What's brewing? A K-Cup of Campbell's soup | Hacker News Reader

What's brewing? A K-Cup of Campbell's soup

articles.philly.com

10 pointstrevin21 comments

This seems like a complex way to repackage a cup-o-noodles product while adding a limiting requirement of Keurig hardware to provide your hot water. Vs a cup with dry processed soup ingredients that can use hot water from a microwave, a water cooler/heater, or a kettle.

Can you run a Keurig with no cup to use it to just heat water?

I guess there is some value in gaining access into untapped markets, but as a consumer it seems very niche.

Some consumers that own Keurig's really love them. It's almost an obsession. I have one in my house and don't really get it. I don't like that it heats up a plastic cup to coffee hotness level. I feel like the coffee it brews is fairly weak. I tried using it with reusable cups to grind my own coffee but then it's even weaker.

However, those that like them, really like them. There are iced beverages you can make with them, or even hot apple cider. I guess this is niche, but those that will use it will get hooked.

> Can you run a Keurig with no cup to use it to just heat water?

Yes, you can. In fact, I use my Keurig this way quite often for making tea (get cup of hot water from keurig, drop tea bag in cup) and have used it to make hot chocolate and cup-o-noodles several times in the same way.

I understand k-cups are convenient, but a "super-automatic" espresso machine has much cheaper consumables, and far superior results, measured in KLoCs. The only difference in operation is that you have to empty the grounds.

Or if a machine seems too troublesome, Starbucks sells single cup packets that work without a machine.

The k-cup machines seem like the thinnest premise for creating an ink-cartridge business model.

> The k-cup machines seem like the thinnest premise for creating an ink-cartridge business model.

And this is why I moved to using a reusable k-cup at home (when I don't have the time/desire to make a full pot)

I KNEW someone would say that.

How is that more convenient than a one-cup filter cone? I must be missing something that's really attractive about the k-cup machines.

1) They're well designed. Industrial design is important, as the rise of Ultrabooks and Apple has shown.

2) They have a fairly high end but affordable brand name. You either have a coffee maker or you have a Keurig.

3) It makes it convenient to try new flavors. My drip coffee machine won't make me a chai latte or hot cider at the touch of a button. My Keurig can, while also providing me with good coffee from a reusable k-cup.

4) Marketing makes sure they're everywhere and everyone has access to them.

Good variety, virtually no cleanup, no measuring of coffee. Not the cheapest option, or the best tasting coffee, but a great solution for me.

This is only useful if the flavoring of the hot water is derived from solids that should not be in the final product, as in the case of coffee or tea. Not sure what this will bring to soup (unless the k-cup has chicken bone fragments in it?).

I agree. I don't see any difference from putting the powder in the bowl and adding hot water (even through a Keurig). Besides the marketing and sales opportunity, of course.

Same way you have flavorful ramen or cup a soup. Prepared broth, dehydrated.

The things people put in their bodies never cease to amaze me. And, my coffee will now start randomly tasting like artificial chicken flavor. Yum. Way to start ruining your brand Keurig. Greedy much?

i don't get the objection. from an engineering standpoint, the keurig machine seems to be a way to mix hot water with the contents of a packet to make a single cup of hot drink. it should be relatively easy to see to it that the flavours of the various packets don't contaminate each other, shouldn't it?

At my office they have fruity tea options and I can tell you that the flavour gets into the coffee if someone previously brewed such teas. I don't want to imagine what a coffee brewed after one of this soups would taste like.

It's not perfect. The bottom and top of the cup are punctured, and the forced water tends to splatter a bit inside of the cup receptacle. Mine always has a few grounds, and the surfaces all have some residual coffee. The water doesn't run directly out of the bottom of the cup where it's been punctured, otherwise, you'd get grounds in your drink. Instead, it runs along a channel down into your cup, another place for residual flavor. Of course I clean it from time to time, but I don't do a ton of different flavors. The cleaning to get chicken broth or tomato soup out would be too much to switch back and forth.

I wonder about the noodles. How will that work?

The article says you put the noodles and dried chicken in the cup first, from a different package.

Damn it. Reading. I fail at it.

What, it amazes you that people would drink dried soup after reconstituting it? That's a pretty common product to find on supermarket shelves. I also don't see any indication that Keurig has anything to do with it, it's Campbell's and Green Mountain who are making the product.

What exactly is your displeasure with this product?

Green Mountain owns Keurig.

I agree, there's no reason to put soup mix in a K-cup, because you don't need the normally included filter. It's expensive and wasteful. However, it's probably a great idea for both Keurig and Campbells to cash in on the huge install-base of these machines.

> my coffee will now start randomly tasting like artificial chicken flavor

Don't forget coffee flavored chicken!

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