Keurig k-cups vs. Tassimo t-discs

Before getting my Cuisinart brand pot that makes Keurig k-cups (even though I said this in the previous post, thanks Mom and Erika!!!!!), I already had a Tassimo pot. I love my Tassimo pot, it is very cool. This blog post is a side-by-side comparison of the two, with honest pros and cons from my perspective. In the end, I like the Keurig better because of a few advantages. One caveat that I have to acknowledge at this point is that I have a Cuisinart brand pot, not a pot made by Keurig. It may have features that a pot made by Keurig does not have (or that not all pots made by Keurig have). I have tried, whenever it is a special feature of the pot, to mention this, but may not do it all throughout this blog post. Another caveat that I need to add is that I have had my Tassimo for at least a year, maybe longer, and I know that there is a newer model out, but I don't know if it has any different features so you may find a newer Tassimo pot that may not have the same pros and cons that I experience with mine.

The Tassimo pot is very high-tech, and as a result, fairly idiot proof. You put the t-disc in and the laser reads the bar code and that tells the machine (1) how much water, (2) what temperature, and (3) is there a steep-time where the water needs to stay in the disc and if so, how long. You cannot alter/change/customize this process, but you also don't have to experiment with how much water to use and don't have to go through menu settings to choose the brew temperature. Like I said, you just pop in a t-disc, put a cup on the stand, and push the one button and poof you get a cup of whatever you chose to make. The Keurig, in contrast, lets you customize it more, which can be good and bad because it takes some experimentation (which wastes k-cups) to figure out what you like best. If you don't like a k-cup flavor because it is too strong, you can make it weaker by choosing a larger cup size. My Cuisinart pot has 5 different cup size settings, all of which may be used with any k-cup; these are 4 ounces brewed over ice (you put the ice directly into the cup you are brewing into, this setting is used for brewing iced tea), 6 ounces, 8 ounces, 10 ounces, and 12 ounces.

The Tassimo is a little more difficult to clean because of the way the t-disc sets in, there are more surface areas that get dirty in the process. To rinse it, you use the special clear plastic rinse disc with bar code. I've found that this never gets everything left behind by the previous disc. You end up having to remove the two inner pieces (the one that punctures the t-disc/runs the water through and the cradle that the t-disc sits on) to wash them manually. This may not be true of all Keurig pots (ones that are actually made by the Keurig company), but the Cuisinart brand pot that I have has a single button that says rinse. Because of the way it is made, the only part that really gets any of the coffee (or whatever else you made) on it is the spout that the water comes out of. This rinse cycle uses only about 4-6 ounces of water, so there is not much waste, and the pot is completely clean and ready for the next brew cycle with no carry-over flavor from the previous k-cup brewed.

The Tassimo pot, as alluded to before, is very straight-forward in its functioning because it does not have lots of options. This is great for some people who don't want to be bogged down by lots of choices. If you had asked me the perfect temperature to brew yummy coffee, I would NOT have known. The Cuisinart k-cup pot comes with a default brew temperature, but you can change it. For me personally, I like the ability to customize. But if you like for someone else who is an "expert" to tell you to just push a single button and it will be perfect, then you might like the Tassimo pot better. The Keurig offers a lot more in the way of customization. On my pot, through the menu options you can choose your default cup size, brew temperature, if you want the pot to automatically turn off after a certain amount of time, if you want it to turn on at a certain time of day (so it is fully warmed up and ready to use before you wake up so there is no wait time). It also, as mentioned before, has 5 different cup sizes (i.e. how much water will be run through your k-cup), all of which can presumably be used on any k-cup. Obviously the raspberry sweet tea is meant to be iced, but since the 4 ounce over ice still brews hot, I would guess that there's no reason you couldn't use the other settings and then pour it over ice. The other features, one of the pot and one of Keurig in general, that allow for additional customization/flexibility, are the hot water button and the "my k-cup." The hot water button on the Cuisinart pot allows you to get plain hot water out of the pot to make any drink that just requires adding hot water. I haven't tried this feature yet, so I don't know how you choose the amount of hot water, but I'm sure I'll blog on that later. The "my k-cup" is a small metal mesh filter in a plastic housing. This allows you to put any kind of coffee grounds into the filter and use it in lieu of the pre-packaged k-cups. This allows the Keurig to do everything the Tassimo does, plus what your "regular" coffee pot does, plus what an electric ketle (for heating water) does.

The Tassimo pot has four types of t-discs: cofee, tea, hot chocolate and milk based (i.e. latte or cappucino). One plus to these discs is that the hot chocolate and milk discs use a liquid concentrate rather than a powder. The cappucino and latte discs are actually a two disc set, one is espresso and one is milk. The Keurig k-cups have the additional category of iced teas. In this area the two are somewhat equal because, even though there is the one additional category of k-cups, by splitting the milk drinks and selling milk separately, you can combine t-discs in unique ways to make drinks like macchiatos.

The Tassimo pot has a drip pan, which is used for more than just the occasional accidental drip after brewing. The Tassimo pot dumpes water into it from a side port as part of the brewing process. This creates a problem with trying to use a larger cup because you have to remove the drip pan and put a towel down to keep it from spilling. The Keurig pot does not waste water in this way because any water in the line that is not hot enough will be recycled by being pumped back into the reservoir.  In addition, the Keurig has a taller place for the mug to go, therefore accommodating even standard (approx. 14 ounce) travel mugs (but not super tall tumblers).

In the end, while the Tassimo and the Keurig both have pros and cons, I like the Keurig a little better for the following reasons. The Keurig provides more flexibility and customizability. The Keurig is easier to clean. Also, something not previously discussed in this post, it brews much more quitely. Lastly, the Keurig pot accomodates a taller cup/mug.