why this button is a useful feature to have available to you when brewing with a Keurig.
Should You Buy Keurig Revv Strong Coffee
If you like the convenience of individual coffee pods that you can change every morning, want a stronger coffee taste with more caffeine in it than normal cups, or just want to try something new, the Revv Strong Coffee maybe the right product for you to try. With three bold flavors and the convenience of the Keurig, these coffees are convenient, highly caffeinated, and easy to make.
For more information on these coffees and how they can kick start your morning, visit the Keurig website for details
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Keurig K1500 Coffee Maker
Keurig calls the K1500 their Small Business Brewer and theyve built it with smaller offices in mind. Not only does it brew delicious coffee in a range of strengths and sizes, its sleek, modern design will look great in any office.
The placement of the reservoir on the K1500 makes it easy to see when it needs to be refilled. It also has a drainable tank and automatic shut-off, along with the same Quiet Brew technology youll find on the models above. Small business owners will also love that it sells at the same price point as Keurigs home brewers.
Features:
- Requires periodic filling
What Is The Best Keurig Model For Home Use
For at home single-serve brewing, the Keurig K-Elite exemplifies the convenience and ease Keurig coffee makers are known for. Its programmable, fast, versatile, and has a large reservoir, checking all the boxes we look for in a home brewer. If you need something smaller, the K-Compact offers similar performance but with a smaller countertop footprint.
If youre looking for a way to make café drinks at home, the K-Café is slightly better than the K-Latte, in our opinion. The brewer is very similar, but the milk frother on the K-Café has more options and makes better foam for cappuccinos and lattes.
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Does This Really Work
Truthfully, not many notice an increased strength when brewing a smaller cup size.
Being Keurig machines are programmed to brew coffee very quickly, there is only a small amount of time when the water used for brewing is in contact with the coffee in the K-Cup.
Being the brewing length for a small or large cup is about the same, the resulting coffee will have a similar taste regardless of size.
This is why when the brewing time is increased, the Strong Button allows the water to be in contact with the coffee beans for a longer period of time resulting in a stronger cup every time!
Take Your Cup Away Early
If you watch your Keurig carefully as it makes your morning cup, you might notice that the stream of coffee starts to lighten as the end of the brew cycle approaches. The last few drops of coffee you get are actually mostly water, so taking your mug out from under the stream before its fully finished can leave you with a stronger cup of coffee.
Theres no specific rule we can give you since every machine is different, but experiment with a few different timings and see if you can taste the difference. Its worth a shot, and we found our coffee got better when we started avoiding the coffee brewed during the last few seconds of the brew cycle.
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Keurig Collection Eccellenza Touch Bean To Cup Coffee Maker
Not all of Keurigs commercial machines brew from K-Cups. The Keurig Collection Eccellenza Touch is a bean-to-cup machine, with a built-in grinder and spots to store flavor powders. It can make anything from a black coffee to a mochaccino. Selecting the drink, size, and strength is simple on the built-in color touchscreen.
The Eccellenza Touch is plumbed into the water line so theres no reservoir to fill. While you will have to refill the bean hoppers and flavor powders from time to time, whole beans take up less space per drink than a rack of K-Cups.
Convenience stores and cafeterias are the main market for the Eccellenza Touch. The best part is the coffee will taste fresher since its ground to brew, and the unique reverse French press brewing process brings out more flavor and complexity from the beans than youd typically expect from a Keurig machine.
Features:
- Requires more cleaning and maintenance
How Does A Longer Brew Time Translate To Stronger Coffee
The fact is, this is just the way brewing coffee works!
Think of it this way, when talking about coffee, strength refers to the amount of dissolved solids in the resulting liquidthat is, stronger coffee has a greater proportion of dissolved solids in relation to the amount of water .
Solids are dissolved in the water through the process of extraction, which takes place during the time that the water is in contact with the ground coffee.
Thus, the longer brew time for Keurigs strong setting means more dissolved solids, which results in a stronger cup. Simple, right? No more weak coffee for us!
And then there are even more ways to get your stronger cup:
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My Keurig Coffee Isn’t As Strong As I Want It Brewed
Do you wish your Keurig coffee were a bit stronger? Learn simple tricks to brew a higher caffeine coffee with the same easy-to-use Keurig machine.
