If you like iced coffee, the K-Elite might intrigue you, though, fair warning, the iced feature doesn’t taste too far off from its ‘strong’ option. To brew iced coffee, the K-Elite simply pulls a longer brew cycle, similar to a strong cup. Keurig advises filling a mug up with ice and leaving it underneath the spout as it pours. After tasting it, I honestly think the iced feature makes the already weak K-Cup experience even weaker — too watery and flat. This Keurig can create a highly-concentrated shot of coffee to mimic the profile of espresso.
It’s not a big deal to wipe it up instantly to keep things clean, but they could have done a better job to prevent this splatter issue. Set up the cup with a filter and put coffee with the desired amount; there’s an indication for a small cup and large keurig classic cup. I like my coffee hot but if you want to dim it down bit, I’m not going to judge (maybe a little bit). Secondly, the volumes are not printed near or on the buttons. Although these aren’t major issues, they take away from the overall experience.
They were ahead of their times in build quality and feature sets and although the Elite seems like it’s the better unit of the two it’s not the one I recommend. The K-Elite can effortlessly brew a good cup of coffee; however, we consider its coffee drink quality as average among Keurig coffee makers. Of course, if you’d like a little more control over your coffee, there are a multitude of settings you can adjust. You can program a time for your machine to turn on and off, conserving energy and preventing you from having to get up earlier!
Users can turn the Automatic Start feature on or off and set a time for when to start it. Unfortunately, the Automatic Start feature doesn’t actually brew a cup of coffee. Indicates how quickly the machine produces the first cup of coffee. This also includes the time required to heat any internal water reservoir from room temperature.
Reflects how closely the second cup matches the first cup in temperature. This model is no longer available or might have limited distribution. Get sneak previews of special offers & upcoming events delivered to your inbox. With the K-Elite, Keurig has taken yet another leap forward in their keurig classic quest for total pod-based coffee supremacy. The internet is brimming with big-shot publishers claiming to be the ‘know-it-all’ of everything, including coffee. But let’s spill the beans here – most of the websites you find on Google are run by big media companies; not by coffee experts.
Certain machines adjust the brew process by which pod or capsule you select, although some also let you use more or less water for a weaker or stronger cup. Like all Keurigs, the K-Elite can only use K-Cup pods to brew coffee, tea, and hot cocoa, which can run anywhere between $7 to $14 per 12-pack, depending on the brand name. The K-Elite, however, is compatible with reusable K-Cups, which allows you to save some money if you’ve already got pre-ground coffee at home. The Keurig K-Elite single-serve coffee maker blends a premium finish and programmable features to deliver both modern design and the ultimate in beverage customization. Used to puncture the lid of your coffee pod, the brewer’s needles are located at the top and bottom of the pod holder.
The Keurig K Elite is slightly harder to make a coffee with than other similarly priced Keurig machines like the Keurig K Supreme and K Supreme Plus. The K Elite’s “strong” button lengthens its brewing time from 40 seconds to 60 seconds. Any coffee over 6.5 oz will come out watery when brewed with a K-cup. There are cheaper coffee makers that perform similarly to the K Elite (the K Select for instance). It doesn’t have a dedicated descale mode which (paradoxically) makes descaling the machine far easier.
The K-Elite also has plenty of buttons to hit, and although there’s way more on offer compared to the usual Keurig control panel, it’s still just as easy to navigate. Lights indicate when the machine is due for a descale and when the water reservoir needs refilling. Selecting your cup size and strength is a matter of hitting a few buttons. The Keurig K-Elite has a water reservoir that holds 75 ounces of water. That means you can serve yourself a 6-ounce cup of coffee every day for 12 days before refilling or nine days if you like an 8-ounce serving.