ONE CLICK, HOT DRINKS...

ONE CLICK, HOT DRINKS…

© 2010 BOB SKIDMORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

BOB SKIDMORE

CORRESPONDENT

Everyone enjoys some form of hot drink, whether it’s coffee, hot, or iced tea, hot chocolate, or your own wonderful concoction. The problem typically is the mess you create and the time it takes to make it all come together. Keurig, one of several hot drink brewer device manufactures, has a unique answer. Imagine, no more scorched pots, hot burners, or cooked brews.

Recently I tested two of Keurig’s one-cup brewers. My favorite, for reasons that will become obvious, is the model B155. This gadget has an easily refilled reservoir that holds 90 ounces of water. It can dispense any of four-cup sizes, 4, 6, 8 and 10 ounces. When left on, there’s no fire hazard here, a fresh cup of whatever is less than one-minute away. In home settings it’s easy to shut down the system during non-use periods to conserve energy, since heating the reservoir only take a few moments.

Here’s how it works. Plug the brewer into 120 volts AC, fill the detachable water container and power up. The heating process will now take place. When ready, the interactive touch screen display alerts you to the ready status. Place your cup, or glass below the brewer on the removable spill tray, lift the brewer handle, insert your K-Cup selection from dozens of brews available, and place the handle back down. Now the interactive display will ask you to select the cup size, then press the BREW button below the display and walla you have your hot drink in a matter of seconds. Since the brewer dispenses hot water thru the brewer container it’s possible to make drinks without the use of K-Cups by simply adding the ingredients to your cup or glass. It’s quick to see that you’ll never have over-brewed, stale, or leftover drinks, and clean up is virtually nothing. A word of caution, the K-Cup holder uses an upper and lower sharp needle to puncture the K-Cup, so care must be taken when cleaning this area to avoid injury. Descaling, a process to remove mineral and calcium deposits built up from your local water supply, is recommended every 3 – 6 months and easily accomplished.

A wide variety of K-Cup brews are readily available at grocers, retailers and on-line. Each single cup made offers individual drinking pleasure of your favorite brew. Seasonal flavors like pumpkin are also offered.

I also tested Keurig’s “Mini Personal Brewer”. It incorporates the same brewing method as all the other models, however, does not have the reservoir feature thus requiring individual water fill-ups. It also features a cup detection sensor that prevents spillage if no cup were present. This is a feature that should be added to the B155 previously reviewed. All Keurig models are designed for commercial and residential use with ground plug power connection.

One of many options available, while not tested by me, looks very interesting. The Café One-Touch stand-a-lone Milk Frother makes frothed, or warm milk at the touch of a button and would probably be nice for cappuccino style coffee, or a special cup of hot chocolate. ($79.95)

These two Keurig models are superior, well-built products. They do what they claim, are easy to use and require virtually no after-use clean up. I give them a well-deserved three thumbs up. These brewers, as well as other models, are available at retail shops and on-line. Further details available at: www.keurig.com

MSRP: B155 $249.99 – Mini $89.95 – JUST RELEASED Mini Plus $99.95

K-Cups average 64¢ each (Available in larger quantities at discounted prices)

Bob Skidmore is a freelance writer who may be contacted at bskidmore@mac.com, or twitter.com/bskidmore.

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