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Keurig

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"K-Cup" redirects here. For the bra size, see Brassiere measurement.
Keurig
Company typeWholly owned subsidiary
HeadquartersBurlington, Massachusetts
ProductsCoffee makers, coffee
ParentKeurig Green Mountain
Websitehttp://www.keurig.com/

Keurig /ˈkjʊərɪɡ/ is an American manufacturer of coffee brewers for both home and commercial use. It is a part of Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (GMCR).[1] Keurig is based in Massachusetts.[2] Its main product is the K-Cup, a single-serving coffee brewing system.

Each K-Cup is a plastic container with a coffee filter inside. Ground coffee beans are packed in the K-Cup and sealed air-tight with a combination plastic and foil lid. When the K-Cup is placed in a Keurig brewer, the brewer punctures both the foil lid and the bottom of the K-Cup and forces hot water under pressure through the K-Cup and into a mug.

Initially used only for coffee, K-Cup varieties now include coffee, tea, hot chocolate, iced tea and coffee, as well as fruit drinks.

Keurig licenses its K-Cup technology to coffee roasters and tea makers such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Diedrich/Gloria Jeans, Timothy's World Coffee, Van Houtte, Caribou Coffee, Celestial Seasonings, Bigelow Tea Company, Twinings, Tully's, Coffee People and Newman's Own.

History

A Keurig coffee maker
File:K-Cup-Silo.gif
Five K-Cups
The inside of a used K-Cup pack, with the top foil and the used coffee grounds removed, revealing the filter

K-Cup portion packs were invented by Colby College roommates Peter Dragone (Class of 1979) and John Sylvan (Class of 1980).[3] Dragone and Sylvan founded Keurig in 1990,[4] with later support from co-founder and current vice president of Contract Manufacturing & Quality assurance, Dick Sweeney, in 1993.[5]

The company was based on the brewing of single cups of coffee, which provides for better consistency in the quality of the coffee.[6] Keurig was a venture capital start up business, with funding from several investors.[7]

In 1996 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters invested in Keurig, buying a 35% interest in the company.[8] Keurig's first brewer, the B2000, was made for office use and launched in 1998.[9] K-Cup packs with tea were introduced in 2000, followed by other beverages. By 2003, there were more than 40,000 commercial brewers in American offices. The company's B100 home brewer was introduced in 2004, and the company began looking at going public.[10] In 2003, GMCR increased its ownership percentage to 43%.[11] In 2006, GMCR acquired Keurig for $160 million, and Keurig is a wholly owned subsidiary of GMCR.[12][13]

In 2012, the KeurigVue brewing system was introduced, in order to increase the choices users have in brewing beverages.[14] In 2012, a commercial version of the KeurigVue brewer was offered, which allows choice of temperature, cup size, and brew strength.[15] Keurig also released the Rivo brewing system, the first single-cup espresso system which can froth fresh milk for lattes or cappuccinos.[16]

Keurig's patents on the original K-Cup design expired in September 2012.[17] Keurig holds at least one additional, still-active US patent[18] and another patent application,[19] detailing improvements that have subsequently been incorporated in their K-Cup design.

Product details

K-Cup machines are designed to brew a single cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or other hot beverage. The grounds are in a single-serving unit, called a "K-Cup" pack.

They brew coffee or tea by piercing the foil seal on top of the plastic K-Cup pack with a spray nozzle, while piercing the bottom of the K-Cup pack with a discharge nozzle. Grounds contained inside the K-Cup pack are in a paper filter. Hot water is forced through the K-Cup pack, passing through the grounds and through the filter. A brewing temperature of 192 degrees Fahrenheit (89 Celsius) is the default setting, with some models permitting users to adjust the temperature.

While the original patents expired in 2012,[20] Keurig has later patents on the filters used in the K-Cups.[21]

In an effort to prevent third party manufacturing and undercutting of official K-Cups, Keurig introduced its 2.0 model in August 2014, with a feature that initially prevented consumers from using other brands of coffee pods. The new system uses DRM to check for ultraviolet ink printed on K-cup lids. This system was later bypassed by several third-party companies.

Machine models

Keurig sells many models for use with K-Cup packs, for household and commercial use. Licensed models from Breville, made by the Australian company of the same name, Cuisinart, and Mr. Coffee all introduced in 2010 are also available.

Keurig also sells brewers that use new Vue Packs instead of K-Cup Packs. The Vue system offers more control of the brew with a wider range of mug sizes.[22] Unlike K-Cups, Vue Packs can be emptied and recycled after use.[23] Some models can read the RFID tags embedded in Vue packs to select the optimal brew settings for each variety of beverage automatically[24] and brew coffee at different strengths.[25]

The Rivo system is another model by Keurig which offers the ability to make hot or cold espresso based beverages. Lavazza Espresso coffee packs are used with this system. Espresso size options are 1.4 or 2.8 ounces and three frothing modes include cold, cappuccino, and latte.[26]

Varieties

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters owns and licenses many beverage brands, offering more than 268 flavors.[27] Some of the flavors include tea, hot chocolate, lemonades and cider and other fruit flavors.[28]

K-Cups come in a range of varieties.[29] They offer single-origin coffees from Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Sumatra. They also offer custom coffee blends, Organic Coffees, Fair Trade and flavored coffees, and a variety of roasts including Extra Bold Roasts (with 30% more ground coffee), Dark Roast, Medium Roast, Light Roast, Flavored, Decaf, Fair Trade Certified and Organic Coffee Roasts.

