This is a tale of two coffee makers. It is a short tale, but it addresses a real need in my apartment - the lack of a quick way to have a single cup of coffee in my apartment.
Recently, I've taken to cleaning up my apartment, and one of the first areas of attack has been my kitchen. Shortly after my late wife moved in, a storage cabinet of hers was placed in an empty corner of my kitchen. It's ugly, but functional, and has been in the same place for almost 35 years. In the process of cleaning up the room, I decided to place it against the other wall in the "empty" corner. This made the kitchen more inviting, as one no longer feels cramped upon entry to the room.
In the process of moving the cabinet, I ended up relocating some appliances. My vacuum sealer exchanged places with my toaster oven, and I temporarily moved a mini crock pot onto the top of the cabinet. Now that I've used the crock pot to cook a meal, I can now store it in a more accessible place for future use. In its place, I plan to place a coffee maker. But what coffee maker should I put there?
I have an old coffee maker I never use. It requires me to use a filter and freshly ground coffee. Most importantly, I have to brew several cups at a time to use it. So it has rarely seen any use.
A couple of years ago, my ex girlfriend gave me a French Press coffee maker. This device doesn't require me to buy fancy filters to use when brewing coffee. Instead, its design makes it inconvenient to use, as it requires a full clean up after each use. This is not worth the effort when one wants a quick cup of coffee.
This left me with two choices to make, both involving K-Cup brewing. The first choice was to decide whether I would buy an off-brand coffee maker which uses K-Cups, or whether I would buy one made by Keurig. Given that the Hamilton Beach product was simple and easy to use, I almost sprang for that device on New Year's Eve. But I decided to defer the decision until I was in contact with Vicki. She was willing to give me her Keurig Mini, and I needed to know why she didn't use it before accepting her offer. Vicki then told me about her two most important complaints: (1) The Mini's water reservoir was virtually useless, only having enough water for an 8 oz. brew, and (2) The Mini did not have controls for whether one desires a mild, medium, or strong brew. At this point, I knew enough to make my decision. I chose NOT to use Vicki's Mini brewer, and chose to buy the Keurig Classic with a 36 oz. reservoir.
If you shop around, you'll find that the Keurig Classic is twice the price ($60) as the Hamilton Beach coffee maker ($30) at the local Walmart. The key difference between the two is the size of the reservoir, with the Keurig holding 6 more ounces. This is not a major difference. But I am familiar with the Keurig from my 10 months at the census bureau, and I don't want to learn the nuances of a new machine.
Now to find someone to have breakfast with, so that we can have coffee together.