If youre reading this article, then chances are very strong that youre a pretty serious coffee drinker. And like many of us out there, you probably like your coffee to pack a real strong caffeine punch. But using a Keurig coffee machine to make your morning or afternoon brew can sometimes make it difficult for you to reach that perfect buzz.
To bump up the strength of your next cup of coffee brewed with your Keurig coffee maker, here are a few very easy ways that you can use your machine to brew even stronger coffee.
Are K Cups For Coffee Snobs
Coffee snobs are the sort of people who know the difference between an Arabica and Robusta, have attended their fair share of cuppings, and shun Starbucks as a place that sells commercial swill. They prefer to brew their coffee, which theyve usually roasted themselves after importing free-trade beans from a country like Guatemala or Indonesia.
The idea of a K-Cup is going to turn off a coffee snob. They like to have total control over the coffeefrom the roasting to the grinding to the brewing to the preparing . They may consider using their own beans in a reusable K-Cup, but the fact that they cant control the brewing temperature and duration of the Keurig machine means they will look at the K-Cups the way they would a cup of convenience store coffee.
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Hardcore Coffee Strong High Caffeine Cup Coffee
This strong and bold organic coffee has what it takes to be a brew thats satisfying to your taste buds and the desire for strong coffee. Hardcore Coffee Strong High Caffeine Cup Coffee is a dark roast caffeinated coffee thats full of flavor and taste.
The dark roast coffee is made exclusively from USDA certified organic beans. Plus, it claims to have twice the caffeine of the regular cuppa. I guess thats what makes it so hardcore.
Green Mountain Breakfast Blend K
Our all-around favorite K-Cups are the delicious Green Mountain Breakfast Blend pods from Keurig. These light roast K-Cups are bright, smooth, and incredibly drinkable. If you havent tried them, nows the time to start.
The beans are 100% high-quality Arabica, and theyre certified Kosher. They have a full, slightly nutty flavor. Even better, theyre reasonably priced!
If youre not a fan of light roasts, these K-Cups may not be dark enough for you. And despite these K-Cups coming from Keurig, some customers have reported incompatibility with 2.0 machines. Those caveats aside, we think youll really enjoy these tasty coffee pods.
All in all, we think these are the best Keurig K-Cup coffee pods available in 2021.
Are you interested in a full-flavored, aromatic medium roast thats compatible with all Keurig machines and environmentally friendly? If so, youll love the Glorybrew The Duke Medium Roast K-Cups.
These fully-compostable coffee pods are made using renewable resources. They contain a balanced blend of Central and South American Arabica beans that are Rainforest Alliance-certified. You can expect a robust, chocolatey flavor and not a hint of bitterness.
Illy is a famous Italian coffee company for a reason its coffee is dark, rich, and deeply flavorful. As you might guess from their name, these Extra Dark K-cups are particularly powerful.
- Not particularly high in caffeine
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How Much Is Safe
The answer to this question depends on who you speak to, and different authorities give slightly different figures.
Some would suggest no more than 400mg per day is a safe guideline to stick to others suggest a slightly higher figure of up to 600mg per day.
Again, even if you do slightly exceed these recommendations, you will probably suffer no more than a little jitteriness and a touch of insomnia remember, caffeine can take from four to seven hours to leave your system.
Timothys World Coffee Rainforest Espresso
While the name says espresso, please bear in mind that Keurig machines dont brew espressos they brew full 8 ounce coffees. The reason theyre calling this pod an espresso is because the flavor is bold and strong and thus mimics that of an espresso shot.
If you have the Keurig K-Cafe model which also steams milk for lattes and cappuccinos, you may prefer to get this particular pod as the taste will be much closer to an espresso rather than from what youd get with a different kind of K-Cup.
With that said, these pods contain 27% more coffee than a typical K-Cup, and the resulting flavor is smooth, rich, and does not leave a poor aftertaste in your mouth.
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Keurig K400 Coffee Maker
The extra-large 70-ounce reservoir on the Keurig K400 brews two full pots before you need to refill it. Thats one reason this is our favorite Keurig drip brewer for office break rooms. Its not as costly or complicated as commercial machines but can perform at higher volumes than most Keurigs out there.
The handy color touchscreen allows easy adjustment of the cup size or brew strength. Having 9 brew sizes to choose from makes it very versatile. Youll also get full programmability if you want to save your settings or have it start brewing at a certain time each morning.
Features:
- Older model that may be harder to find
- Higher cost than other Keurig drip brewers