Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Can you make great coffee in a single serve? Klatch Coffee’s answer

Is there a better option than K-Cups?

Coffee beans in a burlap sack
Tina Guina / Unsplash

While K-Cups can be appealing to coffee drinkers who value convenience at home or in the office, they’re not the right choice for everyone. Although it’s a fast and easy way to prepare a single cup of coffee, there are a few downsides to the system — namely that K-cup pods can be difficult to recycle (and while refillable pods exist, that depends on the user choosing that option, which isn’t always a given considering quick and convenient are two of the main appeals of the system). We interviewed Klatch Coffee’s expert roaster, Heather Perry, to learn more about the specialty roaster’s approach to single-serve coffee.

Klatch Coffee’s single-serve coffee alternatives

Americano coffee
Karolina Kaboompics / Pexels

Klatch Coffee’s single-serving Bruvi pods make it easy to enjoy high-quality, specialty coffee wherever you are. The brand has partnered with a few select providers who share their vision, one of which is Bruvi.

Recommended Videos

“Bruvi is an improved pod coffee system with a couple of unique features,” Perry said. “First is taste and quality; the proprietary brewing system brews to the same high standards as specialty coffee roasters like Klatch Coffee, including adjusting the brewing parameters to match our brewing recipe. That’s why premium coffee from roasters like Klatch is offered on the Bruvi platform. Second, Bruvi’s B-Pods are enzyme-infused and designed to be tossed in the trash, making them guilt-free. B-Pods degrade faster in the landfill without leaving microplastics behind.”

It’s also worth noting that for coffee drinkers who only want a single cup at a time, single-serve brewing can be more efficient on resources like water, coffee, and energy. Pre-portioned coffee doesn’t spill, and machines only heat the water needed for a single cup. There’s no waste from discarding leftover coffee from a large pot.

What makes Klatch Coffee unique

Crazy Goat coffee
Klatch Coffee

Family-owned and run, Klatch Coffee is a unique coffee roaster based in Southern California. Distributed worldwide, the company sources, roasts, and brews its own coffee and applies a scientific method to accomplish a taste best described with expletives and exclamations. With over 30 years of experience with coffee brewing in Southern California’s Inland Empire, Klatch Coffee has a deep history of refining and perfecting its coffee roasts.

Roastmaster and founder Mike Perry makes many annual international trips to source coffee under a direct trade model — buying specialty coffee beans directly from the farmer, as opposed to importers or middlemen. International trips allow Klatch to better select partners that share in goals and values — like ethics, sustainability, and community. Additionally, it also helps Klatch compensate it with more than the industry standard pay rate as it works directly with its producers instead of a third party. With the direct trade model, the company returns to many of the same producers each year, building strong and long-lasting relationships.

The meaning of “crazy goat” coffee

One of Klatch Coffee’s featured roasts, known as “Crazy Goat” is one of the most popular coffees. But what’s behind this interesting name? Perry told us the name “Crazy Goat” was inspired by the origin story of coffee. Kaldi, a goat herder in Ethiopia, observed that his goats were jumping around energetically after eating red berries, thus deciding to try the berries himself. Those red berries turned out to be coffee cherries, which led to the discovery of everyone’s favorite caffeinated beverage.

Klatch’s Crazy Goat coffee blend is available in several different coffee bags, such as ground coffee, whole bean, and finely ground. You can also find this blend in Bruvi’s single-serve pods to use with the Bruvi single-serve coffee maker.

How the Bruvi coffee brewing system works

Bruvi coffee maker
Bruvi

Bruvi’s unique coffee brewing system features innovative technology that uses a camera to scan the pod. The machine then knows which specialty roaster’s coffee is inside the pod and then automatically adjusts the brewing parameters to deliver the best possible brew for that exact coffee. This mesmerizing technology results in an excellent brew every time, and it gives you the flexibility to enjoy different varieties of coffee in a single-serve cup.

The scan label system of the Bruvi maker mimics how expert baristas create different pour-over recipes based on factors like a single-origin coffee’s region, roast level, varietal type, and even elevation and harvest season, bringing this professional-level specialty coffee experience right to your home. Klatch works with partners like Bruvi on specific recipes to ensure their coffees taste the way we intend.

Considering single-serve coffee alternatives

Crazy Goat coffee
Klatch Coffee

Although Keurig’s K-Cups are the most well-known and widely used type of single-serve coffee, this doesn’t mean they’re the only option. Perry recommends that coffee drinkers who want to prepare a single cup at a time look into the various alternatives that are available on the market. As coffee buyers become more aware of sustainable coffee options, there are likely to be even more innovations to come in future years.

