Keurig's Future System Doesn't Need Plastic K-Cups
Tech
Speaker 1: The K-cups, these plastic pods for the Keurig machines. Well, Keurig just found a way to get rid of the plastic. Now they have something called the K round. It has no plastic at all. You just pop this into the machine. Let me show you how it works. Keurig has created these tightly packed coffee pods. They're called K rounds, and you just hold them in your hand. They have this plant-based coating that keeps it all together. If you break it apart, you can see and feel the grounds and it smells great. Now, on these rounds, they can print on here different [00:00:30] things to indicate to the machine. What kind of coffee are you putting in it? What does it need to do to brew? Is it an espresso shot, a drip coffee, that sort of thing. These rounds need a special machine. So this one here is called the Keurig Alta.
Speaker 1: It's targeted to launch sometime in the back half of next year, but you pop it in like you would a pod. Now, this is just a sample model, but when it's done, it'll drop into a bin. All completed as whole like this. It's not falling apart. Most fascinating to me is that when the whole round is used [00:01:00] up, it's still kind of intact. It's not making a big mess. The one I'm holding here is about a month old, and since it's all plant-based, it's easy to compost. This is just an example of the machine. We don't get to really taste it yet, but there is something we can taste. I want to show you another machine that's coming out later this year that brews cold coffee. So this is the first Keurig machine that can brew hot coffee and have it come out cold. It's called the Keurig Brew and Chill, and I just had myself a really cold cup of coffee.
Speaker 1: But look at this pod, it's [00:01:30] warm, so it brews out hot, and then in the back it's sent to cool down very quickly and then come out of the machine cold so you don't have to have ice in your ice coffee. And it works with any existing pod right now, so you don't need to buy special pods for this. Now, I asked about cleaning. Apparently it's no different than how you clean another machine for descaling, so it's not like you have to fuss with a lot of stuff in the back. You just like any machine you put your water in and then this cold whole section back here doesn't take any maintenance. You can still get a hot cup of coffee. [00:02:00] It's whatever you want. You can choose if you want it hot or cold. We don't have a price announced yet, but we're told this should be coming out later this year.
Speaker 1: And if your kitchen needs something smaller, well, there are another batch of machines coming down the line. This is the smallest Keurig right now on the market. It's called the K Mini, but oh, it's getting tinier guys. It's getting more tight, more compact. I love color in the kitchen. So many little choices we could choose from. It's so little. It's so little. I like a little pizazz. This is cute. Cute pizazz. [00:02:30] Here's the water container. Holds about 14 ounces. Although we don't have an exact price yet, we're told this is going to be on the cheaper side. As a Keurig user, I am excited about the idea of not having so much plastic garbage in the world, but let me know in the comments what you think about the rounds. Thanks for watching.
