Interesting: it’s good to hear that someone I know is using the Keurig- thanks, Chris. I’ll buy the reusable filter thing so I can use “regular” coffee when I’m out of K-Cups, but I’m not surprised it doesn’t work as well. Might be something where you have to grind your own to get the grind fine enough? I have no clue.

How loud are the machines, Chris? I listened to a couple of sample recordings and they didn’t sound too bad, but one of the complaints I’ve read is that the single cup machines are a bit noisy. The Tassimo are supposedly really loud compared to the Keurig… but it is hard to compare based on a scratchy recording.

I didn’t really expect the tea to be very good either, but it is nice to have that confirmed. I have three boxes of K-Cups on order: one “sampler” pack from Green Mountain; one box of their “Fair trade” Columbian; and a “K-Cup variety pack” from Timothy’s. The Timothy’s pack includes some tea: I figured I’d give it a try just to see how it worked. The shipping on the coffee is the killer: $15 or thereabouts for 24 coffees, then $9 for shipping from Timothys and $15 from Green Mountain (in the US).

I’m trying all the different types because, although I’m not a coffee snob, I have found that different manufacturers produce substantially different versions even using the same beans. My theory is that I can narrow down my preferences by trying a bunch of varieties in rapid succession: either that, or end up with a lot of coffee types I don’t want to drink 🙂 Once I decide what kinds of coffees I like, I’ll have to order bigger batches to cut down on the percentage impact of the shipping.

I also bought a K-Cup carousel from Timothy’s to store/display the coffees- it’s a gimmick, but I thought it looked kind of neat. The silly thing is that I still haven’t bought the machine itself yet 😉 I’ll probably see about picking one up tomorrow.