Keurig vs. Tassimo: A Single-Cup Showdown Update
Posted by deCadmus on 31 Oct 2007 at 11:57 am | Category: Coffee
Autumn has blown into our neck of the woods with a mighty draft of whirling leaves, the aroma of wood smoke wafting from neighbors’ hearths, and — hey, this is new — a raft of folks banging on an increasingly-dated review of single-serve coffee machines here on Bloggle. I guess there’s nothing quite like a cold spell to put folks in touch with their inner caffeine junkie… or maybe folks are already looking ahead to their holiday gift lists.
Whatever the reason, an update to the single-serve marketplace is long overdue. So, let’s get to it…
The Tassimo Lineup
Designed and distributed by Braun1 , manufactured by Saeco, and with its coffee supply produced exclusively by Kraft and its army of licensed brands, when the Tassimo launched two years ago it painted itself as the smartest single serve coffee brewer yet.
Certainly the Tassimo’s got brains. Like the Keurig brewers, this brewer relies on a micro-processor to manage brew volume and temperature. More, the Tassimo automatically adjusts brew volume, temperature — and even some aspects of how its pump drives the brew cycle — to match the parameters of beverage you wish to brew. How? Well… it reads, of course. But we’ll get back to that.
Offered in two models –the TA 1400
The Keurig Team
Now in its third generation of home brewers, the always-evolving Keurig line currently includes the “Elite” B40
The B40 and B60 are built on the second-generation “B50″ platform, and both feature a similar, generally symmetrical shape. The B70 is the first example of Keurig’s latest brew technology, and is a bit of a departure, too, in its overall design. It has a somewhat more aggressive stance — perhaps a bit of attitude. More, it has an updated brewing system that extracts more coffee flavor and aroma from each brew cycle than the B40 and B60 models.
Keurig’s approach is at once more focused and singular than Tassimo’s. A Keurig brewer makes coffee — brewed coffee — and it does it well. Its microprocessor is wired only with the fundamentals of coffee brewing — time, temperature, turbulence and water-to-coffee ratio — and it’s tuned to deliver consistent results. You push a button, you get coffee. That’s it.
Consequently, there’s no brewing espresso with a Keurig. No cappuccino, and no latte, either. That’s not to say that other drinks aren’t available… you can get a decent cup of hot chocolate in a K-Cup, and quite good tea. But these are products that have been tuned to the specific brew parameters of the Keurig brewer, and not the other way around.
K-Cup vs. T-Disc
Keurig’s K-Cup is a deceptively simple device that seals a miniature drip brewing system — replete with drip-style filter and all — in a no-muss, no-fuss, disposable package that protects its payload from moisture, light and oxygen. Keurig has now licensed its K-Cup packaging technology to nine different specialty coffee brands, which today offer more than 150 varieties of K-Cup 100% Arabica coffees and teas between them. That’s a significant expansion on the five brands and 100 varieties of coffee and tea just two years ago.
The Tassimo reads a page off Keurig’s play book2 (and perhaps Nespresso’s before it) by encapsulating its coffee in its own sealed package — the T-Disc — which boasts a number of innovations. T-Discs can be manufactured with an array of options in terms of overall capacity, payload type, and the size and shape of its exit aperture.
Each T-Disc is printed with a bar-code that describes its required brewing parameters to the Tassimo. When inserted, the brewer scans the code to determine the amount of water to deliver, the temperature of that water, and the timing of the brew cycle — which may include pre-infusing the T-Disc’s contents. The array of sizes allows for payloads of not only coffee, but also chocolate syrup and both refrigerated and shelf-stable dairy products. The various apertures of the T-Disc allow the Tassimo to deliver a simple stream of liquid to your cup, or a frothy, textured foam.
Not only can you brew a cup of coffee, but you can also brew a shot of espresso (2.5 ounces at 192 degrees F), and frothed milk (6 ounces, 156 degrees F) to make a cappuccino or a latte. With its liquid chocolate T-Disc, you can brew a more than passable hot cocoa, too (5.5 ounces, 160 degrees F). The capabilities of the T-Disc make the Tassimo more than a coffee brewer — it’s a hot beverage delivery system.
In use
Both brewers employ grab-handles to lever open the brew-head. The Keurig brewer’s business end is smooth in operation, and remains open until you close it, allowing easy one-handed operation. The Tassimo’s brew-head lever requires two hands, and it closes stubbornly — the force required to close it is a little unsettling. (It took me some time to be certain that I really needed to use that much force to close the brew-head assembly — I was concerned I was going to damage the brewer.)
