Coffee & Espresso Makers Tips

Keurig Elite B40 Coffee Maker Product Technical DetailsElite B40 Key FeaturesTypeCoffee MakerOperation SourceEle...

Great coffee, great taste, but inconsistent Keurig Elite B40 Coffee Maker My husband wanted this coffee maker so much. During my pregnancy, when I was on decaf, and he was on regular coffe...

It’s a weekend, so of course I have a new coffee machine. This time it’s the one I’ve been lusting after for months but as with many kitchen gadgets, I couldn’t justify $100-200 for it. A deal came past me for $25 for the Keurig B40, albeit open box with a missing part or two and no free samples. So of course, resistance went out the window like a guy who’s annoyed with his Bowflex home gym *and* his security deposit.

Use good water!

I’ll get my perennial recommendation out first: Use filtered or bottled water. Pur and Brita make filter pitchers, you can buy bottles and jugs at the store, it doesn’t add much to the cost but adds a lot to the quality of the beverage and the lifespan of the machine.

How it works

The Keurig coffeemakers use a variant on the pods called K-cups (”K”eurig cups, of course) which are shaped like a tiny plastic espresso cup. Inside there is a serving of ground coffee and a paper filter. The top is a foil seal which you leave on when you put the K-cup in. When you install the pod and close the lid, this punctures the foil seal on the top and the plastic on the bottom, preparing your coffee K-cup for brewing. More on this below.

Setting the Keurig Elite up

The Keurig is a bit larger than my other pod makers and a bit smaller than my Brewstation Deluxe 10 cup drip coffeemaker. One “wing” (my term) is the removable water reservoir and the other is part of the coffeemaker assembly itself (heating and hot water reservoir). It has a short 3-prong plug which may be an issue depending on how modern and crowded your kitchen is.

You’ll unpack the Keurig and put it on your counter. Plug it in, press the Power button, and the “add water” light will come on. The “de-scale” light blinks to tell you you need to do the initial priming.

The priming is pretty simple… fill the reservoir with water, re-install it on the machine if you’ve removed it, and press the Brew button below the blinking green light. The machine will prime its pump and heat the water. About three minutes later the “Brew” light will blink again and you can run your first water cycle to rinse the system. Press the Brew button with a cup under the spout and about 8 ounces of hot water will course through the system.

When that’s done, about five minutes total, you’re ready to make coffee.

About the water sensor

The “add water” light is activated by a floating wheel in the bottom of the water tank… if it is no longer floating high enough to activate the sensor, the machine knows you need to refill. If this sensor is not activated, the light will be illuminated and the “brew” function will be disabled.

Making your first cup

This part is pretty simple as well. Lift the handle, insert a K-cup in the K-cup Holder (or insert a “My K-Cup” with your own coffee, in place of the K-cup holder) in the basket, and close the handle. The “brew” light will blink, telling you it’s ready. Just put your cup in place, push the button, and in seconds your 7.25oz of coffee will be ready.

Note that there is a safety feature on this coffee machine that will disable brewing temporarily if you wait more than 60 seconds after closing the lid to press the Brew button. To reset this timer, open and close the lid and the “brew” light will blink again for 60 seconds. If you close the lid and the light is not blinking, make sure the K-cup and holder are seated and the lid is closed firmly and securely.

About the My K-Cup accessory

One of the reasons I wanted to try this design of coffee machine was the flexibility in coffee sources. You can buy the K-cups from various places (over 100 varieties of coffee, tea, and cocoa are available… can chicken soup be far away?) or you can buy a “My K-Cup” home filter pack. See above for the description of the regular K-Cup design.

The My K-Cup device is a replacement for the K-Cup Holder, which has a gold-tone filter inside for your own coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc. I bought one of these for $15 and used it right away. You’ll want to experiment with the grind for this… if the grind is too coarse you’ll get watery coffee, and if it’s too fine you’ll get a counter full of coffee. Tear open one of the K-cups for an idea of how it should be ground… and then you can just dump the contents into your My K-Cup.

