8 ms·

> but it seems like a roller would be able to provide a more efficient and focused method of squeezing than a press they're using now. Or maybe, just maybe, a

by awalton 10y ago

> but it seems like a roller would be able to provide a more efficient and focused method of squeezing than a press they're using now. Or maybe, just maybe, a screw-driven piston, like many actual juicers have... But let's be completely honest - the machine was always meant to be an expensive countertop device. It looks expensive, it weighs a lot, people will think you spent a lot of money on it even if they don't know how much it'll cost... This is exactly why the engineering staff was told "go nuts" on the hardware design - the more expensive and custom, the better. It does the job of looking like a high-end appliance exactly and precisely, and really nothing more. This company always intended to make its money back selling overpriced juice packs like Keurig, banking on people with more money than common sense buying and using the hell out of these devices for the $14 juice packs. Selling the machines near cost or even as a loss leader was perfectly acceptable, as long as customers had to come back to them for more juice month over month. It just turns out consumers were smart enough to see through the not-so-clever ruse of buying a $400 counterweight to squeeze a package of pre-squeezed juice out of a bag and into a cup...

PaulHoule 10y ago
Keurig is not that bad. The system is out of patent so you can get off-brand brewers and cartridges that aren't quite as good in quality but are unlikely to cause a terrible mess in a hotel room.
- IAmGraydon 10y ago
  Keurig is great at one thing: making the worst coffee this world has to offer. That aside, I though they went to DRM enabled cups in the last few years in an attempt to block the aftermarket cup makers.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    ...the worst coffee this world has to offer. Having heard this from a number of coffee fans, I suspect you're not the market Keurig really targets. Rather I suspect we non-coffee-drinkers might be the primary buyers. We want something that will sit innocuously in the kitchen, looking good and doing nothing, on the off chance that we'll be expected to provide coffee for someone. We don't know how to buy coffee, we don't know how to prepare it, and we don't know how to clean up after preparing it. Also, we don't care to know any of those things. So, here's a something we made for you that came out of a fancy package. Now we're going to throw away this little plastic cup.
    - ams6110 10y ago
      You can get Maxwell House instant coffee which is packaged in tea bags so making a cup of coffee is as easy as a cup of tea. And it's as good as Keurig coffee.
      - jessaustin 10y ago
        This is good advice!
    - myrandomcomment 10y ago
      So my wife and I use a French Press for coffee in the morning. I love a good cup of coffee and it really does not take that much time to make. Heck, I enjoy the process. Now for espresso or the like, well that is a different story. We used to have an espresso machine but it was quite a pain (and took up space). For that the machines are great. We have the Nespresso machine with the milk attachment. Makes a pretty good cup. They provide mailing bags for you to send back the used cups? carts? (hum) for recycling.
      - killjoywashere 10y ago
        I've been using a tiny Krups Esprimo for over 10 years. One of the tubes popped off after a few years, but after taking the shell off and identifying the culprit, I just used a zip tie as a miniature hose clamp and have been going strong for a long time. The key with the hose was to clean the nozzle: it has a single port, so a clogged port is a single source of failure. But $90 for an 8-bar espresso machine is hard to beat. Not good for random joe, but fine for a hacker. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00007CWFE https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00007CWFE
      - mattkevan 10y ago
        Aeropress. Small, fun, easy to use and clean - and makes excellent coffee.
      - IAmGraydon 10y ago
        The french press is just the ultimate coffee making device. It's simple, it gives you a lot of control (via the amount, the grind, the water temperature and soak time) and it makes glorious, glorious coffee. Expresso machines are complex and bulky, and they generally aren't worth it unless you can spend $600+ (and that plus goes WAY up). Nespresso isn't bad at all (we have one here at work), but even better is a Lavazza machine, which takes cartridges like the Nespresso, but the resulting espresso is an order of magnitude better, in my opinion.
  - mmanfrin 10y ago
    Keurig is great at one thing: making the worst coffee this world has to offer The behemoth coffee machine in my office kitchen would like a word.
  - posguy 10y ago
    Yeah, if you want awful coffee, Keurig is here to service you! Otherwise, a simple hot pot can heat water and make you a good cup of drip coffee without grounds at a much lower price point, and it is compostable/yardwasteable, unlike those K-cups!
    - dawnerd 10y ago
      Guess people forget you can get pods that let you use your own coffee and it's reusable and you put the grounds in compost.
      - posguy 10y ago
        I've used those at past workplaces that had Keurig machines, while it works it is a mess to clean, and essentially requires a sink to clean. Comparatively, drip coffee grounds are self contained in a paper filter.
        dawnerd 10y ago
        I've seen people use tiny paper filters in them. No idea if it's something you can buy though - I'm not really a coffee drinker.
  - criddell 10y ago
    > the worst coffee this world has to offer I guess you've never had coffee out of a rarely serviced machine in the break room of a millwrighting shop. Keurig coffee is the smoothest brew ever compared to some of the terrible coffee I've gladly drank over the years.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    I've had the worst coffee this world has to offer. I got it at a truck stop somewhere off Interstate 40 in east Tennessee. Tasted like bile and acid, went through me like a dose of salts, and left desolation and sorrow in its wake. Had me in the bushes off the side of the road for the better part of an hour, and gave me a whole new respect for long-haul truckers - either they have the iron constitution to drink that shit and not mind it, or they keep in close enough touch that they've all warned each other off it. Either way, I'm impressed. Keurigs do a perfectly fine job by comparison.
pbreit 10y ago
The juice packs are $5-$8.
mcphage 10y ago
All you're saying is true, but they still would have been much better off designing something that didn't cost them so much to produce. It would have looked, and weighed the same, but they would have made a lot more money.

