Many families choose to purchase a single cup coffee brewer to save money on coffee. They realize they are pouring money out with every pot of coffee they drink that doesn’t get completely finished. Once they decide to switch to a single cup brewer they need help choosing a single cup coffee brewer. The first step is understanding the difference in the pod brewers and K-cup brewers. Pod Brewers: Pod brewers are single cup coffee brewers that use pre-filled pods to brew a single cup of coffee or other hot beverage. These pods are small diskettes made of coffee filter material that are filled with ground coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate or other hot beverages that companies offer. The pod is placed in a holding unit on the machine. As the machine heats the water it forces it over the pod and the resulting coffee is dripped into a waiting cup or mug. Once the coffee is finished the only clean up is tossing the used pod into the trash. There are several types of pod brewers available on the market. K-Cup Brewers: These single cup brewers are specialty brewers that use plastic units called K-cups to make the coffee or hot tea. These cups are specialized and can only be used in Keurig K-Cup coffee makers.
The cups fit into a holding basket on the machine. The machine has a piercing mechanism that allows the water to drip through the cup and send the coffee into the cup below the basket. Like the coffee pod machines, the only cleanup is disposing of the plastic cup. K-cups are only usable in the in Keurig brewer. Choosing between the two brewers is simply a matter of opinion. Both make excellent coffee and hot beverages with no mess and little clean up involved. Pods have the advantage of being interchangeable between multiple machines. K-cups are more specialized and can only be used in the Keurig single cup coffee brewer. Another consideration that plays into the choosing a single cup coffee brewer is the environment. Currently, pods are the only single cup coffee maker that has a natural material for the coffee filter. Plastic K-cups are not recyclable although that will most likely change in the near future. The alternative to both of these is the adapter that can be used to make coffee in a single cup coffee brewer that uses ground coffee without a filter or plastic cup. The variety of coffees and teas available in coffee pods and K-cups is vast. There are teas and coffees of every flavor, hot chocolates and more. They are both available from many different sources on the Internet and can be purchased in variety packs or in single flavors. Both types of machines make excellent coffee on demand and are the best single cup brewers available. There are some single cup brewers that use ground coffee without special pods or coffee cup units. Research and reviews of the various types of single cup coffee brewers will ultimately help make the decision on which machine to choose.