Each of these brewers has fairly simple and descriptive buttons to activate brewing. Brewing coffee with a Keurig machine couldn’t be simpler: insert a K-Cup, press a button. The number of brew options vary with the model: the B40 offers two brew volumes; the B60, three; the B70, four. It should be noted that as you choose a larger brew volume you’re changing the water to coffee ratio… a 6-oz. cup will a much more robust cup than a 10-oz. cup. Arguably, folks have different tastes for the strength of their brewed coffee — me, I don’t have much use for the largest brew volumes.
Brewing a cappuccino or a latte in the Tassimo is a three-step cycle. First insert and brew an espresso T-Disc, and then insert and brew a cappuccino or a latte T-Disc. (The difference: quantity of dairy product, and a different spout — the cappuccino version aerates the milk more than the latte.) Finally, insert the cleaning disk (an empty T-Disc with its own special barcode) and run a rinse cycle. And don’t lose that cleaning disc — you can’t run a rinse cycle without it, and a rinse is highly recommended after you brew either dairy or hot chocolate. It’s sticky, don’t ya know.
The sophistication of the Tassimo’s brewing capability has its price: the relative simplicity of the Keurig’s brew cycle lends it a performance advantage in both brew cycle and reheat / recovery times. The Tassimo’s heating cycle from stand-by mode may take as long as 60 seconds, and its brew cycle another 60 seconds — twice as long as the Keurig brewer. More, if you choose to program wake and sleep times into the Keurig’s clock you can ensure that you’ll never wait more than 30 seconds for a cup.
Some additional observations…
- All single-cup brewers use a pump to deliver water to the brew-head. The Tassimo’s pump is considerably louder than the Keurig’s, and especially so when the pump is oscillating (aerating?) heavily for “frothy” drinks: espresso, cappuccino and hot chocolate.
- Most every brew cycle, the Tassimo delivers some water to its drip tray through its backpressure relief valve. That’s not a problem, unless you’ve had to remove the drop tray to brew into a particularly tall cup, and then it can create a fair mess. The Keurig returns unused brew water to the reservoir via its backpressure relief system.
- When you choose a brew volume on the Keurig, the brewer pre-fills its brewing system with the entire volume of water required before beginning the brew cycle. This ensures it doesn’t run out of water mid-cycle. The Tassimo does not, and may run out of water mid-brew. To complete the brew cycle you’ll need to add more water to its reservoir.
- The Tassimo’s water reservoir is in the back of the machine, and may require that you pull the machine out from under an upper cabinet to add more water. The Keurig’s side-mounted water reservoir can be easily removed and replaced without reaching over, or moving the machine.
But what’s in the cup?
In the end, any question of brewing technology is answered by what’s in the cup. This is, of course, a wholly subjective matter — but I’ll take a crack at it.
The Tassimo offers a wide variety of beverage types — coffee, tea, espresso, cappuccino, latte and hot chocolate. That’s a substantial step forward in single-cup brewing capability, however you slice it — and if your goal is to create passably good espresso-based drinks at home with the simplicity of pushing a button (and doing so for a fraction of the cost of a super-auto espresso machine) then you may have found your match in the Tassimo. No, it’s not going to be coffee-house quality — but it’s not bad, either.
The brewed coffee varieties that I’ve sampled with the Tassimo, however, are another matter. I didn’t care for these coffees. Their aromas were baked and flat, with taints ranging from wet cardboard to wet dog. Their flavors are somewhat nutty and too much cereally and altogether indistinct of anything much like coffee. Their body is thin; their finish harsh and astringent. At the Tassimo’s standard brew volume they are helplessly over-extracted and bitter.
Keurig-brewed coffees are generally quite good, and some are remarkably so. Extra Bold coffees, in particular, offer coffee-house strength, ample body and plentiful aromas, and especially so when brewed at smaller brew volumes. The flavor characteristics of each coffee — and each coffee roaster — are clearly manifested in the cup. Which is, I think, as much as anyone might hope for — that the result be about the coffee, and not about how it was brewed.
Selection & Variety
The selection of coffee, tea, espresso and other beverages for the Tassimo has increased somewhat in the last two years. Worldwide there are now (by my count) more than 50 offerings from Kraft’s own line-up of brands, and brands that Kraft has licensed for distribution. Many of these brands — Mastro Lorenzo, Jacobs, Carté Noir, Kenco, Suchard — live in the European market; you’ll be hard-pressed to find them stateside unless you buy direct from Kraft’s Tassimo Direct web site. More familiar, North American brands include Gevalia, Tazo Tea, Twinings, Nabob (Canada), Seattle’s Best, Maxwell House, and — recently announced though not yet in-market — Starbucks.3 You’ll find no more than a dozen or so offerings for the Tassimo on Amazon, for example… and none of them Fair Trade, or Organic.
