Keurig K-Cafe Review

It's hard to argue with convenience, and the Keurig K-Cafe is the most convenient way we've found to make coffee, lattes, and cappuccinos. We still think Nespresso machines can produce better-tasting variants of all 3, but if you know you like how K-Cups taste the K-Cafe can take your experience to a whole new level.

Performance Comparison

The K-Cafe earned a mediocre overall score in our testing. This is solely due to the fact that, according to our multitude of testers, Keurig machines don't make as good a cup of coffee as other brewing methods. However, the K-Cafe was at the top of the leaderboard for almost every other metric, so if you n=know you like how K-Cups taste you can consider this a top-notch machine.

Taste

We know saying this may garner some criticism, but we don't think K-Cups taste all that good. They don't taste bad either, but they just don't stack up to the taste of fresh beans and classic brewing methods. In comparison we've found K-Cups to taste a bit weak and watery, and sometimes even to carry a plastic aftertaste. That being said, they can still satisfy a caffeine craving, and we've found ourselves using the K-Cafe when we're in a hurry. All this combined to earn the K-Cafe a score of 3 out of 10 in our taste testing.

We do like that the K-Cafe now offers four different cup sizes (4, 6, 10, and 12 ounce). However, all of these cup sizes are brewed using the same amount of coffee, so a larger cup basically equals a weaker cup. There is a button for 'strong coffee', but we didn't notice a huge difference in taste when using this function.

If you like the convenience of capsule machines, we think Nespresso is able to brew a stronger, heartier cup. However, Nespresso capsules are more expensive and arent' ubiquitous on market shelves like K-Cups are.

Milk Drink Taste

The K-Cafe adds a milk frother to the traditional Keurig machine, offering the ability to make lattes and cappuccinos. We found these drinks to taste ok, but not great. First off, drinks like this need a good, strong shot of espresso as their base to taste really good. The K-Cafe can't brew a proper shot of espresso, it can only make a strong 'shot' of coffee. Also, the fill lines in the milk frother create a higher than optimal milk to coffee ratio. So if you want a stronger coffee taste, we'd suggest using a bit less milk than recommended.

In comparison, Nespresso machines can make a truer shot of espresso, resulting in better tasting espresso milk drinks. If your end goal is the best tasting, most convenient capsule cappuccino, you may want to check out Nespresso instead.

User Friendliness

You'd be hard-pressed to find an easier brewing process than using the K-Cafe. Simply turn the unit on, insert a K-Cup, select your brew style and cup size, and press go. The milk frother has its own controls that let you choose whether tou want to make a latte, cappuccino, or froth milk for an iced coffee. There are also fill lines in the cup telling you how much milk to pour for each drink (we would suggest filling slightly less than these lines suggest unless you want a very milky drink). Spent cups can just be removed and thrown away. Refilling the water tank is also very easy thanks to the large opening. It holds 60 ounces, enough water for a cup every morning of the week. All of this combined to earn the K-Cafe a user-friendliness score of 9 out of 10.

While the K-Cafe is incredibly easy to use, it doesn't distinguish itself from competing Nespresso models in that capacity. Nespresso makes similarly easy-to-use machines. In fact, the Vertuoline, which can make both coffee and espresso, uses barcodes to ensure the machine dials in the correct settings.

Convenience

This is where all Keurig machines, and the K-Cafe in particular, shine. Accordingly, it earned one of the top scores of 8 out of 10.

It only takes about 15 seconds of effort to get a K-Cup brewing, and there is virtually no cleanup. Actual brewing time is quick as well. Even with preheating we regularly were able to make a cup with less than 2 minutes of waiting (this, again, is very similar to the Nespresso machines).

We also like that the K-Cafe can accommodate travel mugs of up to 7.2 inches tall. However, this added height means you'll get some splash and splatter when using shorter mugs. This isn't a huge deal, a quick wipe with a rage clears up the mess, but it can be a bit annoying.

Ease of Cleaning

Like most pod machines, the K-Cafe requires almost no cleanup on a daily basis. Just yank the spent pod out of the machine and throw it away. AS we mentioned above shorter mugs may produce some splatter, necessitating a quick wipe down of the machine. The milk frother is dishwasher safe, but would certainly need to be hand-washed if you want to use it multiple days in a row before you run a load in the dishwasher.

Long-term cleaning, which involves descaling the machine every 3-6 months, depending on how much you use it. Descaling simply gets rid of the mineral buildup you can get from constantly boiling water. Descaling the K-Cafe requires a bottle of Keurig descaling solution, running that through the machine, then running it many more times to rinse everything out. This process took us about 70 minutes with a lot of waiting around, combined with numerous trips to the sink to refill the reservoir. Here again, the process is very similar for all the Nespresso machines we tested.

Value

The Keurig K-cafe certainly isn't cheap. However, it isn't too far off the price of other capsule machines and provides you with a built-in milk frother. If you're looking to make milk drinks with your K-Cups, this is a great value.

Conclusion