Keurig vs Mr Coffee – Which One’s Your Perfect Match For Coffee Maker Seventh Heaven?

Ah, espresso coffee and coffee with froth. For many coffee machines, they’re mutually exclusive: you get one OR the other. Some new generation coffee makers, however, dispense both.

Two of our favorites are the Keurig K-Café  and the Mr Coffee Espresso and Cappuccino Maker. 

But in the battle between Keurig vs Mr Coffee, which one claimed the coffee crown?

Which Machine Is Better?

Our Winner: Keurig K-Café 

 

Would Like To Meet…The Keurig K-Café

The K-Café Coffee Maker  from brand leader Keurig produces coffee shots, crafty cappuccinos or luscious lattes in less than a minute. It’s compatible with all K-Cup pods and ships with a milk frother that is dishwasher safe.

One of the delights of Keurig is the vast range of K-Cups available, so you’ll be delighted to hear that the K-Café allows you to use any K-Cup pod. It’s also compatible with the My K-Cup Universal Universal Reusable Coffee Filter, should you prefer to use ground coffee.

The K-Café is easy to operate and simple to clean and maintain. Some useful extra features help conserve energy and extract maximum flavor.

 

Keurig K-Cafe 

 

Pros & Cons

 

Mr Coffee Does Coffee With The Café Barista

The Mr Coffee Espresso and Cappuccino Maker Café Barista model  is an attractive semi-automatic machine. The pump system has 15 bars of pressure. Brew an excellent espresso, a classy cappuccino, or a lovely latte. With ease. At the touch of a single button.

The type of milk used and the froth control knob setting will affect the amount of end product. Although designed to brew one cup of coffee at a time, the Café Barista model copes well with serial coffee makers.

 

Mr Coffee 

 

Pros & Cons

 

Out Of The Box: Setup And Operation

Until recently, the ability of Keurig machines to make lattes and cappuccinos has been a little limited. So if you need a coffee machine that combines options for both great coffee shots and excellent frothy coffees then the K-Café may be your perfect match.

It’s also straightforward to set up. You simply install the filter, and off you go. In just one fluid process the machine heats up and brews your drink.

The Mr Coffee Café Barista design is also unfussy: on-off button on the side of the machine, and three buttons, latte, espresso, and cappuccino. One press dispenses a single drink, two a double. Holding down the buttons allows you to override the presets to clean, produce extra froth, or make a custom-sized drink.

The Mr Coffee machine typically ships in the product box alone. It includes both milk and water tanks, a single filter and a double filter, a portafilter, and a plastic scoop/tamper. You can buy additional filters. This coffee maker doesn’t ship with a coffee pod attachment.

 

Brew’s Up: Top Features Of The Keurig Vs Mr Coffee Machines

Select your cup size before you even need to wait for the K-Café to heat up. You can dispense your drink into a range of drinking vessels, including travel mugs up to 7.2 inches high. With drip tray attached, cup or mug clearance is 6 inches.

The Keurig’s removable water reservoir is a decent 60 fluid ounces. The simplicity of this coffee maker is a major strength. You can opt for hot or iced drinks.

It’s not recommended to make iced coffee with Mr Coffee’s machine but it does make excellent mochas. Mocha – that gloriously incongruous combination of coffee and chocolate that shouldn’t work but somehow does.

Mr Coffee produces decent crema with about 0.5 ounces of coffee and a 25 second brewing time. You can choose a single or a double shot. It’s designed to brew one cup at a time but you can brew coffee continuously. In a clean machine, shots take around 28 to 30 seconds.

The scoop that ships with the Mr Coffee device is around 0.4 ounces. For a stronger beverage, around 0.6 ounces of coffee is recommended.

 

Keeping It Clean

K-Café cleaning and maintenance are very simple. Ensuring the device is as free of scale as possible not only results in better-tasting drinks but prolongs the life of your machine. It’s especially important to remove scale from your machine regularly if you find yourself having to use hard water. The water reservoir is removable for easy filling.

Meanwhile, over at Mr Coffee, cleaning and maintenance are also straightforward. The cleaning cycle on this machine is well-designed. All you need to do is turn the froth dial to ‘clean’, press and hold the latte button to override drinks and set off the ‘clean’ mode on the machine.

