Press Sample
**Products provided for review by Influenster. All opinions are my own**
Recently, I was given a chance to review the new Keurig 2.0 K450. I already own an original Keurig, so this gave me a chance to see what the differences were between the two (and I already had plenty of K-cups so I could give it a thorough testing).
This is the Keurig 2.0. I think it has a more modern look than the original Keurigs. It has a 70 oz water reservoir with a new flip up lid.
See how the front half flips up? On the original Keurigs, that whole lid pulled off. Honestly, I don't think it makes much of a difference except for looks.
There is also a color touchscreen display. You can play around with different backgrounds on it, but I find it easier to keep it basic. Also, they hid the power button on the touchscreen display (bottom right corner).
One major downside to the new Keurig is that due to a new technology to read the K-cups, all old K-cups, off brand cups, and the my K-cup accessory are unable to be used. This isn't a huge problem if you have never owned a Keurig. One way to make sure your K-cups are 2.0 compatible is to buy from Keurig.com. They are priced similar to grocery stores, and run sales fairly often. If you want to buy them in store, look for the Keurig Brewed seal on the box.
Now, how to make a great cup of coffee:
Place your favorite mug on the drip tray
Place your K-cup in the Keurig. I add sweetener and creamer before brewing. That little ring around the K-cup is what it reads to make your coffee. This is a chocolate raspberry coffee (my favorite).
Select your brew size and press the Keurig button. I keep mine on the default 8 oz setting, but it also has 4, 6, and 10 oz sizes. If you follow this process without a K-cup, you can brew plain hot water for a fast cup of tea (4 and 6 oz brew sizes only).
Wait about a minute for your coffee to brew.
Add a nice amount of whipped cream on top.
Add a nice chocolate drizzle, and it is ready to drink.
All of this is comparable to original Keurigs. The one I have does not have a 4 oz brew size, but it allows me to brew 8 and 10 oz hot water. Since I like to brew my tea with 8 oz of water, this means on the 2.0 I have to brew the 4 oz size twice. Not a major deal, but it seems to give me a little bit less water than brewing 8 oz on my other Keurig.
Now, for how to brew a carafe:
Place the K-carafe pack in the Keurig. Make sure you have the green dot at 9 o'clock (like in my picture) so that it can read what you put in. Also, I forgot to put the carafe in place for this picture, but it must be in place before you can try to brew.
There are 3 brew sizes for a carafe pack - 2-3 cups, 3-4 cups, and 4-5 cups. I went with 3-4 cups.
Wait for it to brew (thermal carafe sold separately, provided for review). I did have some issues with a "more water please" screen when I tried to brew a carafe, but after playing around it went away (I have no idea what fixed it).
And enjoy a nice hot pot of coffee. The thermal carafe kept the coffee hot the entire time I was out shoveling snow (over an hour). I am not sure how the regular carafe works, because the next time I tried to brew a carafe, I got this screen again.
The reservoir was filled up all the way to the max fill line, so it had plenty of water. I tried a few times to get it to work, but nothing worked. I called Keurig, and they had me remove the reservoir and put it back on (that made a bit of a mess since it was completely full), and when that did nothing they had me unplug it and try again (still didn't work). They are working with me on resolving the issue, and I will give an update after it is resolved.
Overall, I think I would rate this 3/5 stars. Since my Keurig still works and we own a 12 cup coffeemaker, I'm not sure that I would upgrade to a 2.0. If you don't own a Keurig yet, this is a great coffeemaker. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
~Kelly
