Sturm Foods Private Label Single Cup Instant Coffee

A non-licensed single cup cartridge from Sturm Foods, Inc.
It can be used in Keurig brewers.

Sturm Foods has debuted a single cup cartridge that can be used in a Keurig K-Cup brewer. The Sturm Foods single cup offering is not a licensed K-Cup or a Sturm Foods K-Cup, it's essentially a cartridge like K-Cup that doesn't contain ground coffee, but micro-ground coffee much like Starbuck's Via.

The Grove Square Medium Roast cup is not a real K-Cup and doesn't feature a filter.
It's filled with micro-grind instant coffee.

As we've been following in the news, Green Mountain Coffee and Keurig have sued Sturm Foods for patent infringement. Currently, there are no private label K-Cups, and we were surprised to see a company debut any private label K-Cup like product given the patents on K-Cups have not expired.

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The Sturm Foods Grove Square Medium Roast single cups
are priced at $7.99 for 18 making them much cheaper than K-Cups.

These Sturm Foods, Inc. single cup cartridges that can be used in your Keurig brewer were found in the grocery section of a Walmart in Michigan (a special thanks to MichFan for sending photos). As you can see in the pictures it looks like a K-Cup but in fact has no filter, and is filled with microgrind coffee. Results?

So far people in the Single Serve Coffeee forums claim it's not much better than brown water - yuck. We'll stick to our K-Cups with real coffee and filters, and if we get some of these after market private label cups from Sturms Food we'll try and review.

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Posted by Jay Brewer at October 18, 2010 7:47 AM

saw these @ Jasper (IN) walmart. had just bought a keurig (mr. coffee, but the keurig name is all over it) and wanted to buy some k-cups. Price was so much better than any other cups. However, nothing about "k-cups" on the box. The BIG tip to me was not saying "100% Colombian" (or whatever). Instead, it said "some of the best Colombian" (or something to that). That gave me a hint that some robusta may be in the mix and there could possibly be an instant type coffee lurking inside. I passed. Was tempted by the GV (Greater Value) walmart brand cups, but didn't get those either. Stuck with the Barista Prima my wife got for me. THOSE are the real deal!

Posted by: B.J. at December 26, 2012 11:36 AM

Just adding my voice to the others. This coffee SUCKS!!!!!!! The Grove Square "K-cups" SUCK!!!was bitter, gritty and weak. The outer packaging is very deceptive and the cup label says nothing about "soluble" or "microground". Very poor marketing practices!
As soon as I opened the box I knew something wasn’t right. The shaking of the k-cup is a good indicator that it is heavier grinds and hardly anything in the cup. When I brewed it it was like weak tea with grinds and residue in your coffee cup. Awful!!
They do not say on the box instant. awful, Do not buy for your machine as it is not coffee..
This is a rip off !! Stay away from this.After I took my first sip, I almost threw up...Nasty tasting...DON'T BUY WAIST OF MONEY
The Grove Square "K-cups" SUCK!!! The package is misleading. This is instant coffee you will be waisting your money.
I purchased these due to the reasonable price, no deal at all, the lower price tag doesn't matter. I've wasted most of the box to the garbage! Terribly disappointing.

Posted by: Mark Madonna Sr. at October 12, 2011 6:52 PM

Buy the Kuerig! I have had mine 3-4 years now (model B60). Perfect every time. We have a reverse osmosis water system at home and I have never even had to run the cleaner through it. Never had a problem. Kuerig has sold millions of machines and now sells over a billion K-cups per year. Order the Green Mountain coffee. It is wonderful. Also, if you mail order it, you get a discount and free shipping if you order 4 or more boxes at a time.

Posted by: janet at November 17, 2010 1:40 PM

I purchased these due to the reasonable price, not knowing anything about the instant coffee/no filter. They work 1 out of every 4 times in my Keurig. I can tell it's trying to push water through it, but it gets "stuck". I have to power down my machine and restart the whole thing, causing me to throw out the K-Cup. In all, the lower price tag doesn't matter. I've wasted most of the box to the garbage! Terribly disappointing.

Posted by: kate at November 4, 2010 8:31 AM

I do agree with many others....this coffee was just brown water and very little of that....for whatever reason my kerig stops the water at a little less than 1/3 of a cup...I won't purchase this grove square coffee again....it's just a waste of my time and money.....hope the garbage dump likes it

Posted by: Barbara Iavasile at January 4, 2013 2:00 PM

Just adding my voice to the others. This coffee was bitter, gritty and weak. The outer packaging is very deceptive and the cup label says nothing about "soluble" or "microground". I've written to Sturm asking for my $8 back. Very poor marketing practices!

Posted by: Brian at August 31, 2011 12:30 PM

I was looking for the grove square web site to complain about the instant coffee flavor & found this forum. I find I am right, the cups sound & taste like instant because it is! Yuck.

Posted by: Lucy Bloomingdale at June 11, 2011 9:38 AM

I agree. As soon as I opened the box I knew something wasn’t right. The shaking of the k-cup is a good indicator that it is heavier grinds and hardly anything in the cup. When I brewed it it was like weak tea with grinds and residue in your coffee cup. Awful!!

Posted by: Angie at February 15, 2011 2:33 PM

This is a rip off !! Stay away from this. I guess Soluble means Instant! Shame on me for not knowing the difference...After I took my first sip, I almost threw up...Nasty tasting...DON'T BUY IT UNLESS YOU LIKE INSTANT COFFEE

Posted by: james at January 10, 2011 7:23 PM

I have been looking into buying a Keurig brewer, but even their own website has numerous bad reviews due to poor quality of the machine itself (breaking down, not brewing a full cup, shutting off). Seems they had a manufacturing problem and wanted to know if you knew if they have made corrections? Older reviews seemed ok, but then the most recent comments wer mostly negative.

Posted by: Mcook at October 18, 2010 4:38 PM