Keurig K Cafe Review

Why choose Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker over others?

As you may discover in this Keurig K-Cafe Review, many of our readers particularly enjoy K-Cafe coffee maker. This model is very strong in the Keurig portfolio, and typically places #4 on the 10 Best K Cup Coffee Maker Q2 2019 Ranking and 10 Best Single Serve Coffee Makers Q2 2019 Ranking. With its unique design and quite impressive milti-functionality, I found this model to be very compelling and very different from other coffee makers available in the stores.

• Robust functionality that allows users to brew k-cups, coffee grounds, cappuccinos and lattes, and to froth milk
• Good feature set that allows users to control some aspects of the brewing process (strength)
• Great capacity (60oz removable water reservoir) to hold a larger party for coffee lovers
• Given its size, Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker should best fit into larger homes and kitchen spaces

Who is Keurig K-Cafe Coffee Maker perfect for?

In this Keurig K-Cafe review, I would like to emphasize that this coffee maker is a very strong candidate for many households. It brews great coffee and offers unparalleled functionality.

In my opinion, Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker is a perfect choice for the following:

✓ Flexible and multi-functional coffee brewing (coffee grounds, k-cups, cappuccinos and lattes)

✓ Ability to froth milk for cappuccino or latte

✓ Larger coffee maker that should fit well in a mansion, larger home or larger kitchen space

✓ Families and individuals who value a strong brand

✓ Brewing coffee in a hurry

✓ Preference for k cups

Who is Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker NOT perfect for?

I would like to remain impartial in the Keurig K Cafe Review. Though Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker is one of the top coffee makers available in the market, this model may not be perfect for everyone:

✗ Small kitchen spaces or small home

✗ Lightweight or compact appliance

✗ Low budget

✗ Preference for plastic-free coffee makers

✗ Preference for digital coffee makers with plenty of different controls

✗ Preference for coffee brewed at perfect brewing temperatures (195 – 205 F degrees)

✗ Preference for k-pods

Keurig K-Cafe Review and Evaluation 🕵️

→ Appearance

Keurig’s K-Café is one of the best-looking single serve coffee makers I have seen. It looks like a personalized coffee bar, which brews not just regular coffee, but lattes and cappuccinos! Black matte colors contribute positively to its elegance and prestige. There is a special silver edition of K-Café. I have not seen it personally, but it looks astonishing on the pictures.

Though K-Café may seem a bit bulky at first sight, it does have some amazing functionality (on that below). The single serve is rather large (in width), but its height is comparable to other coffee makers. It’s around 14.5 inches tall, and around 17 inches when the upper lid is open. The unit is heavier than other single serve machines, weighing roughly 13 pounds.

→ Features and technical specs

Voltage: K-Café coffee maker is made for 120V, and can be used in Canada and the US only.

Beverage size: The K-Café single serve coffee maker offers 4 size beverages: 6oz, 8oz, 10oz and 12oz. Just like K-Elite, K-Café can accommodate a travel mug measuring 7 inches in height. I was able to fit a 7 inch mug under the brewing segment simply by removing a drip tray. It was an easy and quick process.

Weight: Because K-Café single cup coffee maker is more robust in its functionality, it is also a little bit heavier than some other single serve coffee makers. It weighs about 12lbs. It is ok to lift for a strong healthy individual, but I would not want my older family members to lift or move it often (at all?).

Unit size: 11.7 x 15.3 x 14.5 inches when the lid is closed, and 11.7 x 15.3 x 17 inches when the lid is open. This unit is rather similar to others when it comes to height, but is much wider to accommodate a milk frother! I have a relatively small kitchen, so this unit takes up substantial amount of space. Further, because of its height, I need to pull it out from underneath the countertop to refill coffee grounds, or insert a k-cup. I’d imagine K-Café being perfect for larger kitchens.

Additional perks: Keurig K-Café coffee maker comes forward with an a unique offering. While its feature set is very good (not superior), K-Café does something very few other single serve coffee makers can do. It also brews absolutely delicious lattes and cappuccinos, with perfectly frothed milk!

For the feature set itself, I find K-Elite and SS10 a lot more compelling. However, K-Café comes with a couple of really nice and useful perks.

✓ K-Café coffee maker is equipped with a strength control. I am an occasional user of this control, which truly adds stronger coffee flavors.

✓ K-Café coffee maker is not just a regular single serve coffee maker. It makes some of the most delicious lattes and cappuccinos. The stainless steel in a milk frother is a nice accent, which limits my plastic-oriented health concerns.

✓ K-Café coffee maker is partly programmable, with auto-off.

