Goodbye Keurig, Hello Bunn

Like many people we embraced the concept of a single cup coffee brewer.  A single cup brewer can save a significant amount of money.  We bought our first single cup coffee brewer, a Melitta One:One that took special coffee pods.  At that time, the only place we could buy the pods was Zellers and Sobey's but then Zeller's discontinued them.  We found Sanka pods at Meijer's in the US so were still able to use the Melitta when Sobey's closed.  Finally, we bought a Keurig Special Edition (B60) to replace the Melitta.  The selling feature of the Keurig was we could use our own coffee rather than relying on the environmentally unfriendly K-cups.  In fact, I was so impressed with Keurig that we bought a mini for the office, and another larger unit for our vacation home.  All was well until, the only four year old Keurig B60 started acting up!

During our brief three weeks home in the fall between our two longer stays at our vacation home, the Keurig would say it was brewing but nothing happened.  I cleaned it and all seemed fine.  We arrived home in the early morning of December 22 after being on the road for eighteen and a half hours.  With only four hours sleep, I needed coffee!  The Keurig failed but after a lot of opening, shutting, and restarting I finally got it working.  From there it worked sporadically.  I went online and found a site with instructions how to fix.  I cleaned the Keurig with vinegar then cleaned it again, then cleaned the heads with the special K-cup cleaner then cleaned again only to be rewarded with half cups of coffee if and when it would brew.  I repeated including adding in the spanking.  The problems persisted.

In the meantime my temper was rising.  I checked the new Keurig 2.0 ready to buy on the spot only to see it will only take Keurig licensed K-cups and not allow you to brew your own coffee.  This renders the Keurig 2.0 completely useless if you should move to an area where Keurig licensed K-cups are unavailable or Keurig goes out of business.  The one that does allow you to use your own coffee has almost zero features and looks cheap.  We were visiting our kids in January where we used their Bunn My Café MCU marveling at how good the coffee was.  We came home where I cussed at the Keurig a few more times before ordering a Bunn My Café MCU. 

I ordered the Bunn My Café MCU through BuyCoffeeCanada.com on Wednesday and it arrived the following Friday so I was quite impressed.  The total price with shipping and taxes was $231.65.  Consider though that when I looked at the Keurig 2.0 it was $189.99 plus taxes $24.69 for a total of $214.68 and it wouldn't brew the coffee of my choice.

The Bunn My Café MCU is a four in one brewer that uses ground coffee or loose leaf tea,  K-cups (or similar), soft pods or tea bags and hot water.  There are four drawers designed for each specific usage (bottom left).  There is an internal water storage tank but water you need to add water each time you use it.  This is not a huge change for me since I always poured water into the external water reservoir of the Keurig with each use.

The Bunn has a slightly smaller footprint than the Keurig (bottom right).  There is no on or off button, simply brew with optional pulse for stronger coffee and tea.  There is no clock on auto-off.  The Bunn brews at 200°F which is 8°F higher than the Keurig.  The higher temperature does give a better tasting coffee, full flavoured without bitterness.  After 6 hours idle, the Bunn temperature drops to 140°F and enters sleep mode after 26 hours.

The worst part of setting up the Bunn My Café MCU was waiting for it to warm a bit after being in a cold shipping van.  I felt it best not to plug it in immediately especially since it has been bitterly cold.  So I drooled over the Bunn in anticipation while drinking the last cup of coffee I would make with the Keurig.  Once the Bunn had warmed a bit, I plugged it in and primed it.  I washed all of the drawers.  My reward was a hot, deliciously brewed cup of coffee!

A final word on Keurig:  I was a happy Keurig user until my brewer that was only four years old stopped brewing properly.  The funny thing is, one of my friend's had her Keurig quit the same week except she could not even coax a final cup of coffee from it.  Keurig's selling feature was being able to use your own coffee meaning you did not have to contribute to the landfill.  They took that feature away with the Keurig 2.0 at a time when there is growing pressure as to the damage the K-cups are doing to the environment because they are not recyclable plus their failing brewers will end up in the landfill as well.  To me, that is not good business.  Keurig has lost my business!

Normally I have one kitchen catcher garbage bag per week if that.  That is for the entire house not just the kitchen.  Even though we  use the My K-cup filter on a regular basis we do use the K-cups for company and entertaining.  Last week, almost a quarter of the kitchen catcher was used K-cups!  It quickly became apparent that we have become part of the problem by using the K-cups.  I'll use up what K-cups I have but won't be restocking Keurig licensed K-cups.  I may possible still stock a couple of the soft bottom pods that were working in the old Keurig but not the Keurig 2.0.  These cups have only a small plastic ring that can be re-purposed.