Keurig Elite Brewing System (B40)The Keurig Elite Brewing System

The Keurig Elite Brewing System, (also known as the Keurig B40 Elite Brewing System) is one of the most sought-after one-cup coffee-makers in America today.

For less than $120, the Keurig Elite Brewing System gives you the ability to have great-tasting coffee or tea, at the press of a button!

There are some awesome features of the Keurig Elite Brewing System, which helps explain its popularity . These  features include:

  • It can make both coffee and tea;
  • The ability to choose from 2 cup sizes: either a regular cup size (i.e. 7-1/4-ounce cup), and a larger 9-1/4-ounce mug (e.g. travel mug size);
  • The Elite Brewing System has a 48-ounce removable water reservoir, which provides up to 6 standard size cups before you need to refill it;
  • It uses Keurig’s patented ‘K-cups’, which means that there is no need for messy grinding or cleaning up;
  • There is a removable drip tray, for easy cleaning (and you can remove this drip tray to allow the filling up of travel mugs);
  • With one-touch technology, you have precise control over your brewing (and there is no grinding or messy cleaning up afterwards).

Who Is The Keurig Elite Brewing System suitable for?

The Keurig Elite Brewing System is designed  for the fussy coffee/tea drinker,  who demands nothing less than a delicious, gourmet cup of coffee or tea in the morning (or during the day).  It is very simple and easy to use, with a price tag that does not break the bank!

What do you need to consider before buying a Keurig Elite Brewing System?

Before deciding to purchase the Keurig Elite Brewing System , you need to understand that  the brewer uses patented Keurig ‘K-cups’.  A ‘K-cup’ is a plastic cup filled with ground coffee/tea, that you place into the Brewer. The Brewer then punctures the lid, and the bottom of the cup, and forces the hot water down through the cup.

The result is a delicious cup of hot coffee or tea. However, each time you prepare a cup of coffee/tea, you need to put in a K-cup (containing the coffee/tea). As at May 2011, a box of 24 K-cups cost around $14 (from Keurig.com), which is around 58 cents  per cup.

However, there are some ways to keep the cost down:

1)  You can buy K-cups through Amazon.com, which works out cheaper than buying them through Keurig.com. If you sign up with their subscriber plan, you can get the K-cups at around 47 cents per cup.

2)  You can buy some accessories for the K-cups, which allow you to recycle the K-cups. You can find out exactly what this looks like at this video clip here (she gets to the point after a minute or so of introduction):

You can also check out two of the online stores that sell these K-cup attachments,  namely My Kap, and Solofill. Alternatively, you could check out using the Keurig My K cup reusuable coffee filter. If you reuse the K-cups  in this way, you can dramatically decrease the price of your K-cup coffee (and also make for less rubbish, which is great for our environment!).

If you are happy to either keep buying K-cups, or reusing them (with the attachments that were mentioned above), then you will find that the Elite Brewing System will faithfully provide you with satisfying and delicious coffee or tea.

Are there any negatives to the Keurig Elite Brewing system?

If you look at the independent user reveiws on websites such as amazon.com, you will see that the average rating for the Elite Brewing System (known on amazon as the Keurig B40) is a massive 4 stars (out of a maximum of 5 stars) – and that’s after amore than  500 people posting their reviews!

However, some people have posted negative reviews, and these are focussed on the following:

  • The requirement to use the plastic Keurig K-cups.  Some people found this expense over time, and wasteful to the environment. However, as discussed above, there is a simple way to get round this, by reusing  your K-cups;
  • Durability. Whilst overall it was only a few people who reported having this problem, they  did nevertheless complain of their machine breaking/not working properly within the first year of buying it. However, Keurig does have a limited 1 year warranty of their machines, and so they were able to get their machine replaced;
  • Noise. Some people complained about the noise that the brewer made. But, as one reviewer commented: sure, it’s noisy in the morning at 5am, but it only lasts a few seconds ;
  • Time for heating water. When you turn the machine on in the morning, it takes around  4 minutes to heat the water up before you can use it. It also takes 15 seconds to heat the water again between cups. For most people this won’t be a big deal, but it’s good to be aware of this before you purchase the Brewer.

