Single Serve K-cups Coffee by Intelligent Blends: A Review

If you go to a coffee shop three times a week and spend $20 to $30, that’s $80 to $120 a month. Just think about what the total amount would be if you consistently spent that money instead of saving it for a year? Rather than buying that coffee, how about writing a check for a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas and Cuba at the end of the year?

Interestingly, the issue of saving money came to mind when we tested the single serve K-cups (pods) by Intelligent Blends.

Here’s why!

According to Statista.com, 33 percent of American survey respondents own a single-cup brewing system in their household. The survey was conducted by the National Coffee Association (NCA) from January 9 to 23, 2017. It was only 7 percent in 2011.

Wouldn’t it be logical for the number of people buying coffee from coffee shops to be lower now? Yet the changes run counter to the report. In fact, per the SBDC National Information Clearinghouse:

Even though 75 percent of the cups of coffee brewed daily are consumed at home, 66 percent of Americans buy their coffee outside of their homes.

Well, convenience and ease of use are part of the reasons why people buy the single-cup brewing system to brew coffee at home or at the office. But why is there a growing number of people getting coffee outside of their homes when there is an increase in the number of people owning the K-cup brewer?

Business Insider’s Using K-cups costs up to 5 times more than getting coffee from a pot article may have the answer to the question.

It stated K-cup coffee costs about $50 per pound! While Dunkin’ Donuts original blend is $8.99 and artisanal roasters’ coffee are under $20 per pound. The article concluded that if you drink 2.1 cups a day, you would have spent a total of $800 per year drinking K-cup coffee.

We found out; there are alternatives to getting better and cheaper K-cups now!

Buy directly from the factory!

Intelligent Blends is a single-serve coffee factory whose mission is:

To create premium gourmet pods and save you money by offering it direct from factory to your door. We’re constantly roasting and producing Fresh Coffee & Tea Pods to supply our growing community of customers on a monthly basis so you always get the best, freshest coffee & tea we have to offer!

Get your K-cups delivered monthly to your door from the factory. Or buy any amount you want, whenever you want with free shipping. No middleman, no hassle and saving tons of money every year. This is what you get when you buy directly from Intelligent Blends’ online shop, known as ShopBlends:

1. Factory direct price, starting at 36 cents per K-cup (other brand name K-cup is 41 cents per piece).
2. No long shelf life but fresh, blended in-house gourmet coffee from factory to your home.
3. Opportunity to try their gourmet sampler pack before committing to a monthly shipment. Sample 8-pack for just $4.99.
4. Choices – dark, medium and light roasts.
5. K-cups are compatible with many single cup coffee brewers including Keurig, Mr. Coffee, and Hamilton Beach.
6. A choice of decaf and flavored coffee.
7. Available online and just a click away, and ship right to your home free.

We tested for over two weeks Intelligent Blends:

Maud’s Espress-O Yourself – super dark roast 10+  (100 counts $39)

Maud’s French Roast From The Coast – dark roast 9 (100 counts $36)

Maud’s Tall Dark & Handsome – dark roast 8 (100 counts $39)

Maud’s Organic Fanatic House Blend – dark roast 8 (100 counts $44)

Maud’s Kona Lisa Blend – medium roast 7 (100 counts $39)

Maud’s in the House Blend – medium roast 6 (100 counts $39)

Maud’s Sister Hazel (Nut) – medium roast 5 (100 counts $36)

Maud’s Dreamy Creamy Salted Caramel – medium roast 5 (100 counts $36)

Maud’s Bubbies Breakfast Blend – light roast 3 (100 counts $39)

Maud’s Dunk Your Donut Shop – light roast 3 (100 counts $39)

Maud’s Organic Guatemalan (100 counts $46.90)

Maud’s Organic Ethiopian (100 counts $46.90)

Using Intelligent Blends’ Universal Single Cup Brewer to test the above, we narrowed down our favorites to these five:

Maud’s Espress-O Yourself, Organic Fanatic House Blend, Maud’s in the House Blend, Guatemalan and Dunk Your Donut Shop

To test our five favorites, again we used Intelligent Blend’s Universal Single Cup Brewer.

We chose 6 oz brew instead of 8 oz and 10 oz brew and brewed the coffee one at a time.

We then poured the coffee into tiny espresso cups, followed by the sniffing and sipping, one cup at a time.

 

In the hour-long process, we tried to differentiate the aroma, flavor, acidity, body, sweetness, and aftertaste of the K-cups. All five had different levels of acidity and most lacked the aroma like the freshly ground artisanal coffee. The winner of this review is the Dunk Your Donut Shop light roast coffee. We like its crisp, slight natural sweetness aftertaste with a hint of fruitiness. It doesn’t have an overpowering dose of bitterness like the Maud’s Espress-O Yourself K-cup coffee.

Conclusion:

If you’re a K-cup user, we recommend trying Intelligent Blends because of these top four reasons:

1. You’re getting your coffee directly from the factory, which means your coffee is fresher and has a short shelf life.
2. More affordable price since there are no middleman in the transaction.
3. Easy online shopping with monthly subscription options and 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
4. The company is devoted to making eco-friendly recyclable K-cups.

Try them out today.

Note: Our K-cups and single cup brewer were provided for this review. As always, this review contains our views and opinions. Go to ShopBlends and check out their selections of coffee, tea, and variety packs.