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What are the differences between Keurig K-Mini vs Keurig K-Mini Plus? Find out in this post!
Coffee is a great conversation starter and has helped an infinite number of relationships to find their feet and kicked an even greater number of friendships into high gear.
Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break – Earl Wilson
It helps lost souls to form much-needed connections, provides the fuel that the world needs to keep turning, and makes sure that humanity stays focused and on track.
It’s been the saving grace of homo sapiens and has helped to elevate us far beyond the confines of the reality that we should have been ensnared by.
That’s why coffee is our passion. Well, that and the fact that it tastes like a little slice of heaven, and every drop of coffee is like a serving of nectar from the gods.
At least it is when it’s made by the highly skilled baristas who can work their coffee making machines with an unbelievable degree of skill, accuracy, and accomplishment and we used to say that it would also be true if we could ever find a coffee making machine that could replicate the java that’s served in coffee shops all over the country.
OK. That is our flight of literary fancy. Is there any pre-packaged home coffee maker that can give us this ‘nectar of the gods’ coffee?
Probably, not. However, there are some machines, such as the Keurig K-Mini and Mini Plus that come close to good-tasting coffee and convenience.
A Little Bit Of History – Who Are Keurig?
Before we go any further, we feel that it’s important that we take a quick look at the Keurig story, as they were founded by a man, who much like we were, was on a coffee mission.
John Sylvan was, by his own admission, a tinkerer with an overwhelming desire to finally find a solution to the problem that had been the bane of office workers everywhere since time immemorial. That problem was bad coffee.
With a lot of hard work and a little investment help from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, John Sylvan finally perfected the Keurig coffee maker, a single-serve coffee machine that used a pod-based system (called the K-Cup) to make its coffee.
Keurig has put a lot of coffee miles on their clock since then and has risen to become one of the premier manufacturers of coffee machines in the world, and has recently become part of the Doctor Pepper family, Keurig’s future is looking so bright that John, and all of his staff, have been forced to invest in multiple pairs of shades.
This is where we come in, as the K-Mini is the machine that introduced us to the wonderful world of Keurig and their single-serve, K-Cup system.
And this is where the magic of Keurig really lies, as their K-Cup single-serve system has been so successful that just about every coffee producer and famous brand of coffee now subscribe to their philosophy, and makes K-Cup pods for the K-Mini.
As soon as we found out that Dunkin’ Donuts was part of the K-Cup revolution, we were hooked. Everyone has a coffee vice, and ours just happens to be the patented blend of beans that Dunkin’ serves.
A near-perfect combination of functionality and simplicity, the K-Mini only has one purpose. To deliver a great cup of coffee every single time you switch it on and use it.
Able to deliver any size cup of coffee as long as that size is between six and twelve ounces, the amount of coffee that the K-Mini makes is entirely dependent on the amount of water that you add to its reservoir (the water tank).
You just slip your chosen K-Cup pod into the slot, fill the reservoir with the desired amount of water, put your mug in the machine, press start and it does the rest.
Before you can say “I’m never going to Starbucks again”, the K-Mini has brewed your chosen coffee, and all you have to do is sit back and drink it.
One of the revolutionary things that made the K-Mini so desirable was its size. Or more accurately, it’s the lack of it. It’s just five inches wide and even with its reservoir lid open, it’s only sixteen and a half inches high. That means that it’ll comfortably and easily fit anywhere that you want, and need it to.
Don’t have much countertop space in your kitchen? Don’t worry, the K-Mini will just slide into whatever space your countertop does have. It was designed to just make a single cup of coffee and do it well and is sized accordingly.
And when you’ve finished making that cup of coffee? The K-Mini will power down ninety seconds later in order to minimize your electricity bills and save money. Is there anything that this wonderful machine can’t do?
Well, now that we’ve raised the subject, we might as well talk about the only thing that we’re not overly fond of, the power cable storage system.
Okay, we know that it’s a blessing for some people as they like to take their K-Mini with them everywhere they go, and being able to put the cable inside the reservoir makes it easier to carry and far more portable.
But for us, it’s something that we’ve never even bothered attempting to try, as our K-Mini has sat in the same place on our countertop since we unboxed it.
We know, it’s a petty thing, but it is literally the only thing that we don’t like about this incredible little coffee maker.
The Keurig K-Mini was our favorite coffee maker in the world until Keurig upped the ante, improved on perfection, and made the K-Mini Plus.
Like the K-Mini, it’s a single-serve coffee maker, it uses the same delicious K-Cup pods and brews its coffee in roughly the same amount of time.
And just like the K-Mini, the amount of coffee that the K-Mini Plus will make depends entirely on the amount of water that you add to its reservoir.
It’s even the same size as the K-Mini, and to the untrained eye, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between the two, because the differences are almost entirely functional.
While the K-Mini Plus has a removable front compartment that can store up to nine of your favorite K-Cup pods, we didn’t really see that as being an improvement as you’ve still got to take the pod storage container out to make your coffee.
Where do you put it when you do remove it? Next to the K-Mini where it takes up more valuable countertop space and yes, granted the removable reservoir makes it easier to clean, but neither of those things really made all that much difference to us.
The design feature that made us switch our allegiance from the K-Mini to the K-Mini Plus was the addition of the strength button.
We’ve always liked our coffee strong, and the button that appeared on the top of the K-Mini Plus that’s simply labeled “Strong” made all the difference. You make your coffee exactly the same way with the Plus as you do with the Mini, but when you push that button, you enter into a whole new world of taste.
Everything changes, and even though it’ll only make a single cup of coffee (which is a bonus in our book as there’s no wastage or spillage and you only ever make as much coffee as you need at any given time), the one cup that it does make tastes infinitely better.
K-Mini vs. K-Mini Plus – The Verdict
The difference that a single feature can make is incredible. As we’ve already happily said, we’re Keurig fans and devoted the one cup way of thinking that helped them to establish their brand.
We were very happy with the K-Mini until the K-Mini Plus came along and added the strength control, Now we have changed to the K-Mini Plus at least until Keurig finds another clever way to improve and upgrade its K-Mini Plus.
Once you try the Keurig way, we promise, you’ll never be the same again. We just wish that they’d stop trying to sell the fact that you can store the power cable in the reservoir as a feature of the machine when it really isn’t.
Other Posts about Keurig Coffee Machines
You may be interested in our posts about other K-cup and Keurig Coffee Machines
Which K-Cup Brewer is the Smallest?
Keurig K-Mini Plus vs K15 vs K-Select
6 Best Keurig Machines for Commercial Use
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