If you’re the victim of bad office coffee, take heart. You’re not alone, and help is on the way. With a huge selection of flavors to chose from, and the convenience of on-demand brewing, the Keurig B140 offers a compelling alternative to the Pot O’ Swill that plagues far too many office break rooms.

My office received our B140 a few weeks ago, and I’ve been putting it through its paces twice daily since. Like all Keurig brewers, the B140 takes K-Cups instead of the more familiar ground coffee. A K-cup is, of course, little more than a precisely measured plastic container filled with, you guessed it, ground coffee.

Operating the Keurig couldn’t be any easier. Flip open the lid, insert one of a multitude of K-cup coffee varieties, close the lid, and press a single button. The B140 punches a hole in the K-cup and lets the water flow through. In 15 seconds or less the B140 spits out a perfectly heated, and perfectly fresh (who knows how long that other stuff has been sitting around) cup of joe.

The entry model B140 isn’t big on bells and whistles. There is no fancy LCD display and no inline water system (you’ll have to fill the repository several times daily if yours gets a lot of use), but the Keurig succeeds at its primary function; making coffee. The 3-way selector dial allows you to choose between a 6, 8, and 10 ounce serving size. Truth be told, I’d love to see a 12 or even a 16 ounce size myself, and I’ve seen many a colleague use two K-cups to fill up his their travel mugs.

As much as I’m enjoying the convenience of the Keurig B140 office brewer, I have a couple of minor issues:

• As I mentioned, a relatively small maximum serving size (10 oz.) causes many coffee drinkers to use 2 K-cups per actual serving.
• While a plethora of flavor options is overall a good thing, some of them just don’t work for me (Caramel Vanilla Nut for example).
• The B140 tends to make a comparatively weak cup of coffee. I tend to prefer the medium-roast blends; however to get real coffee flavor I need to drink the extra bold. For most users this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you like a real dark coffee, like Peet’s, or the old office double-brew trick, the B140 probably isn’t going to do it for you.

For the overwhelming majority of office coffee drinkers the Keurig B140 (or any Keurig model for that matter), is an ideal solution to bring variety and good taste to your office coffee. With dozens of flavors to choose from, you’d be hard-pressed not to find a flavor or two to your liking.

If you can get your office manager to bring one of these little gadgets in, I highly recommend you do. While it’s not quite perfect, if your office is like most, it’s better than what you have now.

The Keurig B140 is not available for purchase by home users, however; Green Mountain Coffee Roasters offers a complete line of Keurig home brewers which will allow you to enjoy all their great K-Cup varieties in your home.

For home use, the $99 entry level B40 brews a 7.25 oz cup of coffee and features two brew buttons, heating & refill indicators, and 48oz. water reservoir.

The $150 mid-range B60 adds 5.25 oz. and 9.5 oz., a chrome handle and faceplate, as well a digital clock with programmable timer.

The $199 high-end B70 has all the bells and whistles of the B60 as well as an additional 11.25 oz. cup size setting and advanced technology for creating a more flavorful cup of coffee.  The B70 also features an adjustable temperature control and an extra large 60 oz. water reservoir.  It’s the model I own, and I absolutely love it.

All Keurig Brewers from purchased from Green Mountain ship free.  You can also save $2 per box, and get two boxes of coffee free, along with another free gift (of your choosing) when you sign up for Green Mountain’s Café EXPRESS program.

Keurig B40 Brewer

Keurig B60 Brewer

Keurig B70 Brewer

While you’re here at Qwowi, check out the growing list of reviews in the K-Cup Challenge.

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