Both the Tassimo and Keurig brewing machines are excellent single serve coffee machines but which is the best of the two? The answer greatly depends on personal preference after carefully examining some key features.
Visually, both machines take up a similar amount of space, but the Tassimo models have a more modern, sculpted look to them.
Coffee Makers Single Cup
Keurig Brewers:
Keurig brewing machines are generally the least expensive of the two brands and they utilize "K cups" that are single serve plastic containers filled with an exact amount of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. The plastic cups are sealed with foil to maintain freshness for long periods of time. The Keurig will brew K cups in less than a minute, but the miniature model takes a bit longer to brew a cup at around two minutes.
The coffee it produces is excellent, and the strength off the brew varies greatly on the intensity of the particular roast. The Keurig machines are not limited to using only K cup coffee manufacturers, a reusable filter accessory allows you to use any grind of coffee in the units.
Tassimo Brewers:
The Tassimo machines usually cost more money but they offer something the competing brand does not: the ability to make lattes and cappucinos. Tassimo offers a wide variety of coffees and their T disc technology is similar to the sealed Keurig K cups but there is a twist. Tassimo T discs have instruction codes on the sealed labels that is actually read by the computerized machine before brewing.
These instructions on the tops of the T discs enable the machine to decipher and control more intricate beverage techniques such as brewing an espresso at the right temperature and then adding frothed milk to make a cappuccino. This feature and the extra information it involves can come as an expense towards increasing the overall brewing time.
Tassimo brewers also make excellent coffee. Their ability to make cappuccinos and lattes is certainly a plus if you are interested in these additional beverages. While K cups do offer some interesting alternatives to regular coffee such as chai, all of the contents are limited to being sealed within one single K cup.
There is great debate between which of these single serve coffee brewing manufacturers is the superior one. The very best choice for you likely boils down to whether or not you feel the need to include cappuccino, latte or espresso in addition to regular coffee brewing. Keurig brewers are dedicated to brewing coffee only and many believe thisto be a benefit in overall simplicity and reduced brewing time.