You can buy replacement My K-Cup filters for $10/2pk on the Keurig website, and this is recommended if you use different beverages or want to make multiple cups in rapid succession. You can also just get extra My K-Cup assemblies for about $15, which include a filter.

Coffee experiences so far

I’ve tried three varieties of coffee in the Keurig so far. My first attempt failed… using a Tully Kona Blend K-cup (prepackaged) without the K-Cup Holder Assembly in place. Making a cup without the holder, even if it looks like the cup is in place, is a bad idea. It will puncture the top and splatter water on the counter. (The missing K-Cup Holder Assembly is part of the reason it only cost me $25, so this is not a fault of the device or the manufacturer.)

I put some coarse ground Boca Java “White Wonderland” coffee into the My K-Cup filter and brewed the first cup. The grounds were too coarse so I didn’t extract enough flavor. It was watery and not very flavorful. I had the same problem with this batch of home-ground coffee in another maker last night. So you may have to experiment with the grind.

I then put the punctured Tully Kona Blend’s contents into the My K-Cup filter and brewed my second cup. It tasted good, a mild but brisk flavor that stood pretty well on its own. This also let me see how the K-Cups are built, with the filter inside.

Finally, I put some “toddy grind” Seattle’s Best Saturday Blend, one of my favorite mass market beans, into the My K-Cup filter and got the best cup yet. It was a combination of the grind (medium) and the beans that helped this be the best cup.

I’ll be playing with the grinder and the B40 over the next several days to see what else works, but if you do a medium grind with good beans you should be happy with the My K-Cup.

Ow, Sharp Bits!

If you’re the sort to go poking around inside your coffeemaker, don’t do it on this one. The blades that puncture the top and bottom of the K-cup would be an unpleasant surprise. The manual reminds you of this, and of the hot water, several times. As with anything that keeps a supply of near-boiling water on hand at all times, keep away from children.

Other random notes

The Keurig keeps hot water available at all times. This will use some electricity, and if you don’t make coffee often, you can press the Auto Off button (above the Power button) to set the brewer to power down two hours after your last cup was brewed. Doing so will cost you about 3 minutes each time the machine has to re-heat the water.

Unlike some pod coffee machines, and like the Tassimo coffee machine, the Keurig can only use one K-cup at a time. This means if you want 14oz of coffee for a travel mug, you make one K-cup, remove it, and make another. For this reason, the lack of a double-cup setting is reasonable. The comments other reviewers have made about light roasts being weak with the 7.25oz setting are pretty valid. Darker roasts and slightly finer grinds are going to give you a stronger result. There really isn’t any other way to adjust the process. Some of the higher priced models have a 5oz setting which will push less water through, so if that’s an issue, consider the extra $50 for a higher end model.

K-Cups are more expensive than regular pods. I bought an 18-pack of Tully’s Kona Blend for $10 at Fry’s Electronics, which puts them at about 55 cents plus tax per cup. You can buy them from Keurig.com in 5-packs for $2.95 (59c/K-cup) or 25-packs for $13.95 (56c/cup), with additional discounts for subscription and larger purchases. Other companies also sell them… check singleservecoffee.com or amazon.com for deals. Or just use a My K-Cup accessory.

I’m trying out Keurig’s customer service now. When I acquired this coffeemaker, it was missing the drip tray (which I don’t care about) and the K-Cup Holder Assembly (which I do care about). I’ve asked about purchasing a replacement K-Cup Holder Assembly and we’ll see how that goes.

Customer service update

When I wrote this review in March 2007, I was trying to get a replacement K-Cup Holder Assembly. Well, I’m pleased to report that Keurig came through for me. They shipped me the missing part free of charge, and it worked great. I’ve gone through three boxes of K-cups since then, and even purchased a second B40 coffeemaker to use at work.

Also, Keurig now sells a cocoa K-cup, for those of you looking for such. It used to be that you’d buy a packet of powder and add it to 7 ounces of Keurig-heated water. Not very elegant. I haven’t tried the cocoa K-cups, but it’s a new feature that might make this unit more attractive to some consumers.

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