Key patents on K-Cups, the single portion packs used in Keurig brewers, are expiring this year. Rather than lose market share to the competition, Keurig is countering by coming out with new brewers. The upcoming “Vue” brewers will offer a wider range of brew sizes and beverage types as well as temperature control and other features. The list price of the Vue V700 brewer is $249.99
Importantly, the Vue brewer is not compatible with K-Cups — they will use new Vue Packs.
On the bright side, the Vue Packs are made of #5 plastic, which can be recycled once the foil lid, inner paper filter, and contents are removed by many recycling programs.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Except for having greener coffee pods, there is little strategic advantage to the Vue line except for coffee snobs. It raises the complexity for the consumer when ordering the new pods; it forces coffee vendors to support both pod formats for the same coffees; it destroys the simplicity of “just making coffee” by providing more options for every step of the process. Coffee snobs may rush to get the Vue, but K-The 50% increase in cost is simply not justified for K-Cup enthusiasts like myself. I’m hanging onto my less expensive, easier to maintain and use basket brewer as my one-cup brewer finally dies.
Seriously??? It’s hard enough to get a small town market to order K-cups, now you want to change them? Forget it! There will be other choices out there soon. I’ve used a Keurig for many years, but this is a slap in the face! Time to switch to something else.