by awalton 10y ago

PaulHoule 10y ago

Keurig is not that bad. The system is out of patent so you can get off-brand brewers and cartridges that aren't quite as good in quality but are unlikely to cause a terrible mess in a hotel room.

IAmGraydon 10y ago
Keurig is great at one thing: making the worst coffee this world has to offer. That aside, I though they went to DRM enabled cups in the last few years in an attempt to block the aftermarket cup makers.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  ...the worst coffee this world has to offer. Having heard this from a number of coffee fans, I suspect you're not the market Keurig really targets. Rather I suspect we non-coffee-drinkers might be the primary buyers. We want something that will sit innocuously in the kitchen, looking good and doing nothing, on the off chance that we'll be expected to provide coffee for someone. We don't know how to buy coffee, we don't know how to prepare it, and we don't know how to clean up after preparing it. Also, we don't care to know any of those things. So, here's a something we made for you that came out of a fancy package. Now we're going to throw away this little plastic cup.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    You can get Maxwell House instant coffee which is packaged in tea bags so making a cup of coffee is as easy as a cup of tea. And it's as good as Keurig coffee.
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      This is good advice!
  - myrandomcomment 10y ago
    So my wife and I use a French Press for coffee in the morning. I love a good cup of coffee and it really does not take that much time to make. Heck, I enjoy the process. Now for espresso or the like, well that is a different story. We used to have an espresso machine but it was quite a pain (and took up space). For that the machines are great. We have the Nespresso machine with the milk attachment. Makes a pretty good cup. They provide mailing bags for you to send back the used cups? carts? (hum) for recycling.
    - killjoywashere 10y ago
      I've been using a tiny Krups Esprimo for over 10 years. One of the tubes popped off after a few years, but after taking the shell off and identifying the culprit, I just used a zip tie as a miniature hose clamp and have been going strong for a long time. The key with the hose was to clean the nozzle: it has a single port, so a clogged port is a single source of failure. But $90 for an 8-bar espresso machine is hard to beat. Not good for random joe, but fine for a hacker. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00007CWFE https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00007CWFE
    - mattkevan 10y ago
      Aeropress. Small, fun, easy to use and clean - and makes excellent coffee.
    - IAmGraydon 10y ago
      The french press is just the ultimate coffee making device. It's simple, it gives you a lot of control (via the amount, the grind, the water temperature and soak time) and it makes glorious, glorious coffee. Expresso machines are complex and bulky, and they generally aren't worth it unless you can spend $600+ (and that plus goes WAY up). Nespresso isn't bad at all (we have one here at work), but even better is a Lavazza machine, which takes cartridges like the Nespresso, but the resulting espresso is an order of magnitude better, in my opinion.
- mmanfrin 10y ago
  Keurig is great at one thing: making the worst coffee this world has to offer The behemoth coffee machine in my office kitchen would like a word.
- posguy 10y ago
  Yeah, if you want awful coffee, Keurig is here to service you! Otherwise, a simple hot pot can heat water and make you a good cup of drip coffee without grounds at a much lower price point, and it is compostable/yardwasteable, unlike those K-cups!
  - dawnerd 10y ago
    Guess people forget you can get pods that let you use your own coffee and it's reusable and you put the grounds in compost.
    - posguy 10y ago
      I've used those at past workplaces that had Keurig machines, while it works it is a mess to clean, and essentially requires a sink to clean. Comparatively, drip coffee grounds are self contained in a paper filter.
      - dawnerd 10y ago
        I've seen people use tiny paper filters in them. No idea if it's something you can buy though - I'm not really a coffee drinker.
- criddell 10y ago
  > the worst coffee this world has to offer I guess you've never had coffee out of a rarely serviced machine in the break room of a millwrighting shop. Keurig coffee is the smoothest brew ever compared to some of the terrible coffee I've gladly drank over the years.
- throwanem 10y ago
  I've had the worst coffee this world has to offer. I got it at a truck stop somewhere off Interstate 40 in east Tennessee. Tasted like bile and acid, went through me like a dose of salts, and left desolation and sorrow in its wake. Had me in the bushes off the side of the road for the better part of an hour, and gave me a whole new respect for long-haul truckers - either they have the iron constitution to drink that shit and not mind it, or they keep in close enough touch that they've all warned each other off it. Either way, I'm impressed. Keurigs do a perfectly fine job by comparison.

pbreit 10y ago

The juice packs are $5-$8.

mcphage 10y ago

All you're saying is true, but they still would have been much better off designing something that didn't cost them so much to produce. It would have looked, and weighed the same, but they would have made a lot more money.