Single-serve coffee pods

Some options include improved pod coffee like the Bruvi B-Pods or even innovations in flash-frozen coffee such as . Comeeter provides a new way for coffee lovers to enjoy a single cup at a time through a unique brewing process. Once coffee is brewed, the coffee is immediately flash-frozen into individual capsules. From there, the coffee pods can be melted for single use. This option is another more eco-friendly and sustainable option compared to K-Cups, as the grounds are 100% composted to make the capsules, and they’re easy to recycle.

Bottled espresso concentrate

Another K-Cup alternative to consider is bottled espresso concentrate, an option that delivers shelf-stable espresso that coffee lovers can enjoy at home. This fall, Klatch Coffee will be debuting a new shelf-stable concentrated espresso that allows you to skip the brewing process entirely. Coffee drinkers can use the espresso concentrate to make high-quality hot or iced coffee drinks at home.

The coffee used to create espresso concentrate comes from specialty roasters, allowing you to enjoy the same cafe-level quality you want in a cup of coffee. Furthermore, the upcoming espresso concentrate product will come in glass bottles, which allow for easy rinsing and recycling. Bottles can also be repurposed and reused for home use, helping to reduce product waste.

Pour-over coffee

If you want to enjoy a great cup of coffee at home, you can also look to pour-over coffee instead of using a Keurig machine. In our interview, Perry noted, “Preparing pour-over coffee is actually much simpler and faster than you might think.” You’ll need to invest in a pour-over device as a small, one-time investment, along with an electric kettle, but then you’ll have it to use time and time again. Perry’s favorite pour-over devices are the April Brewer or Chemex Dripper.

Another thing to love about making pour-over coffee, according to Hearther, is that it “brings you closer to the coffee itself, helping you understand how your grinding and brewing choices impact the quality and characteristics of your finished cup. Once you’re done pouring, most coffee filters are made with paper and are thus easily compostable along with the coffee grounds. As for the vessel itself, just wash and reuse!”

April Brewer

Chemex Dripper

Emily Caldwell
Emily is a freelance journalist with a focus on food, travel, health, and fitness content. She loves to travel to new…
Can you put vanilla extract in coffee? Here’s why it’s a game-changer
Is vanilla extract or vanilla syrup a better choice?
vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is an ingredient that immediately makes me think of baking -- from vanilla pudding to a simple vanilla birthday cake. Until recently, the thought of adding vanilla extract to coffee hadn't occurred to me. Of course, I've enjoyed a cup of vanilla-flavored coffee many times and used various vanilla coffee syrups. In my coffee research, I recently discovered that adding vanilla extract to instant coffee can enhance its flavor.

While this is true for instant coffee, I wondered how vanilla extract would taste when added to traditional drip coffee drinks. So, can you put vanilla extract in coffee? Here's what to know about using this baking ingredient as a way to upgrade your coffee bar.

Read more
Excelsa coffee is hard to find—but it might be the next big thing
Why Excelsa coffee could be the future of sustainable brewing
Excelsa Coffee

Coffee beans come in four main types: Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa. Yet most of us have only tried Arabica or Robusta coffee beans, which make up the majority of coffee beans available on the commercial market. Excelsa coffee offers a unique flavor experience for coffee drinkers, yet it makes up only a minuscule portion of the world's coffee production. What makes Excelsa coffee so different than other types of coffee beans, and why isn't it consumed more often? In this guide, we'll explore everything you've wondered about Excelsa coffee, from what it is to why it's challenging to cultivate.

What is Excelsa coffee?

Read more
New study suggests coffee disrupts brain’s overnight recovery
Is coffee keeping your brain awake at night?
cold coffee

Most caffeine addicts and coffee drinkers generally claim caffeine has little to no effect on them, especially as they build up a tolerance. However, a recent study featuring research from the University of Montreal suggests that the caffeine in your coffee may be doing more than just keeping you awake.

In a recent study, published in Communications Biology, researchers found that the caffeine in coffee (among other products, such as tea or chocolate) may play a role in how the brain recovers overnight. This means your caffeine addiction could be impacting physical recovery and cognitive function -- without you knowing it. The research suggests that caffeine can increase the complexity of brain signals and enhance the brain's "criticality" during sleep. Criticality, as defined by the study, describes a state of the brain that is balanced between order and chaos.

Read more