November 16, 2010
We continue our series of Wolfgang Puck K-Cup reviews with the Wolfgang Puck Chef's Reserve Colombian Decaf K-Cups in today's review. It should be noted that there's actually one major difference between the regular & decaf versions of the Chef Reserve Colombian flavor (no, it's not the obvious lack of caffeine)... the decaf is a medium roast while the regular is a dark roast. We can't recall the last time we saw a K-Cup manufacturer use a different roast for their decaf version, so this should make for some interesting nuances.
Upon brewing, we got a small waft of your typical medium roasts but then it quickly disappeared. We had to stop and check that our Keurig hadn't crapped-out half way through the brew... that's how bizarre it was. Once the brewing was over, we took our time to try and discern any outstanding scents but couldn't really smell anything other than a rather weak standard Arabica scent. There were no dark chocolate notes of the regular Colombian version here, nor any of the earthiness. A really weak & lacking aroma overall.
Continue reading: "Review: Wolfgang Puck Chef's Reserve Colombian Decaf K-Cups for Keurig"
October 22, 2010
Next up in our series of Wolfgang Puck K-Cup reviews are the Wolfgang Puck Breakfast In Bed K-Cups for today’s review. Labeled as a medium roast, we wondered if Van Houtte decided to name this flavor based on the comforting qualities one finds in their own bed when they wake up each morning. While that remains to be seen, let’s just hope this flavor doesn’t make us want to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep like their Colombian Decaf did recently.
Upon brewing, typical aromas of Arabica were present, but appeared to border on a light dark roast in regards to earthiness. Flavor was surprisingly the same… which led us to believe this was more of a medium-bold blend than a lighter medium. Will be interesting to see how some of the other K-Cups in the Wolfgang Puck line-up turn out as there’s some which are in fact listed as medium-bolds. We detected faint nutty notes in the background along with some mild earthy notes found in the regular Chef’s Reserve Colombian we reviewed a while back.
Continue reading: "Review: Wolfgang Puck Breakfast In Bed K-Cups for Keurig"
October 6, 2010
We continue our iced beverage reviews with one of the latest “Brew Over Ice” K-Cups to hit the market… Celestial Seasonings Half and Half Perfect Iced Tea K-Cups. Their “half & half” consists of half lemonade (made with real lemon, or “true lemon” as they claim on the packaging) along with half black tea. As is now common with the entire Brew Over Ice lineup, these K-Cups are designed to be used with either the 6oz or 8oz settings on your Keurig brewer (which makes us wonder if the 4oz iced beverage setting on certain models will ever be used again)
Upon brewing, strong aromas of lemon quickly emerged and became the primary scent. At least now we know what the whole “true lemon” signage on the packaging was about since the aroma really is that of real fresh-cut lemons & not something artificial. Taste was what surprised us the most. We kept thinking of our less than ideal experience with Celestial Seasonings Unsweetened Black Iced Tea K-Cups and were afraid that this would just be that K-Cup with “more lemon” dumped-in.
Continue reading: "Review: Celestial Seasonings Half & Half Perfect Iced Tea K-Cups"
September 22, 2010
Many of you know Wolfgang Puck as a World-famous chef with his own line of restaurants and retail food items, so when a chef of his stature decided to enter the K-Cup scene, we got really interested, really fast (after all, some of Emeril’s K-Cups weren’t too shabby). Distributed by Van Houtte (a recent acquisition which was the final card in GMCR’s royal flush poker hand of K-Cup manufacturers), we attended different events surrounding the launch of these K-Cups and decided it was about time we started reviewing the line-up. As a result, we kick things off today with the Wolfgang Puck Chef’s Reserve Colombian K-Cups.
Upon brewing, strong aromas of earthiness & dark chocolate fill the room although that’s no surprise since this is billed as a dark roast. We’ll admit the scent was a bit more balanced than what we’ve seen in other dark roasts since we got the earthy notes of the beans but no overbearing burnt notes of the actual roasting process or any hickory smoke characteristics seen in a few other dark roast varieties on the market.
Continue reading: "Review: Wolfgang Puck Chef’s Reserve Colombian K-Cups for Keurig"
September 15, 2010
Our quest to try every new “Brew Over Ice” K-Cup continues today with our review of Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Perfect Iced Tea K-Cups. These K-Cups combine traditional black tea and dump on a generous serving of cane sugar to add a touch of the South to this drink since after all; sweet tea did originate from the Southern states (as is described via this interesting Wikipedia entry). As a matter of fact, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the weight of these K-Cups… they are PACKED with cane sugar and weigh a few grams more than some other flavors in the lineup.
