October 18, 2012
With most patents expiring Green Mountain Coffee and Keurig are facing competition from companies creating and selling their own Keurig K-Cup compatible coffees, and now Kraft has entered the game. Kraft Foods Group Inc plans to sell Maxwell House and Gevalia K-cup single-serve coffee pods compatible with Keurig brewing systems.
The pods are not licensed by Keurig or affiliated in any way, and that means that Green Mountain will not receive any royalties from their sale. The move by Kraft, which also owns the rival Tassimo one-cup brewer, represents the first time a big-name coffee brand had gone around Green Mountain in making K-Cups for its the Keurig system.
We have no details on what coffee blends or other hot or cold beverages Kraft intends to make for the Keurig K-Cup brewers, but we'll provide details as soon as we find out.
Via Chicago Tribune
October 9, 2012
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group have reached an agreement to offer Snapple premium iced teas in K-Cup and Vue packs for Keurig single cup brewing systems. We're really impressed by the number of non-coffee drinks Green Mountain is going to over for both the VUE and K-Cup systems - but this one really impresses.
Snapple K-Cup pack iced teas will be offered in a variety of at home and away from home channels for Keurig brewer consumers in the United States and Canada in Spring 2013, with Vue packs to follow. The new beverages will join the current Brew Over Ice collection, a line specially crafted to brew iced beverages with any Keurig brewing system.
Founded in 1972 by three childhood friends, the Snapple brand got its start in Greenwich Village, New York and is now available throughout the United States. Snapple prides itself on developing, producing and marketing a wide variety of premium beverages, including ready-to-drink iced teas, juice drinks, 100% juices, and water.
October 8, 2012
We kick things off today by reviewing a recent K-Cup addition to the Café Escapes line-up... Café Escapes Café Vanilla K-Cups. We’ve come to expect pretty decent results from Café Escapes over the years and their hot cocoas remain some of our favorites to date. We were intrigued when we noticed some new flavors pop up on Green Mountain’s site as web-exclusives, so we decided to give this one a try.
Brewing these K-Cups resulted in delicate notes of sweet vanilla filling the room with hints of coffee in the background. The main notes were vanilla with coffee aromas being pushed to the back, something you might see in a vanilla latte. Flavor was pretty much the same with sweet notes of vanilla flowing through at first sip with faint notes of coffee in the background. We were wondering why we weren’t getting more of a coffee flavor until we remembered that Café Escapes use instant coffee in their K-Cups/Vue Packs. While we’re not exactly fans of instant coffee, we can put up with it in this case since it didn’t seem to be impacting the main flavor of vanilla. Instead, things seemed a bit lighter than what we were expecting.
Continue reading: "Review: Café Escapes Café Vanilla K-Cups"
October 3, 2012
SH has spotted these Melitta Single Serve Coffee Cups in European Deluxe, and 100% Columbian varieties which are compatible with most Keurig K-Cup brewers. These Melitta single serve coffee cups were found in Canada, and we're not sure if they'll be coming stateside or not. These look very much like the Rogers Gourmet Coffee OneCup portion packs, and have a small coffee pod like pouch on the bottom with a filter.
October 1, 2012
It’s been a while since Dunkin Donuts released a new K-Cup and since some of their flavored varieties have been hit or miss in the past, we were cautiously optimistic when we heard they’d be coming out with a limited edition flavor during the summer months. Today we take a look at Dunkin Donuts Mocha K-Cups.
Brewing these K-Cups resulted in strong blasts of chocolate aromas which quickly filled the room and quashed any doubt we had about these K-Cups being able to produce anything chocolaty. The weirdest thing though? We could have sworn we even detected faint notes of raisins hiding underneath. Yes, raisins! That has GOT to be a Single Serve Coffee first. Flavor was thankfully not raisin-like but moreso on-par with the aroma as we got the acidity’s sour notes which brought the coffee flavor to the foreground and then as we neared the end, we got a decent hit of chocolate flavor in the background.
Continue reading: "Review: Dunkin Donuts Mocha K-Cups for Keurig Brewers"
September 18, 2012
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. has entered into the wellness category of single serve beverages, and we're pretty excited. They have introduced wellness coffees, teas, and fruit brews in K-Cup packs for the Keurig single cup brewing system over the past few weeks, and so far we like them. These innovative beverages are packed with added ingredients, like antioxidant vitamins, making it easy to enjoy the perfect combination of smart choices and great taste.
The Wellness Brewed collection aims to make less do more for consumers by adding something extra to their everyday coffee, tea, or fruit brew. We've already reviewed one of the vitamin burst K-Cups and we found them to be really yummy.
Continue reading: "Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Wellness Brewed Beverages"
September 17, 2012
Starbucks created their Anniversary Blend back in 1996 to celebrate their 25th anniversary and it was so popular that it remained a seasonal favorite which would be reintroduced each Fall. Starbucks claims the secret to the distinctive taste of this coffee is due to the use of aged Sumatran beans from Indonesia, but to the honest, the thing that had us jumping for joy was the recent introduction of what we’re reviewing today: Starbucks Anniversary Blend K-Cups. We would like to note that we liked the artwork on the packaging & how the foil lid on the K-Cup gave a light gold appearance to the artwork as well. Since most K-Cups have pretty standardized artwork, this made for a nice difference.
Billed as one of the first seasonal Starbucks K-Cups (Hmm… could we be seeing Christmas Blend K-Cups in a few months?), brewing these K-Cups resulted in strong, almost wine-like aromas with smoky hickory tinged by mild notes of caramel in the background. Flavor was nicely presented with a huge amount of complex tastes swirling around in the cup. You start off with some of the smoky notes, but surprisingly, they’re a lot smoother and not as intense as your typical Starbucks dark roast. You then notice some molasses flavors mingling around with more notes of sweet caramel and things are topped off by some dark chocolate flavors near the end with a light spicy kick in the finish. Outstanding & unlike anything we’ve seen before from Starbucks.
Continue reading: "Review: Starbucks Anniversary Blend K-Cups for Keurig"
September 13, 2012
Over at the Starbucks blog there's news Starbucks Anniversary Blend K-Cups are now available for a limited time in Stabucks stores. SH has sent in this shot from a find in New Brunswick, Canada and we do know they'll be available in the US as well. We like the the foil treatment on these K-Cups, and it's nice to see Starbucks offering a seasonal K-Cup for the first time.
September 12, 2012
Given the amount of after market K-Cups being produced by other coffee roasters besides Green Mountains stable of coffee roaster, and the fact that all of them are unlicensed and untested it's no surprised Keurig has decided to create a Keurig Brewed seal of approval. Soon all Keurig authorized packaging will feature the Keurig Brewed seal.
What does it mean? It will mean when you see it, you can trust you're getting the quality, taste and safety you've come to expect in every cup-every time, without exception. Shoffee.com makes some great points on the safety factor.
Continue reading: "Meet the Keurig Brewed Seal"
September 7, 2012
It seems like there is a new coffee capsule or coffee pod that works with Keurig brewers as of late, and this week we had many readers write in asking about Martinson Coffee Capsules for Keurig K-Cup Brewers. We've yet to try them, but they do come packed in a large 36-count box, and there are a lot of flavors already available.
Flavors Include:
- Breakfast Blend
- Dark Roast
- House Blend
- Hazelnut
- French Roast
- Donut Shop
Joe Martinson's (owned by Mother Parkers) dedication to the art of coffee-roasting helped create the term "Cup of Joe" as being real coffee. We'll see if we can get some of these coffee capsules to review soon.
Kraft to Sell and Create Maxwell House and Gevalia K-cups for Keurig
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