Keurig B40 K-cup single serve coffee maker : The Singapore experience

by Daniel Ng
(Singapore)

Just to share my experience with a Keurig B40 K-cup brewer I imported to Singapore. If you are like me and like your coffee freshly brewed in the morning, with no muss and no fuss and hate estimating how many scoops of coffee powder you need, dealing with coffee grounds or filter paper, then this is for you.

I started a search for a coffee maker that would meet my needs. I checked out various options available locally: Easy Serving Espresso (ESE) machines, Automatic Grinder & Brewer espresso machines (Brands include Krups, Saeco, Delonghi, Juras) and Nespresso capsule machines. I really liked the Nespresso machines but was put off by the price of the machines and the lack of variety of flavours offered.

I went online and discovered Keurig K-Cup brewers on this site. Liked how they were similar to Nespresso machines but with the advantage of a larger variety of flavours as quite a few companies (Tully's, Gloria Jean, Timothy's Coffee, Wolfgang Puck to name a few) produce coffee in this format. They even have Tea and Cocoa options.

As Keurig does not have a distributor here, I decided to take the plunge and import a Keurig B40 Elite Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing Machine and 4 boxes of capsules to Singapore from the US.

Most US sites do not ship directly to Singapore, so I had to use a Shipping Middleman / Concierge Service to get it shipped to me. The concept is to ship the items to a US based address as given by the company you choose and they will charge you the shipping charges for forwarding the package back to your address in your country+. Some sites which offer this service are http://www.borderlinx.com (for citibank credit card members) and http://www.comgateway.com.

When it arrived, I hooked the Keurig up to an electrical socket with my usual voltage transformer travel adapter* (to step down the 240v socket to 110v for the machine). A few minutes later there was a loud pop and it tripped the circuit breaker in my home.I did a quick check on the web and found out I needed a proper 1500W step down voltage transformer (240V to 110v) to work the machine. These are square or rectangular shaped metal boxes which resemble Computer power supplies.

I got one from a hardware store for S$180(US$140). I would advise you not to use a cheap travel adapter that claims to do the same thing for safety reasons.

Now once I plugged in the voltage transformer with the brewer, I managed to prime the brewer. After that, I tried the Keurig with my first coffee capsule and my first cup of coffee was out in less than 3 minutes. Bliss! Been using the brewer for 3 months now and have had no problems so far.

+Do take note of the shipping duties/taxes you may have to pay when you import items from overseas. In the case of Singapore, Customs charges a 7% GST charge on all imported items if the combined value of the imported item and shipping cost (The actual term is Cost, Insurance and Freight or CIF for short) is S$400 and above.

*Note: US appliances use 110V and some countries use 220V to 240V for their electrical supply which means you need to step down the voltage for the appliance to work. If your country uses 110V, you just need to plug it in with the appropriate socket adapter.

You can find more details about my experience with a Keurig coffeemaker including a step by step photo guide and video on how to use the machine on my blog:

http://wtfsiah.blogspot.com/2011/02/adventures-in-coffee-k-cup-saga-part-1.html
http://wtfsiah.blogspot.com/2011/02/adventures-in-coffee-k-cup-saga-part-2.html

Thanks to Ebenezer for the info about Keurig coffee makers.

This site has inspired me to start writing about my food (and beverage) experiences in Singapore.

Editor: To learn more about machines other than capsule coffee machine Singapore