Upon brewing, mild aromas of black tea appear for a few minutes although overall, there’s not much of a scent present in the finished cup once all is said and done. We were expecting a bit more of a traditional orange pekoe scent but it’s always hard to get the same aromas as the hot version when you’re making iced tea. As a result, we’ll score this as average.
Continue reading: "Review: Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Perfect Iced Tea K-Cups"
September 7, 2010
With Summer drawing to an end and Fall settling-in within the next few months, we decided to try beating yet another heat wave recently by reviewing one of this year's new "Brew Over Iced Coffee K-Cups". What's so new, you ask? Why this first official iced coffee K-Cup, that's what. More specifically, Green Mountain's French Vanilla Iced Coffee K-Cups.
Conceived especially for iced beverages, this K-Cup is a bit different than the previous generation of iced K-Cups since instead of using your Keurig's 4oz iced beverage setting (if it has one), you just brew the default 6oz size over ice (just remember to use a larger cup/mug accordingly). Aroma was as expected, light notes of French vanilla with a standard base of Arabica coffee in the background. So far, so good.
Continue reading: "Review: Green Mountain French Vanilla Iced Coffee K-Cups"
June 30, 2010
Whether you want to call them kcups or K-Cups, or K Cups, you need reviews to tell you want to drink in your Keurig single cup coffee maker. We have lots of reviews and feature K-Cup reviews almost weekly here at single serve coffee. You can check out our Keurig and K-Cup reviews section, and feel free to send in your reviews and what you think of the Keurig coffees you're drinking.
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June 9, 2010
According to Coffee People's website, they got their start at the Saturday Market in Eugene, Oregon back in the early '80s, selling small batches of roasted specialty coffee to market goers. Soon after in 1983, they opened their first coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon. Later in 1999, they were acquired by the Diedrich Coffee Family who in turn took over the roasting duties of their beans from them. The rest is history and has formed the Coffee People brand (now headquartered in Irvine, California) many people have come to know & love today.
We decided to revisit "the holy grail of K-Cups" which just about everyone & their grandma appear to adore (based on various forum comments & other site reviews): Coffee People Original Donut Shop K-Cups. Yes, before many competitors started releasing their own imitation versions, Coffee People were one of the 1st companies to release a donut shop coffee in K-Cup format, so they can be considered the pioneers in that sense and it's likely why their website shows "The Original" added to this K-Cup's name (the K-Cups we purchased didn't have this printed on them).
Continue reading: "Re-Review: Coffee People Original Donut Shop K-Cups"
June 2, 2010
We have to admit that when we first heard Green Mountain was introducing donut-flavored coffees in their recent Donut House series of K-Cups, the only thought that sprung to mind was "yeah, right". Could they really capture the taste experience of biting into the flavor's namesake donut? We set off to find out if this truly was the case and opted for their Donut House Blend Chocolate Glazed Donut K-Cups this time around.
As any Green Mountain K-Cup fan will know, they have a reputation for making some pretty spot-on flavorings when it comes to their flavored coffee K-Cups (Island Coconut, anyone?), so our hopes were set high right off the bat. Needless to say, we had nothing to worry about. Upon brewing, rich chocolate aromas filled the room and left us wondering just how the heck the flavor geniuses at GMCR managed to pull it off... the scent was exactly like fresh baked chocolate glazed donuts at our favorite local donut shop and it even had some of our staff fooled as they rushed the Single Serve Coffee kitchens looking for a box.
Continue reading: "Review: Green Mountain Donut House Chocolate Glazed Donut K-Cups"
May 24, 2010
It's been a while since we've reviewed anything in Green Mountain's Café Escapes lineup, so we decided to try one of their newer varieties... Café Escapes Chai Latte K-Cups. Although we briefly touched on these K-Cups several months ago, we wanted to give a more fleshed-out full review as we're sure some of you were waiting for us to do.
The Café Escapes Chai Latte K-Cups are billed as having "flavors of black tea and exotic spices, smoothed by a splash of milk and sugar", it should also be noted that traditional flavors of cinnamon, cloves & cardamom along with slight notes of honey are also present in this K-Cup. We were curious to see just how creamy this flavor was going to be since we're adding nothing but water here and unlike Tassimo's Twinings variety, there's no separate creamer disc/K-Cup. When comparing the two, they're pretty well even in terms of taste. Some may find that this K-Cup has a slightly stronger sucralose aftertaste than the T-Discs but we found it was about the same either way.
Continue reading: "Review: Café Escapes Chai Latte K-Cups for Keurig"
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Review: Wolfgang Puck Chef's Reserve Colombian Decaf K-Cups for Keurig
Review: Brown Gold 100% Colombian Real Cups
