Review: Tully’s Hawaiian Blend Vue Packs for the Keurig Vue

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Hawaiian coffee appear in K-Cup, let alone Vue Pack format. So we were a bit surprised to see Tully’s taking a stab at making such a product. As you’ve obviously noticed, they didn’t call this a Kona Blend likely because there’s no Kona coffee in it. We tried finding the exact blend used and the best we can guess is that Kauai coffee is what’s included here. Most companies decided to start selling Kauai coffee as a cheaper alternative to Kona once they realized how badly decimated Kona crops were after the borer beetle infestation a few years ago.

As farms struggle to recover crops and plant new ones, Kauai remains the only island with enough crops to sustain demand for Hawaiian coffee production. Similar in nature to Kona, Kauai coffee is slightly more acidic in nature yet still maintains the characteristic smoothness of Kona to a certain degree. We’ve never seen it blended with other varietals before, so it’ll be interesting to see the final results. Today we check out Tully’s Hawaiian Blend Vue Packs.

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Review: Green Mountain Island Coconut Vue Packs

When we first started reviewing Vue Packs and noticed how the strong button could affect (both positively and negatively) the flavor of a coffee, the first flavor we wish GMCR would have released was Island Coconut. Out of all the seasonal flavors, it's our #1 favorite and when we first tasted it, we immediately wanted MORE coconuttiness (is that even a word?) in our cup. The intoxicating tropical coconut aromas paired with the intense coconut flavor had us... well... going nuts. We just couldn't help but wonder how the strong button would affect such a superb coffee. Would it blow the dial past 11 in coconut flavor or would it turn things so bitter & sour that we'd be rushing to rebuild the S.S. Minnow and get the heck off Gilligan's Island?

We called it during our GMCR Caramel Vanilla Cream Vue Pack review as we suspected back then that this flavor wouldn't be too far behind on the Vue Pack line-up's release schedule, so let's see if these new seasonal Vue Packs can recreate the same euphoric sensation as their K-Cup counterparts and possibly improve upon it. Today we check out the long awaited & highly anticipated Green Mountain Island Coconut Vue Packs.

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Keurig VUE V500 Brewing System

Offering a smaller footprint and even lower price point in the series (SRP of $169.99), the new Vue V500 combines Keurig single serve simplicity with the popular customizable features of the Vue series to deliver Keurig's best cup to an even broader range of consumers.Available beginning April 2, 2013 at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and at retailers nationwide, the new Vue V500 offers:

• Fully programmable black and white touchscreen featuring auto on/off, temperature and strength control, energy saver mode and size selection
• Seven brew sizes -- from 4 oz. to 16 oz. travel mug
• Removable 60 oz. water reservoir
• Removable drip tray with adjustable plate
• Brews in under one minute

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Green Mountain Coffee Expands Offerings

AB from Maine was out and about and happened upon some new offerings from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. for their VUE single serve coffee brewer along with some K-Cups.

While out with my wife today we stopped by our local Bed Bath & Beyond in Bangor. We found for the Vue Starbucks Decaf House Blend, Bigelow English Breakfast Tea, Hawaiian Blend, Island Coconut, and peach Snapple in K-cups.

I am glad to see they are offering more variety for the Vue.

It's really nice to see an expansion of the VUE line, along with Peach Snapple K-Cups making us excited for some Spring weather to drink them in.

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Review: Solofill Cup V1 Gold Vue Pack Filter

After the first Keurig Vue brewer was released, the first thing most people kept wondering was whether or not Keurig would manufacturer a My Vue Pack re-usable filter for it. We heard rumors that Keurig were in fact working on just such an item, but we could never confirm if this was actually the case and we have yet to see anything materialize on Keurig's website nor anywhere on the market. When Solofill realized there was a demand for a re-usable filter, they decided to make the boffins in their R&D department design the first Solofill filter for Vue brewers and hence the item we're reviewing today... the Solofill Cup V1 Gold Vue Pack Filter.

The filter is the size of a travel mug Vue Pack and is made up of 2 components... the outer plastic shell and an inner filter basket which is completely removable. The plastic shell has a hole in the center of the lid for the intake needle and a hole near the bottom of the shell's spout for the output needle. The design/shape of the Vue system's brew chamber ensures that the filter will be inserted properly each time and again, there's no need to disassemble anything... just fill the filter with coffee, pop it in the brewer like any other Vue Pack and you're good to go. The one major difference is obviously the customization factor of the Vue brewer. You will need to experiment to see which settings on the machine produce the best results.

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Folgers VUE Packs Now at Target

More great finds at Target from our Maine correspondent AB. Looks like more Vue packs from Folgers and others are showing up at Target. You can use these in any Vue brewing system. We have tried the K-Cup versions of these Vue packs and they're quite good. Have you seen any interesting Vue packs appearing at your local retailers?

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Review: Green Mountain Naturals Hot Apple Cider Vue Packs

Let’s step back a few years ago, when there were many K-Cup flavors that fans had been begging for over and over again. As the years passed and as contracts/agreements between manufacturers & brand owners were made, we slowly started seeing fan demand being answered. Several years ago, nobody would have ever dreamed that Dunkin Donuts coffee would be available in K-Cup format, but now not only do we have that, we have limited edition Dunkins flavors that are exclusivelybeing released in K-Cup format (i.e. Dunkins Mocha). Well, another item that was sorely missed & much demanded in K-Cup format was apple cider.

