Giveaway & Review: Keurig Coffee Maker

I love my coffee. Love, love, love.  I think it’s genetic. I come from a family of coffee lovers~well except my brother Doc. We always say that we don’t fully trust anyone who doesn’t drink coffee.

Lately the coffee from my pot at home it hasn’t been tasting so fantastic.  I’m not sure what the reason is. Have my tastebuds changed? Is there mineral buildup on the pot? Is it just the cruddy bargain basement sale coffee I’ve been drinking?

I keep finding myself doing the totally un-frugal thing and, *gasp*, buying coffee out.

Yes, I know. After all I’ve written on how that can dribble your money away.

So enough was enough. I needed to change something. I had owned a espresso/cappuccino maker back in the early 90’s, but honestly I had barely used it. It just seemed like too much effort. The regular coffee pots didn’t seem to brew right, even when I tried different brands of coffee. I started researching different options. The one that jumped out at me over and over again was the single cup coffee maker.

I balked. After all, a single cup anything doesn’t sound very frugal.  And did it even taste any better?  Although I don’t mind spending money on an item that I will truly use regularly and contributes to the quality of my life, I don’t like buying an item when I’m not really sure I’ll use it.

So I wrote the kind folks at Keurig and explained the situation to them, and asked if there was any way I could review the Keurig Coffeemaker and give one away on my blog.

They agreed, not only sending me one of their Keurig Platinum Brewers (valued at $169) but also 4 boxes of the coffee K-Cups.  They also  generously offered to give the same to one of my readers.

In order to give you the full flavor of my Keurig experience, I made a Whrrl story.  Don’t worry, by clicking through you do not have to create an account or anything~it’s just a very slick & easy way to do a slide show of pictures & text! Just click on the picture below and a new window will pop up with the review:

Long story short? The Keurig makes an great cup of coffee~although in using the same exact brand of coffee so did the standard pot. The Keurig coffee was much hotter & retained it’s flavor longer. The coffee is more expensive than standard coffee, but at about $.54 a cup, it’s still much less expensive than the coffee shop alternative.

Now, on to the giveaway!

This giveaway runs from today, August 1st through Midnight EST August 8th.

To enter you need to go to the Keurig site and check out all the different kinds of K Cups (coffee, tea or cocoa).  Come back here and tell me in the comments which kind you like the most.

This giveaway is only available to folks in the US (sorry!).  My family members, as always, are not eligible. Sorry Mom!

But wait! There’s more!

There are additional ways to enter once you’ve completed your initial entry (each requires a SEPARATE COMMENT or it doesn’t count).

#1 Subscribe to Frugal Upstate or let me know if you already are.

#2 Subscribe for the joint newsletter Lynnae from Being Frugal.net and I publish over at Frugal Coast2Coast under the “Never Miss a Show”

#3-Tweet about the giveaway sending folks over to the review.  Use this link: http://budurl.com/b3×6

Good luck!

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Homemade Iced Coffee

Here is a quick and easy money saving idea for you. Want to enjoy an iced coffee but hate paying those coffee shop prices? Well never fear! Frugal Upstate is here to help.

Iced coffee is incredibly easy to make at home-it really is just ice & your coffee.

Seriously.

In the summer I frequently make a pot of coffee larger than what I expect to drink in the morning.  In the afternoon I take one of my tall drinking glasses, fill it with ice, toss in my splenda and half & half, then pour the coffee on top. Stir with a chopstick-Viola!

I do find that I like much more milk or half & half in my iced coffee than I take in my regular coffee. Not really sure why that is. Experiment with yours to see.

Now if you want to try a different method, why not try the Cold Brewed Iced Coffee recipe over at The Bitten Word.  I’ve never made it that way myself-in fact I only found the recipe while searching on Flickr for an appropriate iced coffee picture (that’s hers above-love folks who do creative commons copyright on their photos). I will be trying it this weekend though!

Want to try making something more like those frappachino drinks? You could always adapt this awesome recipe from Mom Advice on how to make a Starbucks frozen peppermint mocha.

Photo by The Bitten Word