How Keurig Transformed Your Coffee Experience—For Better or Worse

Before the advent of Keurig, office coffee was often a sad affair—stale, burnt, and brewed by someone who preferred to guess rather than measure. It was just plain awful. Enter Keurig, which revolutionized the coffee experience by allowing you to brew a fresh cup whenever you wanted. This single-cup brewer was a smart solution to a widespread issue, or at least that’s how it began.

In this episode of Version History, we explore the journey of Keurig and how its concept expanded beyond anyone’s expectations. K-Cups and Keurig machines quickly became staples in offices across the U.S. and soon made their way into our homes. However, as David Pierce, Eater’s Melissa McCart, and barista Morgan Eckroth uncover, the convenience of ultra-easy coffee comes with its own set of challenges. It impacts us, the environment, and even the very idea of what constitutes “good coffee.” Keurig has been grappling with these issues for years while trying to keep pace with a coffee culture that may be moving on without it.

This marks the fourth episode of the fourth season of Version History. If you haven’t yet caught the stories of the Harmony remote, the Roomba vacuum, or the Nest thermostat, now’s the perfect time to dive in! It’s smart home season, and we’re having a great time. Here’s how to stay updated with every episode and all our other exciting content as soon as it’s released:
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If you’re curious about the early days of Keurig, here are some resources to kickstart your exploration:
* From The Boston Globe: The inside story of Keurig’s rise to a billion-dollar coffee empire
* From The Atlantic: How Bad Are K-Cups for the Environment?
* Keurig caught making ‘inaccurate’ recycling claims about its coffee pods
* Kill the K-Cup
* From Mother Jones: Your Coffee Pods’ Dirty Secret
* Keurig’s K-Brew and Chill coffee maker chills out drinks for pod lovers