If you check out the 500 or so reviews on  Amazon.com, over 400 (i.e. 80%) were in the extremely positive 4-5 star range. Whilst some people did have issues with the machine, these people were in the minority, and most people were very satisfied with their purchase.

What are people saying about the Keurig Elite Brewing System?

Here are a number of independent user reviews of the Elite Brewing System. (I have taken these straight from amazon.com, so excuse the funny screen names of people):

‘I absolutely love the Keurig! It’s so simply and easy. You really only need a minute to make coffee with this machine. Make sure there’s water, turn it on and after the water heats up, you’re ready to go. Put your K Cup in, select small or large portion, and after less than 30 seconds you have a great cup of coffee.’ (Deanna Jones)

‘I had a great cup of coffee over at a friends house. So I really wanted to buy the Keurig coffee maker, because it make delicious coffee, it was quick, nice and hot, and had no mess to it. I liked this model because it also has a water reservoir, so that every time I want a cup of coffee I don’t have to also fill it with purified water.’ (ShannBB)

‘After 9 months of using my Keurig everyday, it stopped brewing the right amount of water. I called the customer service line and got EXCELLENT service. The guy had me do one small troubleshooting task and when it didn’t fix the problem he sent me a BRAND NEW machine (not refurbished) plus 3 boxes of K cups in the flavors of my choice. And I didn’t even have to have my receipt nor are they making me send back my broken machine. I was very impressed with their quality customer service. It’s an expensive coffee maker. I was bummed that it broke down in less than a year but with customer service like that, I’m very satisfied with this product.’ (scissor hands)

As a former coffee house Assistant Manager and an avid fan of “gourmet” coffee, I highly recommend this coffee machine.’ (Peace Frog Aktur).

‘My boys and I got this for my husband for Xmas 2010. He loves it and I love not wasting coffee since I don’t drink coffee and my husband only has a cup or two, then the rest gets tossed down the drain. No more wasting coffee and no more science projects growing in the coffee pot because someone forgot to toss the remains of the mornings brew. This is real convenient as well. It literally takes seconds to make a cup of hot, whatever floats your taste buds. I buy all our cups from Keurig online. They have great deals too.’ (M.Hardin).

‘I bought the Keurig and LOVE IT!!!! Each and every cup is fresh and HOT!!!!
If I could change one thing it would be the cup size, it has small and large but it needs to have one more size.. EXTRA LARGE!!!! I use a MUG for my coffee…. But other than that, LIKE I SAID LOVE IT!!!’ (palmerd)

‘I love this coffee maker! I like to have brewed coffee but I am the only one why drinks it every weekday. Even the small automatic coffeemakers were too much bother to go through each day for just myself, so I would never bother.
with this I can have fresh brewed coffee, a cup at a time, in just a minute or so. It’s quick quiet and makes such good coffee. I read reviews where people talk about the noise and I don’t understand! I love the fact that you can have fresh brewed coffee and there are so many different flavors. Yes it’s more $$$ but much less that your daily coffee shop cup, no?’ (Kitchen “witch”)

As you can see from the above comments, people seem to love the machine. Sure, they do raise a couple of issues, such as durability, and cup sizes, and these are good to be aware of as you decide whether or not to buy the machine.

But, if you check the full bredth of reviews at a site like amazon.com, it seems that the overwhelming majority of people are very happy with their purchase.

In conclusion.

All in all, the Keurig Elite  Brewing System is one of the best value coffee makers on the market today. It will give you a very tasty cup of coffee or tea, all at the press of a button.


(Note: In the near future I hope to put up live links to online a variety of online stores that sell the item, for easy comparison and purchase).