Keurig is a brand that needs no introduction. One of the most popular coffee machine producers in the US and Canada market, Keurig has been selling single-serve coffee machines since 1992.
Their K-cups system is popular among coffee drinkers that prefer a large quantity of coffee throughout the day with just the pressing of a single button.
For those who haven’t yet entered the world of Keurig, the K200 is a great starter machine. It uses the K-cups to make not only delicious coffee but also hot cocoa, mochas, and tea. Just pick the K-pod you prefer and the Keurig K200 will brew it!
The Keurig K200 is specifically designed to be easy to use and extremely intuitive. It maintains the usual “push a button and get your coffee” principle of all the Keurig machines, with a series of added features that will make brewing the perfect cup of coffee even easier.
It is a machine that will work great for small to medium households, as it is of medium size and producing enough coffee per day to accommodate the needs of up to 4-5 people.
Keurig K200
Features
But what exactly makes the K200 good?
First and foremost, the Keurig K200 requires no tech-savviness at all as it can be used through its touch display. Arrow buttons are there to select the size and strength of your coffee, or to select different drinks like hot cocoa or tea.
Very little needs to be touched for the machine to brew. The display is specifically designed to be clear to read and with just the basic information to know what’s going on and nothing more than that. It won’t confuse anybody, basically.
To make it easier, some features you may be expecting in a coffee machine are missing: a clock, a timer, and an automatic power-off are absent. This is no issue if you just want your cup of coffee in the morning but it’s limiting if you want to customize it more than tweaking the size and strength. Also do remember to shut down the machine after each use to save energy.
K-cups are the heart of the Keurig K200 machine. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to brew anything. As a proprietary technology of Keurig, there’s an understandable doubt if there will be enough flavors to match your taste and never get bored.
No worries!
There are 75 brands and over 400 different flavors available of K-cups. It shouldn’t be any problem to find one you love. The K200 supports all the normal K-cups, sized at 4, 6, 8 and 10 ounces, plus the 12, 14, 16 ounces “k-mug” pods.
The Keurig K200 is able to brew up to 4 cups of coffee with one refill. Thanks to its large 40 ounces water reservoir, you won’t need to refill it often. The water reservoir is detachable and washable.
Inside it there’s the filter that needs to be changed every two months or so, depending on the use you make of the machine. In order to not forget to do so, there’s a dial that you can rotate to set the month the filter will need to be substituted. Set it as soon as you install the new one and you will not need a reminder to know when it’s time to get rid of it.
But what about the strength of the coffee itself?
The Keurig K200 has you covered too! The machine has not just a couple but well nine modes to choose from to have the right strength for the coffee you like. Depending on the size of the K-cups you are using, the machine will provide the right brewing time and extraction to match the quantity of ground coffee in the pod.
And in the case it is not enough, there’s the strong brew mode, which will increase the extraction while leaving the cup size the same. For the mornings you need a supplementary caffeine kick, this mode is a super-useful feature to have.
Optionally, for lovers of very large coffee cups and mugs, the Keurig K200 has the possibility to add an optional carafe that will allow you to make more, up to 22, 26 or 30 ounces of coffee. For these sizes, you will need to add the carafe and use the k-carafe coffee pods from Keurig.
Those pods contain more ground coffee to be able to brew a strong and large mug of the dark liquid. The same strong brew mode of smaller pods can be used with these larger ones, creating many servings of strong coffee.
Pros and Cons
Overall, the Keurig K200 is a great machine for starters. It has among its advantages the cheap price, the huge choice of K-cups with many flavors, and is able to brew alternative drinks like hot cocoa and tea.
It is not simply a coffee machine.
It is quick, requiring just about 1 minute from the pressing of the brew button to complete coffee brewing, and has a large enough water reservoir to satisfy most needs. And if it’s not big enough, the optional carafe allows you to make truly supersized coffee with the same easiness of a single cup.
Not to forget the strong brew mode is specifically designed for those living off caffeine to work or those fearing Keurig machines aren’t capable of producing an intense cup of coffee.
The K200 isn’t perfect, of course. It is not capable of allowing you to customize your coffee outside of size and strength, so if you are looking for more room for your creativity you will need to look at more evolved models. Check out the other Keurig 2.0 Models!
It is not geared for large cups of coffee or brewing for all the family with a single button press, as it will require the optional carafe for this. K-cups aren’t exactly environmentally-friendly, being not recyclable.
Brewing coffee with them every day means hundreds of pods that will end up in a landfill each year, which is far from being green.
But if you are able to live with these disadvantages and limitations, the Keurig K200 is an excellent entry-level machine that will delight you and your family for many months!
There are plenty of alternatives in the same price range of the K200, but this model remains a recommended choice for its durability, ease of use, versatility, and large choice of coffee flavors to use with it.