It may not come as a surprise that I drink a lot of coffee. Asa has only started sleeping through the night (well, 8pm to 5am) this past week, and Levi has enough stamina to power a colony of Energizer bunnies.
So I’m relieved to learn that drinking three to five cups of coffee each day is now only considered a moderate level of consumption, according to a new report.
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the country’s top nutrition panel, also found health benefits associated with drinking more than a couple of cups every day, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
On an average day, I drink at least one oversize mug of French press coffee. Jordan, my personal barista, is all about experimenting with manual coffee brewing methods after we learned how to use a French press and a Chemex last year. By now he can eyeball measurements of beans and water, so the process goes relatively quickly.
The rest of the day, I’m using K-cups to make coffee in the Keurig machine. After touting the deliciousness of manual brewed coffee, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that we still use a Keurig. It’s just such a fast and effective way to brew one cup at a time, even if the taste is noticeably inferior to the French press coffee we enjoy in the mornings. (Jordan often compares it to dishwater.)
But maybe we’re just using the wrong K-cups. Thrillist enlisted a “world-class barista” from Austin to conduct a blind taste test of 23 K-cups, each made on the middle setting of a Keurig machine using water from a parallel-activated, carbon-filtered OptiPure system.
I’m assuming that means that even the worst-rated coffee of the group tasted better than what we make at home with water from the kitchen sink.
The five best tasting K-cup coffee:
- Green Mountain Kenyan AA
- Eight O’Clock Colombian
- Green Mountain Nantucket Blend
- Donut Shop Extra Bold
- Maxwell House House Blend
You should definitely head over to Thrillist to check out the full list, which includes the taste tester’s descriptive reactions to each cup. For example, he says Dunkin’ Donuts K-cup coffee (#6) is “totally drinkable with cream and sugar, but develops a medicinal quality as it cools” and describes Tim Hortons Arabica (#17) as tasting like “chicken-flavored ramen noodles.”
I’ll add that Green Mountain Hazelnut isn’t so bad, especially when it’s made with steamed half-and-half and two scoops of organic sugar.
How do you enjoy your daily cup (cups?) of coffee? Are you a manual brew purist or will you use a Keurig machine for a quick and easy caffeine fix?
I am drinking a cup of the Donut Shop Extra Bold right now. It’s pretty good. We have a Keurig in our office (I do not have one at home.) and the company stocks it with pods. I have tried a wide array — my very favorite was Wolfgang Puck’s Breakfast in Bed but they have sadly discontinued all pods from that brand. Greenberry does some good seasonal coffees — there’s a pumpkin spice that’s good in the fall if you like flavored coffee and they do a Spring coffee that I recall liking a lot.
My favorite decaf is Greenberry’s Dark Magic decaf.
I’m surprised I have so many opinions on this 🙂
I kind of love that you have so many opinions on K-cups! Out of curiosity, how do you drink your coffee? Since it sounds like you prefer dark, bold roasts, I’m wondering if you use milk or sugar or if you like your coffee to have a strong flavor.
I am ashamed to admit this (oh gosh on the internet where it’s forever) but I put one sugar and two non-dairy creamers in. Because that’s what they have in our office. The thing about those coffees I talked about though — are that I don’t really like a dark roast. I only like the Dark Magic in decaf – regular Dark Magic tastes like dirt to me. And our office stocks various French roasts which I avoid. I am more of a medium roast person — and I like the breakfast blends.
Something I noticed about the K-cups is that they often specify medium roasts and say that they are also Extra Bold. So it seems like with their description – bold and dark roast aren’t the same things.
extra bold means there are more amount of coffee in the k-cup pack and not refering to the taste of the coffee. which in result will yield a stronger cup because of the extra coffee amount in there
My husband and have had a Keurig for many years. We love it!! The ease of use and lack of clean up are what we love best. We have tried many K-cups, I prefer bold to extra bold with a splash of milk, my husband likes flavored coffee with a splash of milk or black. I love Dark Magic, Hubby likes Donut Shop and Donut Shop coconut mocha. I do agree with the other comment about the bold/extra bold labeling compared to the roast, it is different.
I will admit that I have never tried a French Press or other manual brewing method so I have no comparison. I do have a stove top espresso maker that I use with my Keurig milk warmer/frother with to give me the coffee shop feel.
Awesome list! I am curious about the Maxwell Blend since they are generally the cheap coffee at Walmart? Right now I’m hooked on Deathwish Coffee K-Cups and Love It Black 100% Kona K-Cups (https://www.loveitblack.com). The Deathwish coffee is insanely strong to wake me up in the mornings, and the Kona is a nice smooth cup for throughout the day 🙂 Have you had either of those? It’d be interesting to hear where you think they’d stack up in your list. Thanks for putting this together.