I am a big fan of coffee. I drink a lot of it, every day. It is not about the caffeine, I really like the taste. And I like it fairly strong. For the last few years I have used an AeroPress. It is like a modified french press but designed to make espresso instead of brewed coffee (I used it to make americanos).
For Christmas we gave my sister in law a Keurig coffee maker. She is the only coffee drinker in her house and we thought that a single serving coffee maker was a good idea. From there my Mother in Law bought one. And a couple weeks ago I broke down and bought this one (at Costco).
What people love is that the coffee is very to make. You use little cups that you put in the coffee maker and the coffee is brewed in that little cup and drips into your cup. Start to finish the water is heated and make in less than a minute. The clean up is simply taking out the little plastic cup and putting in the next one. It is also great for people that love a variety of coffee or households that have both regular and decaf drinkers (like ours).
The main complaint that most people have about Keurig coffee makers are that the coffee can be a bit weak and it is hard to do fresh ground coffee. Once I realized that the k-cups that say “Extra Bold” are not about a darker roast, but instead have about 30% more coffee in the k-cup and so make a stronger cup of coffee I started only buying those brands.
But I still want my own ground coffee. Yes it defeats a bit of the ease of cleanup but I really like my coffee. The Cuisinart comes with a My K-cup which is the solution that Keurig has for making your own coffee. I don’t like it much because it is hard to clean. But once I realized how to load the coffee (it really needs to be tamped down) the coffee was fairly good.
I still was not happy. So I tried the alternate holder. The My K-cup requires you taking apart the machine just a little bit (it is easy, but you still have to do it.) The Solofill is the same size as a regular K-cup so you just put it in and you are good. You fill it pretty full with coffee (I think I am using about 1/3 more coffee than the My K-cup) and it has a stronger cup of coffee coming out. It was more of the flavor of coffee that I was looking for.
While you still have to clean the coffee grounds, it is much easier to clean than the My K-cup.
All in all, I am really liking Keurig as a coffee system.