Further, Keurig K-Café comes with a 60oz removable water reservoir. Like with K-Elite and SS10, I find it really helpful to just store water in the water reservoir. I do not need to make very frequent trips to refill the tank. I can also accommodate a couple of coffee requests from my guests.

However, I found some things to be missing in this elite single serve coffee maker. It appears that the single serve coffee machine does not automatically come with a charcoal filter. Keurig states that a separate compatible “Keurig Side Reservoir Water Filter Kit” is available for purchase online.

Keurig would do a great service by including a temperature control and making K-Café fully programmable. Though temperature seems to be alright, being able to heat up water even more would yield much stronger and better flavors. In addition, I would really love to be able to pre-program my K-Café to run in the morning, so I can wake up to the fragrance of freshly brewed coffee.

→ Performance

Brewing time: K-Café did not beat K-Elite with the brewing time. However, it is on par with other best single serve coffee machines. Brewing from start to finish took me between 3 to 4 minutes. Smaller beverage sizes came out much faster, larger beverages took a bit longer.

Flavor: K-Café earned my heart with rich and fragrant coffee flavors. I loved my regular coffee beverages (regular coffee, cappuccino and lattes), and they were much more superior to those at any coffee shops I have been to.

Temperature: While K-Café single serve coffee maker does not have a temperature control, coffee comes out rather hot. Keurig states that regular coffee brews at 170-190 degrees Fahrenheit, while cappuccino or latte at 150-165 degrees Fahrenheit. I found these numbers to be slightly lower, by about 10 degrees, in my tests.

Noise levels: K-Café makes some noise, but nothing unusual for a single serve coffee maker. Unlike some other single serves, K-Café has a beeping noise off, which cannot be disabled. When frothing, there’s some noise involved, too.

Customer-reported technical issues

Some users have reported just a couple of issues with the K-Café single serve coffee maker. Those issues seem to be an exception rather than the norm. In fact, K-Café seems to have a rather clean record when it comes to technical difficulties.

While I do not believe those reports are a reason for a major concern, I’d like to flag some of them:

• Water pump issues
• Frother issues

→ Health and safety

Though Keurig seems more transparent with its other coffee makers, I did not find useful information for the K-Café single serve coffee maker. Keurig does not say much about materials from which the single serve coffee maker is made.

There is no information whether K-Café includes chemicals such as lead.

Keurig states that all of its single serve coffee makers are BPA-free. This should include K-Café.

However, K-Café is made primarily of plastic. Whether it is BPA-free or not, this plastic comes into direct contact with scorching hot water. As you may know by now, I am personally very concerned about using products in which boiling water touches plastic.

The BPA-free status is helpful to know, but it typically does not guarantee that there are no other potentially dangerous substitutes used in the production process.

Reports show that many manufacturers replace BPA with other types of plastic. These types include but are not limited to  BHPF (fluorene-9-bisphenol), TPP (triphenyl phosphate), and bisphenol S (BPS). The exact health effects of the BPA substitutes, such as BHPF, TPP and BPS, are unknown at this point.

Keurig does not publish information what kind of materials or chemicals are used, so I am not able to verify. I will reach out to Keurig for more information to include in the Keurig K Cafe Review.

→ Price to value: is Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker worth the money?

K-Café coffee maker offers a good price-to-value ratio. Depending on the store, K-Café typically sells for anywhere in the $$$$ price range. K-Cafe is a very solid option. It has robust functionality, and quite strong performance. I am able to brew not just regular coffee, but make my favorite lattes and cappuccinos day after day. K-Café comes with a really, really strong feature set, awesome functionality and high performance.

However, Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker is also quite expensive. At a $$$$ price tag, it is close to what we consider truly best single serve coffee makers, such as Moccamaster Cup One, Keurig K-Elite or Cuisinart SS 10. Unlike other options, which in our opinion are much stronger, K-Cafe does not have some basic functionality such as temperature control. It further does not reach a perfect brewing temperature of 195 F degrees to yield a perfect coffee beverage. Further, while I praise Keurig for starting to implement some stainless steel parts in the milk frother, I am bothered by the plastic in some of the most critical parts. I hope Keurig will address this issue with an updated model. Further, I hope that Keurig will implement a temperature control for this model.

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Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker is a very strong candidate for many households. It offers an unparalleled functionality to brew some of the best lattes and cappuccinos. Though compatible with k-cups, it may be disappointing for some that certain k-pods may not fit into this model.

Do you like your Keurig K-Cafe coffee maker? Did we miss anything in the Keurig K Cafe Review? Let us know in the comments!