We’ve seen many companies release a multitude of flavors in instant powder mix format, but we had never seen an apple cider K-Cup before. Again, Green Mountain listened and decided “You know what? If we’re going to make an apple cider K-Cup, screw this powdered artificial stuff… let’s make REAL cider with REAL natural ingredients!” and so, thus was born the new Green Mountain Naturals brand and the world’s first single serve apple cider K-Cup. It became a massive hit, selling-out so quickly & regularly that Green Mountain were forced to change it from a seasonal product to a permanent product and it’s remained a fan favorite ever since.

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Review: Green Mountain Caramel Vanilla Cream Vue Packs

We've been seeing most of our favorite K-Cups make the transition over to the newer Vue Pack format since Keurig started rolling-out the Vue V700 several months ago and there's been a slow but steady increase of new Vue Packs appearing on Keurig.com during that time. Today we look at one of the most recent additions by checking out the Green Mountain Caramel Vanilla Cream Vue Packs. This was one of our favorite flavors in K-Cup format, so we were interested to see how things would turn out using the Vue Packs.

Brewing these Vue Packs at regular strength resulted in massive aromas of caramel blended together with sweet brown sugar tinges and hints of vanilla in the background with very slight touches of hazelnut hiding underneath. All the scents quickly filled the room and had us seriously impressed. We've witnessed strong aromas before, but wow... this was crazy. Things smelled so deliciously good that we could have just stood there all morning sniffing in the aroma without even taking a sip while being perfectly content (although that wouldn't have made for much of a review). An interesting side-note, aromas were so strong that they even lingered in the EMPTY cup afterwards... which we had positioned on the OTHER SIDE of our desk a good 2 feet away from us! What the heck is in this stuff? Concentrated "this is frickin total awesomesauce" extract? The heck with Glade plug-ins, we're just gonna leave the empty cup on our desk all week.

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Starbucks Vue Packs Now at Target

We had a reader write in that Starbucks Vue Packs are now at Target. 

Details:

I was in my local Target in Bangor Maine when I happen to see these. Very excited.

It's nice to see these Vue packs roll out, and we can't wait to try them. Check out the review of the V700 Vue Single Serve Coffee and hot beverage system here.

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Review: Café Escapes Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Vue Packs

Today we decided to take a look at an addition to the Vue Pack lineup from earlier this year... Café Escapes Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Vue Packs. We've already tried their K-Cup version, so we were interested to see how this version would stack-up in comparison.

Brewing these Vue Packs resulted in medium aromas of dark chocolate but it wasn't as strong as what we were expecting. At first we thought that maybe some of the powder got stuck inside the Vue Pack but we made sure to shake it and tilt it backwards (to free up any remaining powder from the outlet spout) prior to brewing and sure enough... when we checked the Vue Pack afterwards, it was clean as could be... no left-over powder whatsoever. Odd... you'd think for a dark chocolate, it would have had a richer scent.

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Snapple Brew Over Ice K-Cups and Vue Packs

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.

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Keurig Vue V600 Brewing System

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. has expanded of its Keurig Vue Brewing System with the addition of the Keurig Vue V600 brewer. Offering an interactive black and white touchscreen and a lower price point (SRP of $209.99). They've also reduced the price of the Keurig Vue V700 Single Cup Brewing System (read our full review here) to $229.99. The difference in price between the V600 and V700 of $20 means you'll be getting an interactive black and white touchscreen on the V600. The V700 and V600 will only work with Keurig Vue Packs.

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Review: Café Escapes Café Caramel Vue Packs for Keurig Vue Brewing Systems

Up next in our line of Vue Pack reviews are the Café Escapes Café Caramel Vue Packs. These are billed in the specialty drink category and are the first powdered ingredient Vue Pack we've tried so far. On top of that, we're total suckers for anything caramel-flavored, so we grabbed a box of these as soon as we could. We were curious to see how the blending of 3 separate powdered ingredients would mesh together... powdered milk creamer, caramel flavoring and instant coffee (yes, you read that correctly... INSTANT coffee). For those of you who haven't run out of the room screaming in terror yet, we'll get started now.

Brewing these Vue Packs resulted in rich scents of caramel along with faint butterscotch notes hiding underneath. As for the coffee, we only got faint notes of it here. We were glad the predominant scent here was caramel instead of coffee since we feel this is a specialty drink with hints of coffee, not a coffee with hints of caramel.

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Review: Van Houtte French Vanilla Vue Packs for Keurig Vue Brewing Systems

Our voyage through the wonderful world of Vue Packs brings us today to yet another flavored variety, Van Houtte French Vanilla Vue Packs. Van Houtte have been around in Canada for about as long as long as Marmite’s been around New Zealand and we’re sure if Kiwis had a chance to sample some (Van Houtte Coffee), they’d agree it tastes considerably better. We were again curious to see what kind of results we’d get with the strong button, so we forged ahead.

Brewing these Vue Packs resulted in warm aromas of vanilla blended with caramel throughout. Billed as a light roast, flavor revealed the same notes of vanilla & caramel with the caramel flavors almost outpacing the vanilla ones. Those were definitely the 2 predominant flavors here as we simply could not detect anything else.

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