You know the deal with these single-serve K-Cup brewers:
In the single-serve space, it can be hard for a brewer to stand out.
This Breville K-Cup coffee maker doesn’t have that issue. It’s one of the few single-serve brewers that also brews iced beverages!
But hold your horses, we’re not talking about a tall cup of iced coffee for those sweltering summer days. Instead, it’s a meager 3.25 oz of concentrated coffee intended to be brewed over ice.
Hey, at least it’s an option.
The brew time was middle of the pack, ranging from 40-60 seconds depending on the brew size. From a cold start expect to wait 3-4 minutes before your cup is ready.
Unfortunately, the biggest downside with the Breville BKC700XL is its inability to produce a strong coffee with the 12 oz max brew size. There are enough coffee makers out there that do this without issue, so why get one that can't?
The strength of your cup is very highly correlated with its size. While that’s generally true of all coffee makers, its extremely true here. Small cups will yield a strong brew. Large cups are lacking. Breville advertises that it reaches 197°F, but I registered 193°F at sea level.
Performance Quirk: If you don’t start your brew within 60 seconds of inserting the K-Cup, the LCD screen will blink and read “Open Head” until you acquiesce to its demands and open the head to restart the brewing cycle.
We love Breville products and rarely have issues with them, but our biggest concern with this Breville coffee maker is that it’s a currently discontinued unit as of 2011-2012 and only comes with a 1-year limited warranty.
Frankly, that's just an old coffee maker made with outdated parts. Unsurprisingly, many users report pump failures inside 1 year. You want more longevity with your purchase.
(The Cuisinart SS-10 has a 3-year warranty.)
Another common complaint is that the needle that pierces the K-Cup clogs frequently. This is a risk with all K-Cup brewers, and the simple solution (with any brewer) is to manually puncture the K-Cup first. K-Cups are stored at high pressure, and this releases some of that pressure before you lock the K-Cup into the brewer.
You can pre-pierce your K-Cup either by pushing the K-Cup down and piercing the bottom before locking it into the unit, or by piercing the top with a paperclip before inserting it.
Frequent cleaning is especially important with this unit for a couple reasons:
You don’t want to be left holding the bag on an expensive unit just after the warranty expires. Make sure to replace the charcoal filter every 2-4 months and descale every 3-6. Even better, do yourself a favor and use filtered or distilled water if at all possible.
While we love the sleek stainless steel look, the downside of stainless steel is that it can be a pain to keep clean.
There’s a secret storage compartment
Maybe it’s the kid in us, but we’ll give an extra few ratings points to anything with a secret storage compartment.
The lid flips up to reveal two convenient storage spaces:
If you’re like us and get more use from the reusable pod than the K-Cup holder, you can store the K-Cup holder here and make the My K-Cup reusable pod your default attachment.