Keurig's varieties include products from companies like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.[30] K-Cups also offer English Breakfast, Chamomile and Earl Grey decaf, Chai, Peppermint and Mango tea, from a wide range of companies such as Bigelow, Cafe Escapes, Celestial Seasonings, Gloria Jean's Tea, Timothy's Tea and Twinings Tea. They also offer premium hot chocolate from brands such as Cafe Escapes, Green Mountain Coffee, Timothy's and Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

Keurig also makes a reusable filter called the My K-Cup, allowing users to make their own beverage.[31]

Retail stores

In November 2013 Keurig opened its first retail store inside the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts. The store features the full line of Keurig machines and over 200 varieties of K-Cups to build your own "Coffee Pack".

Keurig Cold

In February 2014, Keurig announced plans to develop a cold-beverage system to compete with SodaStream called "Keurig Cold".[32] The Coca-Cola Company purchased a 10% stake in Keurig that same month,[33] and announced that they had entered into a 10-year partnership to provide support for Keurig Cold.[32] In June 2014, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced that Keurig would open a new $337-million facility in Lithia Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, that would produce the new Keurig Cold machines.[34]

Awards

The Keurig single cup coffee maker platform was named a "Brand of the Year" in the 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend Equity Study in the "Coffee Maker" category.[35]

Criticism

In 2011, Keurig was criticized by an environmentalist group Clean Water Action for the difficulty of recycling K-Cups. In response, the company said "We are working on a few different fronts to improve the environmental characteristics of the K-Cup system."[36]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Reports Full Year and Fiscal 2011 Fourth Quarter Results". GMCR. November 9, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  2. ^ Town, Your (June 19, 2012). "Keurig coffee unit to move to Burlington". Boston Globe. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.boston.com/yourtown/needham/articles/2011/08/07/the_inside_story_of_keurigs_rise_to_a_billion_dollar_coffee_empire/
  4. ^ Michelle Leder (Jan 1, 2004). "Taking a Niche Player Big-Time". Inc Magazine. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  5. ^ "NJIT Alumnus Dick Sweeney, Co-Founder of Keurig, Receives NJIT's Entrepreneurial Award". New Jersey Institute of Technology. Nov 30, 2006. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  6. ^ Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz (2011). Contemporary Marketing. Cengage. p. 187. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  7. ^ Jerry Ackerman (August 24, 1997). "Flat N.E. financings lag nationwide highs". Boston Globe. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Green Mountain Coffee's purchase of Keurig Inc. completed". Boston Business Journal. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
  9. ^ Roger A. Kerin and Robert Allen Peterson (2007). Strategic marketing problems: cases and comments. Pearson/Prentice Hall. p. 615. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  10. ^ Jill Lerner (June 9, 2003). "Keurig has some ideas brewing about consumer market". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ Laura T. Raynolds, Douglas L. Murray, and John Wilkinson (2007). Fair trade: the challenges of transforming globalization. Routledge. p. 95. Retrieved December 12, 2012.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Corporate Profile" (PDF). Keurig. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  13. ^ "Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. to Acquire Remaining 65% of Keurig, Incorporated." Business Wire: 1. ABI/INFORM Complete. May 02 2006. Web. 12 Dec. 2011 .
  14. ^ Chris Reidy (December 11, 2012). "Local Whole Foods to sell Brioni's 'Green Cup' coffee for single-serve brewing machines". Boston Globe. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ Emily Jed (November 14, 2012). "Green Mountain, Lavazza Debut Cappuccino-Latte Capsule Brewer". Vending Times. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Ellen Byron (November 21, 2012). "Making a Better Cup at Home". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 20, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2012/11/28/the-k-cup-patent-is-dead-long-live-the-k-cup/
  18. ^ http://www.google.com/patents/US6645537
  19. ^ http://www.sandiegopatentattorney.pro/2012/07/green-mountain-coffee-roasters-patent-expiration-could-create-glut-of-k-cup-copies.html
  20. ^ Johnston, Katie (12 June 2012). "Another challenge for K-Cup maker". The Boston Globe.
  21. ^ "Green Mountain Coffee Roaster's Patent Expiration Could Create Glut Of K-Cup Copies". Mandour & Associates, APC. July 18, 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  22. ^ "Keurig Vue V700: A Closer Look". One Cup Coffee Source. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  23. ^ "How to Recycle Keurig Vue Packs". SingleServeCoffee. April 6, 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  24. ^ Swedberg, Claire (21 September 2012). "New Keurig Brewer Uses RFID Recipe Tag to Make the Perfect Cup". RFID Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  25. ^ Keurig, Inc (21 January 2013). "Keurig Vue System Cup". Retrieved 21 February 2013. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  26. ^ "Rivo Brewing System".
  27. ^ Wallace, Benjamin (June 17, 2010). "Keurig and Flavia: Single-Serve Coffee Showdown". Business Week. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  28. ^ "Green Mountain Coffee". Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  29. ^ http://topkcups.com/
  30. ^ Katie Johnston Chase (March 11, 2011). "Starbucks deal solidifies Green Mountain's market lead". Boston Globe. Retrieved December 12, 2012. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  31. ^ "Keurig". Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  32. ^ a b Luigi Lugmayr (February 6, 2014). "Keurig Cold Home Coca-Cola Maker is Coming". i4u.com. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  33. ^ Leon Stafford (2014-05-13). "Coca-Cola ups stake in Keurig". myajc.com. Cox Newspapers. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
  34. ^ Greg Bluestein and J. Scott Trubey (June 19, 2014). "Keurig to open factory in metro Atlanta". ajc.com. Cox Newspapers. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  35. ^ "More competition for Vt.-based coffee giant?". NBC. September 17, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  36. ^ Allen, Ginger (October 12, 2011). "Coffee Machine Maker In Hot Water Over Plastic Cups". CBS.
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