The rise of stress, busyness and activity in our culture has given rise to some new coffee trends.
One of those rather huge trends is K cups, and single-serve coffee machines.
For those who are maybe in a hurry or just want something convenient, K cups can be a great way to go.
Another enormously huge trend in our modern culture is Starbucks!
You know that it’s a successful company when there’s a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks…
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Caramel Frappuccinos are the drink of choice for many who love Starbucks, or of course pumpkin spice lattes in the autumn time.
If you put these two together, you have Starbucks K cups.
For those who own a Starbucks single-serve machine, you may have experience where you brew a cup and you’re looking forward to your morning Joe… but it doesn’t match up to your expectations.
And that’s always a bummer.
In this article, I’m going to give you 5 ways to make Starbucks K cups taste better!
These are hacks that should help you out, especially if the coffee isn’t expired and you’re doing all the groundwork right.
1 – Clean The Machine!
It may not come as a surprise that the more you use your Keurig, or whatever kind of single-serve coffee brewer you’re using, the dirtier it gets!
Thankfully, these machines are built to withstand some good usage.
But no coffee brewer is perfect, or stays perfectly clean.
If you keep your machine clean, you will in turn make your coffee more clean and more free of a stale, limey taste that can result when the machine is brewing old coffee residue and limescale along with your K cup coffee.
Here’s how to clean a Keurig machine, using the convenient “Descale” feature that’s inbuilt into the machine.
- Fill the machine’s chamber with white vinegar.
- Run brew cycles until all the vinegar is emptied out
- Fill the chamber with water. You can also squeeze some lemon into the chamber to help remove the taste of vinegar
- Again, run as many brew cycles as needed to empty out all the water
And voila, you have a clean machine!
I’ll say it again… clean machine, clean coffee.
You may notice a big difference in the quality of your coffee if you make sure to clean the machine regularly, either every week or two or after approximately 50 uses.
2 – Switch Out The Light Roasts
I have my own opinion about light roasts when it comes to coffee in general, not only K cups.
But that’s a whole other story.
This point isn’t about how much me or anyone likes light roasts, though.
Light roasts can be great, and light roast K cups can also be delicious!
But if you’re using light roasts for your K cups and you’re not satisfied with the taste, you should consider switching it up to either a medium or dark roast.
This is because of how Keurig or single-serve coffee machines function.
Because of the water temperature and the pressure that are built into your coffee maker’s functionality, it may be a bit difficult for it to get the most out of a light roast.
For a lighter roast, it’s generally good to have a slightly higher temperature and a slightly longer extraction/steeping time.
So this might be something that will help you get the most out of your Starbucks K cups, to try a darker roast if you’re only going light.
Some great dark roast coffees that I’d highly recommend are Verona and Sumatra.
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3 – Add Some Ground Coffee
Sometimes we all just need an extra boost, right?
I guess that can go for K cups too…
Just as a little side note of trivia, K cups are made with real coffee.
There’s nothing fake about the coffee itself, it’s made with real coffee beans just like any other good coffee.
But the thing is that with K cups it’s always a pre-set amount of coffee you’re brewing.
So, you can give your K cups a boost by adding more of your own ground coffee!
This can help make the flavor more deep or intense, and coffee blends can be delicious.
Doing this requires an extra piece of equipment, but it can be worth it.
To do it, you just need to purchase a reusable filter for single-serve coffee machines, something like this, then empty out the K cups contents into the filter, then add your own coffee to it!
Press brew as usual and you’ll probably have a great coffee mix and a stronger cup of Joe.
4 – Just Use More K Cups
If you’re anything like me… you hate weak coffee!
That’s my absolute biggest pet peeve in coffee brewing, if the coffee is too weak and thin.
Keurig and single-serve machines have a nice built-in coffee to water ratio, and most machines have some kind of “lighter” or “stronger” buttons for those who have such preferences.
But if you feel that you just want more from your K cups, especially if you’re making a large cup of coffee, you may want to double up on your K cup pods per cup of coffee to make it stronger and better!
This can be a great option for those who make a large cup of coffee and are taking it to go, to work or wherever, and you need it darker.
Conclusion
These are 4 fairly simple and straightforward ways to give your K cup coffee brewing a major tune up, if you haven’t tried them yet.
It might be that if you do just one of these, it could be a big game changer for you.
Single-serve machines are a super convenient and quick way to make coffee, but just like any other brewing method, it has its flaws too.
Maybe the biggest flaw is that it’s a set amount of coffee that you’re brewing.
You can’t add more coffee or take out any from a K cup pod.
And that’s where most of these tips from this article come in hand; you can still have the convenience of the machine and have a little more control of how strong your coffee will be!
I really hope that this article was helpful and that you’ll find at least one of these hacks to be really useful!
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know in the comments section below and I’ll be happy to hear from you and help you further.
Keurig coffee cheers!
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