The Keurig line-up of coffee, tea and chocolate brands includes names you may find more familiar: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Tully’s, Caribou, Coffee People, Diedrich, Newman’s Own Organics, Celestial Seasonings, Gloria Jean’s, Timothy’s, Van Houtte, Bigelow, and Ghirardelli. Unlike the Tassimo selection, most all of these brands offer a half-dozen or more (much more!) coffee and tea selections. Altogether there are more than 150 different coffees, teas and assorted other beverages for the Keurig system. You can find about a hundred of them on Amazon, including dozens of Fair Trade and Organic options.
Conclusions
Tassimo has an advantage in terms of the flexibility of its brewing technology — its ability to brew espresso, cappuccino and the like — but that advantage comes at the cost of brew-cycle recovery time and diminished capacity to brew a regular cup of coffee. The introduction of additional brands is welcome, and may yet result in a more palatable cup of Joe somewhere down the road.
Keurig’s focus on brewed coffee — and nothing else — hands it a clear victory in the category. Its inability to brew espresso-based drinks may or may not be a liability; that depends entirely on what you want from your single-cup brewer. Ultimately, I find the array of coffees — and coffee roasters — to be one of the most compelling feature of the Keurig brewing system.
Two years on I find that now, as before, choice rules.
Notes and Links
- Kraft has recently entered into an agreement with Bosch to manufacture its brewers (seeing as how Gillette/Braun was purchased by its rival, P&G.) Bosch manufactured and distributed brewers are scheduled to be in market in Spring ‘08. ↩
- Keurig is convinced that Tassimo has read too much from their play book. They’ve filed suit against Kraft for patent infringement. ↩
- I find it remarkable that many of these brands offer only one or two products to the overall line-up… it would almost appear that Kraft is making every effort to show that a great number of brands have adopted their system, when — in fact — most of them are Kraft’s own. ↩
Great review. You aptly describe the flavors I’d expect from Kraft coffees. And in addition to the variety and quality found in K-Cups, there is the My K-Cup reusable do-hickey, so folks can use whatever kind of fresh-ground coffee floats their boat. If the Tassimo relies on a bar code, it would helpless with an accessory like that.
I dithered on whether or not to include a section on the ecology of single-cup coffee in this review. In the end I didn’t — not because I don’t think the environmental impact of K-Cups and T-Discs and their ilk isn’t worth mention — but because it wasn’t a particular point of distinction between the brewers themselves. The simple fact is they *both* have a larger environmental impact than I’d like.
And so your point is well-made… Until such time as a wholly recyclable or compostable, or otherwise reclaimable K-Cup is available, the “My K-Cup” widget is a viable workaround for folks who are especially keen to reduce their environmental footprint.
I found this comparison very useful in my buying decision. Although I was previously leaning towards the Keurig, this assessment provided an objective review of many of the elements I had not considered, an I felt more comfortable with my buying decision. Thank you.
Very interesting and complete comparison. Now I know for sure which single-cup is for me (sorry Tassimo).
I agree with all of the posts. But I went with the Tassimo.
The availabilty of K cups is limited to one store in the small city where I live and their selection was sparse. The Tassimo selection - much better. Available was several Starbucks blends, hot chocolate, teas, and chai latte, the espresso and latte blends. I agree that in the beginning, the choice was dismal for the Tassimo. But now it is greatly improved. The Starbucks brew tasted just like the real deal. And it is available in more than one store where I live.
I will never buy the Maxwell House T-discs. There is nothing that can be done to that coffee to make it taste good.
The latte was good - you must buy a very expensive espresso machine if you want that to taste like the real deal, which the Tassimo is not, so don’t expect it. But it is better than paying over $3 per cup at a coffee house.
The “different sizes” available in the Keurig means you must experiment to find the size that suits your taste, as it just adds more or less water to the grounds.
The major factors for me the choosing the Tassimo: available coffee and tea selection in my area and the ability to heat and froth the milk.
This reviewer forgot to mention that the Keurig machine allows you to expand it’s capabilities by adding a My-K Cup filter to your arsenal. This is a filter that you can add your own coffee to, making it indeed possible to brew espresso or your own personal blend of coffee or even a brand like Gevalia that doesn’t make K-Cups. It only costs $19.99 and it allows you to expand the possibilities of the machine. The Keurig is a FANTASTIC machine, and offers over 170 different K-Cup varieties to choose from including coffee, tea and hot chocolate… throw on top of that the option of brewing any coffee by purchasing the My-K Cup and you have a winner. I invested in a little electric milk frother ($19.99 at a local store) and am now able to make passable cappucino and latee drinks without having to spend money on extra dairy pods and worrying about using a cleaning disk. The Keuring B70 allows you to adjust not only brew size, but also water temperature so it is possible to brew a variety of items perfectly.
