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How Do K-Cups Work?

K Cup is a small cup designed to brew coffee and contains flavored coffee grounds. Generally, it is a plastic cup with an aluminum lid that resists moisture, light, and heat to keep its contents fresh. Inside it is a filter material which is a food-safe plastic.

How do K-Cups work?

Keurig has changed the way of making coffee and you can prepare your coffee any time. Keurig brewers work wonders due to their efficiently engineered design.

Let’s have a look at how K-cups work.

  • The chamber of the Keurig machine in which the K-cup is inserted has hollow needles with relatively large gauges at its top and bottom. At the bottom of the chamber, it has one hollow needle but at the top, the number of needles varies depending on the type of Keurig coffee maker. For example, Keurig Supreme has 5 needles at the top of its lid.
  • After inserting the K-cup and pushing the command button for brewing, needles in the chamber puncture the top foil and plastic bottom of the cup.
  • Due to its unique design, the water in the Keurig machines is already warm and that’s why it is easier for machines to bring it at a brewing temperature.
  • Pressurized hot water is pumped into the K-cup from a water reservoir through needles at the top and this starts the brewing process. The temperature of the water is normally between 195F to 205F.
  • During this, the hole at the bottom of the K-cup makes the way for brewed coffee to the coffee mug. At this step, the filter material of the K-cup strains the coffee to avoid ground coffee making its way into your brew.
  • In the end, a freshly brewed coffee is ready.

It is important to take out the K-Cup after the job is done and give a freshwater rinse once or twice a week to keep the inside of the machine clean.

Also see: Can You Make Your Own K Cups for Keurig?

Can we reuse a K-Cup?

Well, the simple answer to this is no. K-cups are designed for single one cup use, but if you like your coffee very light, you might use it twice. If you think about preventing waste or reusing the K-cups, then the answer to that is reusable K-cups.

All coffee K Cup have a single use paper filter on the inside of the K Cup. Once you get these wet, its never advised to use them again as they have no way to air dry.

Hot chocolate k cups are processes a little differently. When you cut one open, you’ll notice it has no paper filter at the bottom – just the magic formula that gets dissolved under the hot water, so these two cannot be reused.

Reusable K-Cups

Reusable K-Cups are designed to be used in coffee makers and work almost the same as K-Cups. These are made of BPA-free plastic and fine-quality stainless steel mesh that works as a filter. Typically these usable K-cups hold a maximum of two tablespoons of ground coffee, but it can vary depending on the variety of K-Cups.

How do reusable K-cups work?

It is very simple to use a reusable K cup, but the first thing is to make sure that the reusable K-cup is compatible with the coffeemaker. A reusable K-Cup usually has a lid, a filter, a plastic cup, and a circular bottom piece designed for a plus series adapter.

  • The first step is to remove the existing K-Cup housing inside the coffeemaker. For this, we have to open the lid of the coffeemaker, take it out from the top by pushing the bottom of the housing. After being pushed, it pops up so that it can be easily removed.
  • Remove the lid of the reusable K-Cup and add two tablespoons or desired amount of coffee grounds to that cup. If you are not using the plus series adapter, then remove the circular bottom piece of the K-Cup.
  • After adding the coffee ground, close the lid properly. Usable K-Cups have the marks for the lock and unlock of the lid so you can close it properly.
  • The next step is to insert the reusable K-Cup inside the chamber of the coffeemaker, from where we took out the housing. It has an arrow sign which must be pointing towards the inside of the coffeemaker or adapter.
  • At this point, the reusable K-cup is ready for brewing. Given the command for brewing, it works the same way as K-Cup.
  • When the coffee gets ready, take out the reusable K-Cup, open the lid and remove the coffee inside the filter cup. Wash the cup, and the cup is ready to reuse.

Unlike most coffee makers, Keurig Supreme and Supreme plus have five needles at the top of the lid. If we wish to use it in any other coffee maker which has one needle at the top, then we can cover the remaining five holes of the K-Cups needle with a plastic ring that comes with it and covers the holes. This avoids the water splash outside the K-Cup.

How Does Keurig’s Strong Brew Work?

Choosing the strong button or setting on Keurig slows water through the K-Cup into the coffee mug. By slowing down the water’s speed, better coffee flavors are extracted, resulting in strong coffee. This also increases the time of brewing the coffee in K-Cup and then into the mug. Remember, the warm-up time of the machines remains the same; just the flow of the hot water into the K-Cup is slowed down.

Final Thoughts

K-Cups work in an effortless but still excellent and efficient way. It takes a maximum of 2 minutes, and you can have your freshly brewed coffee. K-Cups provide an easy and convenient way of coffee in a variety of flavors and blends. Moreover, the reusable K-Cups avoid waste and are comparatively cheap. Keurig has made it as simple as possible.

home > Quick Questions > How Do K-Cups Work?

Evelyn J Stafford

Evelyn is a Coffee enthusiast and writer for Wins Coffee Bar. Her work has appeared in Bean Scene, The Home Kitchen and other publications.

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