Running white vinegar through the machine every forty to eighty cups of coffee will also help keep it clean and in tip-top condition. The manufacturers recommend that the frothing tube is cleaned each time it’s used. Water and milk reservoirs are removable for deeper cleaning.

 

Blended To Perfection: Brew’s Up

For concentrated K-Café coffee, just press the shot setting. The K-Café is not an espresso machine, so don’t expect authentic crema. The strong brew option will produce more robust coffee, however.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to coffee – with Keurig K-Cups, you can also opt for herbal teas, black tea, green tea, cocoa or chocolate. And you get a choice of 4 cup sizes: 6, 8, 10, or 12 fluid ounces.

With the Mr Coffee machine, you can make a 1.25-ounce espresso (single), a 2.5-ounce espresso (double), a 6-ounce cappuccino (single), a 10-ounce cappuccino (double), a 12-ounce latte (single), or a 15-ounce latte (double). Over-ride the espresso button for custom sizes.

 

Magic Milk And Appropriate Alternatives

If you’re using your K-Café shot as the base for your latte or cappuccino, whip fresh milk into a bubbly delight with ease with the milk frother that ships with the machine. Almond, skim, half-and-half, whipping cream or soy milk are gloriously frothable dairy alternatives.

We have found that milk froths best, whatever variety you’re using, if the milk is as fresh and cold as possible to start. You can achieve a fuller texture if you foam your milk on the cold setting first, and then foam again on the hot setting. And we know it might sound a little basic, but make sure the lid is on the frother when you use it.

The Mr Coffee Café Barista, on the other hand, froths the milk first, before making the espresso. Simply place your cup on the machine: it sends the foamed milk into the cup and then adds the espresso.

Just want milk and froth? Hold the cappuccino button down for three seconds and that’s just what you’ll get. The removable milk reservoir means you can store the milk you don’t use in the fridge for next time.

 

The Bells And Whistles

The K-Café machine is gorgeously simple, with just enough extra features to make brewing coffee as easy as pie. The auto-off is a great feature but occasionally this machine has been known to trip circuit breakers, so you might want to ensure the K-Café has its own circuit.

If the brewer has not been used for 2 hours, the coffee machine turns itself off automatically, helping to conserve energy. This machine also has a high altitude setting in case you’re using it at an altitude of 5,000 feet or more. Yes, coffee really does taste different at sea level than it does in the hills. Many people notice it most on airplanes.

There is an auto-off feature on the Mr Coffee Café Barista too, which stops automatically once the brewing and foaming cycle is complete. The power button to the rear does, however, need to be switched off manually.

 

Design Details, Dimensions And Quirks

Both the drip tray cover and handle on the Keurig are metal. It’s a little larger than some other equivalent machines, with a footprint of 17.3 by 14.2 by 14.4 inches and weighs 13.25 pounds.

The Mr Coffee machine measures 11.2 by 8.9 by 12.6 inches and weighs 10.37 pounds without shipping. The cord length is a generous 26 inches. Although there is a lot of plastic in this machine, it’s certified BPA free by the manufacturer. And you get a lot of machine for the money.

The portafilter requires a firm but gentle hand to lock it in place. The wooden screw that holds the portafilter’s three pieces together can, however, sometimes work its way loose.  To minimize wear and tear on the filter assembly, it’s not recommended to leave the portafilter in the machine when not in use

There are two separate pieces for the single and double shot espresso. There is a removable drip tray. One final tip. Move the steaming wand from its default down position and aim towards the center of the cup.

 

Keurig vs Mr Coffee: Which One Should I Buy?

Our Winner: Keurig K-Café 

Both the Keurig and the Mr Coffee Café Barista  machines make great lattes, espressos, and cappuccinos. Either would make a great addition to your coffee making kit and caboodle, but for us, the Keurig (just) has the advantage.

The Keurig scores especially well on features like strength control and auto-off. The Keurig K-Café  is also usually a little less expensive than Mr Coffee’s offering. So overall, it’s 5 stars for the K-Café and 4.5 for Mr Coffee. So fire up the Keurig, and it’s coffee to go, please!

  Last update on 2023-02-02 / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API.