I LOVE my Keurig machine and will never, ever be without it. The best part is that if ever they stop making K-Cups I can still use my machine with the My-K Cup, this is something that can’t be said of the Tassimo. I have tried coffee from the Tassimo and found, much like the reviewer, that the coffee just wasn’t tasty or up to par. I also found there to be such a small selection of coffee’s that I would never be happy with that machine.
Thank you! We’ve been sitting on the Tassimo/Keurig fence and the “my K-cup” has put us over the edge. It’s less about the environmental impact than the economical one — e.g. ~$.40/cup for a K-cup or T-filter vs. $.13 for a loose grind of any coffee. We want the convenience of single cup brewing (we love our morning coffee but tend to throw out most of the pot by the end of the day — even when brewing “short” (1-4 cup) pots) but don’t want to pay the premium of pre-packaged coffee. And we’d rather control the intensity of the brew with a loose coffee grind. Cheers!
I did my research and purchased the Keurig. Using it for a week now and it was the best thing I ever bought. True the K-cups are not available in a lot of store but the purchase online is easy. But best of all it the extra filter you can purchase. With the K-cup filter you can use ANY ground coffee you like. You can use Starbucks, Dunkins Dounts or A&P with this filter. That was the big plus selling point. It is easy to clean and fill. I can not say enough about it. I was first leaning toward the Tassimmo but I am glad I went with Keurig.
Nice reviews about the single serve coffee makers. I purchased a Keurig for my disabled father for Christmas. Purchasing for my father is not easy, he has had a severe stroke and only has the use of one arm. Due to his physical restrictions, he was so disgusted with the work required to make a pot of coffee, attemted a stove-top percolator, and finally relegated himself to instant coffee. :(
I happened to see the Keurig displayed on TV and thought it was the perfect way for my father to actually be able to make coffee! So I drove to Macy’s (6hrs away..) and checked out the machine. It was perfect! He calls it the best gift ever!!! Its so simple for him to use, and he loves having real fresh brewed coffee again! So if people are looking for a good gift for someone who only has the use of one arm, the Keurig is the ticket!! My dad orders his groceries delivered, so its not that big of a deal to order the coffee from Amazon or Keurig or the other suppliers. I live in a small town, so there are definately no k-cups available here, but thats ok, I went ahead and ordered myself a Keurig, some coffee’s and also some coffee for my father as well.
One other thing, if you want a Keurig machine and are willing to order it online through Keurig (their price is great and they offer free shipping on machines) they have a great ‘refer-a-friend’ program. If you e-mail me (Mepasogirl@yahoo.com) your name and e-mail address and wait until I notify you (just a day to give Keurig your info) to purchase your machine, we will both recieve a coupon for FREE coffee (a value of $27.50). I am hoping that I can get a few of these referrals and will be able to keep a good supply of coffee for my father.
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy your next cup of coffee.
Shannon
we went with the Tassimo and couldn’t be happier. Amazing brewing flexibility and generally very good tasting coffee/espresso/etc.
We’ve had the Tassimo for over a year. We love it. We particularly like the Cappuccino and Latte, with some caramel and whip — just like a Starbux Caramel Machiatto! Tasty. And I just bought some of the Starbucks T-Discs. The coffee is bold and flavorful — EXACTLY like a cup from Starbucks. Seriously. The express feature is huge. All of our friends and family love our Tassimo. Huge hit around the holidays.
Enjoy!
In April of 07 my company moved into a new office, and one of the treats that came with it was a commercial Keurig machine. I fell completely in love with it with all the variety it offered in coffee and teas. My kids finally bought me a home model for Christmas. My only complaint, such as it is, is that I have to fill the water resevoir. I am used to the commercial one that fills itself. Small matter though!
I am in a medium size city, and K-Cup availability is limited to one store, and there the variety is slim. On line is the only real opition.
