Pretty much everyone has heard of Keurig and their K-Cup brewing system at this point. The company has redefined the way Americans, and indeed, much of the world make and drink their favorite coffee, by serving it up piping hot, one cup at a time. The K-Cup system has set the standard in this new marketplace and is the reigning King of the single-serve world, but that hasn’t stopped other companies from trying their best to knock the mighty Keurig off its lofty perch.
One of the latest entrants into the world of single-serve coffee making is the CBTL from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf®, so in a head-to-head match, with the CBTL Coffee Maker vs. the Keurig, who would win?
The answer mostly depends on exactly what you’re looking for in a single-cup system. We’ll give you the full details just below so you can make an informed decision about which one is right for you.
Head To Head: CBTL Coffee Maker vs Keurig
Keurig K-Cup System
Recommended For: Those who enjoy various coffee flavors and other beverages from many well-known brands.
Let’s start with the Keurig, since it’s the one that everybody is most familiar with, and admittedly, there’s a lot to like here. The one big advantage that Keurig has over every other competing product on the market today is variety.
There are scores of different kinds of coffee flavors available, and when you add in the teas, hot chocolate variations, health-related drinks and all the rest, there are actually several hundred different kinds of drinks you can make, hot or cold, with this single machine. That’s impressive, and honestly, no other competing product, including CBTL’s offering even comes close to the sheer variety you have available with a Keurig.
Having said that, Keurig is not without its faults. For all its versatility, it makes, at best, an average cup of coffee. Now, unless you’re a coffee connoisseur, what you get out of a Keurig is likely to suit your taste buds just fine, but coffee purists tend to make a bit of polite fun at the machine, for its inability to make a truly outstanding, memorable coffee creation.
CBTL Beverage System
Recommended For: Anyone looking for a single-serving coffee machine that's capable of making espresso, too!
This is actually where the CBTL coffee maker excels. It can do one thing that Keurig cannot, and that is to make espresso.
Yes, you read that correctly – a single-serving machine capable of making espresso! That’s big news, and it opens a whole new frontier in the single-serve coffee world because although the raw selection isn’t as good with the CBTL, you can make truly advanced coffee drinks that use espresso.
CBTL takes it a step further and offers a separate milk frothing system, and when you combine the two products, you really do have a push-button solution for making all the cappuccinos, Americanos, espresso, macchiato, and other specialty coffee drinks that the Keurig can’t touch. If that’s what you’re looking for, then the CBTL is your hands-down winner.
Cost Per Cup
Cost-wise, a comparably equipped CBTL and Keurig unit will cost you about the same, so there’s really no advantage to either side. Both companies use proprietary coffee pods in their devices, and the price per pod is also comparable, though here, Keurig gets a slight nod.
Keurig offers a “brew your own” system, where you can take your own grounds and insert them into a reusable pod. If you do this, you’ll wind up paying less, because, at that point, you’re not constantly going out and buying new pods.
Without resorting to this though, you’ll find that your cost per cup for both machines is right around $0.75. If you utilize Keurig’s “brew your own” reusable pods, you’ll see your cost per cup drop to around $0.25.
CBTL Coffee Maker Vs Keurig Conclusion
At the end of the day, when considering which side of the CBTL coffee maker vs Keurig debate you’re on, what it comes down to is the way you plan to use the machine.
If your tastes are many and varied, or if you’re buying the machine so it can be used by lots of people with a variety of different tastes, the Keurig is far and away the better choice for you.
On the other hand, if your main interest is finding a single-serving coffee-making system that is capable of making espresso and other custom coffee creations at the touch of a button, that’s something Keurig just can’t do, and in fact, at the moment at least CBTL has that particular segment of the market cornered, so it would be the right coffee maker for you.
Sources and Official Brand Websites
- Keurig, Official Brand Website.
- CBTL, Official Brand Website.
- Coffee: Love it or leave it?, Harvard Health Publications.
- About Americano Coffee, Dropof Coffee.
- How Does Drinking Black Coffee Help in Losing Weight?, Health Beckon.