Liked your comparison, although I felt you were slightly in favor of the Keurig K cup and not completely unbiased. My husband and I explored all one cup machines. We narrowed it down to the two, Tassimo and Keurig. Since he already had the K cups at his office, and I have had them in the past, we were not too fond of the coffee it produced. He is Italian, loves strong STRONG coffee… YUK! If you are raised a NY Italian, there are two types of coffee. Black or Brown. LOL, took me a long time to figure it out, but when your asked what kind of coffee… Black is Espresso, and Brown is regular… generally very strong. I am Irish, and like it medium. I also like black tea, hot chocolate, latte, cappuccino.. But not flavored. Also Yuk! So…. We decided on the Tassimo, and were very surprised how well it worked for the both of us. It does take some getting used to, but after a day or two, and please, read the manual… you will find that from the same brand disk, you can produce either a strong or medium cup of coffee. No more arguments! You can use less or more water. I am not fond of the Milk Cups for the Capcno/latte, it is evaporated milk, has gritty taste. So I do it differently. I put the milk in the mug first, nuke it 1:15, put sweetener in, ahead of time with a stick of cinnamon, then put it in the machine for the espresso.
There is a big difference in the two machines,
Taste; The Tassimo will saturate the grounds, then pause.. giving the ground a chance to release all its flavor. I notice with the K cups, it just pushes the water through without giving it a chance for a full brew taste. Kind of like the melitta one cup filter holders. The water goes thru so fast, it doesn’t give the grinds enough time to brew.
Variety; So many different coffees, teas, chia teas and hot chocolate to choose from, and you can set up automatic delivers. Spend over $30. no charge for shipping. You don’t have to have a delivery every month. The website will remember your last order.
Taylor to your taste; Less water for a stronger cup, more for medium strength. Its up to you. Personally, my machine takes less then 30 seconds to heat up, and I have very hard water.
If it makes my husband happy, and he is truly picky… its a good machine. And as for the lawsuit, I doubt it will be won. The filtering system inside the sealed cup is completely different. And it is like suing Dixie cups for infringing on disposable cups. You can always sue anyone for any reason, doesn’t mean your will win.
I would like to know about the (California) lead warning on the Keurig coffee maker. I bought one for my mother who is almost blind and when I saw the warning I told her we should take it back, but she would like to keep it if the lead doesn’t get into the coffee. Does anyone know about this or can they give me someone to contact that would know?
JMStacy –
The short answer is: most any electrical appliance that draws a fairly high wattage, or employs small wires for a nominal wattage, uses lead to increase the flexibility and heat-resistance of the plastic that insulates the power cord.
Here’s a longer answer, cribbed from the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition…
What I believe you can be certain of is that there is no lead used in the coffee maker that would come in contact with the water, or the brewing system itself, in any way.
I love my Tassimo.
I’m mostly on the fence but leaning toward a Keurig. I am 8 months pregnant and think the ability to brew a cup of coffee using one hand will come in very handy soon. I am happy that Keurig offers the “My K-Cup” but is there any chance they’ll offer Starbucks K-cups in the future?
I purchased neither the Keurig nor the Tassimo…instead, my daily brew comes from a $35 Mr. Coffee espresso maker, from Walmart! Yes, it’s a “single-cup” coffee maker…
No environmental concerns with this machine…the grounds holder is sturdy, permanent, washable and fully reusable. You buy your own grounds and make it your way. Get the right size cup, and you can shoot the brew right into the cup…tip the grounds into a collection container (makes great compost/fertilizer), and you’re done. No waste, no fuss, no muss.
It has a built-in frothing wand for making cappucino/latte variants, tho I can’t comment on how effective it is. Brew time is about four minutes, from start to done.
For those wringing their hands with concerns that “espresso, it’s too much caffeine!”, remember, drip coffee actually carries a heavier payload of caffeine, than espresso.
Drink Up!
I purchased the Tassimo for two reasons: availability of latte option and liked the size and scale better than the Keurig. Also, I hoped (but had no evidence) that it would produce hotter coffee than the Keurig, which I’ve got at work and don’t love due to coffee temperature.
I LOVE it — after the fussy first day figuring out the flashing lights and set-up, I find the machine quick and easy to use. The lattes are surprisingly creamy and delicious, and I do think the regular brewed coffee is nice and hot — you get a “steam” from it, which I don’t get from the work Keurig. I also think the taste of most options (except Maxwell House) is much better than the Keurig, a benefit I didn’t expect.
Wish List: less drip into the cup base (though very easy to dump out) and easier water refill (have to pull unit from under counter). But, overall am very pleased and feel I made exactly the right choice.
I bought the Tassimo and a couple of different options - cappuccino, latte, and the Gevalia signature crema. The crema is absolute crap. I thought maybe something was wrong with the machine or that somehow the coffee was bad. The latte was excellent and the cappuccino was mediocre. The machine is very loud which will get on my boss’ nerves at work. I’ll probably return the Tassimo tomorrow and get a Keurig and instead. I hear it is much quieter…