I’m going to be giving you a side by side comparison of verses if you will, of a new entry to the world of single serve. That’s the BUNN My Cafe MCU single serve brewer. It’s a multi-use single serve brewer, and I’ll show you, what I mean by that when we go into talking about it. And then I have an old standby right here, and one of my favorites, it’s the Keurig B70. It’s sort of the granddaddy of the regular K-Cup Keurig brewers. I’m going to show you the differences and the similarities between these two. We’ll brew a little bit of coffee.
We’ll talk about the pluses and minuses between each one, so you can make an informed decision when you go out to add one of these coffee machines to your at-home coffee shop. So let’s dive right in and talk about the differences between these two machines. On my left-hand side I have the BUNN MCU multi-use single serve brewer. It’s the My Café. There is a version of this that came before this one, and you don’t want to confuse that version with this because this one is capable of doing a lot more than its predecessor. And then over here, of course, I have the Keurig B70.
I’ve shown you recipes and things like that. Let’s talk about some of the similarities between each of these machines. Now both of them up offer fully automatic brewing options for being able to brew coffees and teas and various beverages such as that. They both can make use of K-Cups. Now Keurig, of course, introduced us to the K-Cup, and using a K-Cup is really easy in a Keurig machine because you have your brew basket right here. This is where your K-Cup goes and then you go a head and you start brewing your drink from there.
Now in the case of the MCU, it can use K-Cups, and it uses K-Cups by making use of this K-Cup brewing tray that comes with the machine. This tray clicks into the MCU after you’ve dropped a K-Cup into it, and then brews the coffee out of the K-Cup. So you can use any K-Cup with the MCU. So that’s a similarity between both of these, they’re both automatic brewing machines, they both can do K-Cups.
Now here’s a major difference between the MCU and the B70. The MCU also offers these other various brewing trays. Each of these brewing trays has a different purpose with the MCU, such as here on my right hand I have the ground coffee brewing tray, and this is where we actually can add our own ground coffee into this filter system and brew ground coffee using the MCU.
Now we can also do that on the B70 by making use of an option such as this awesome stainless steel Eko brew that I have right here. So that is a way that you can brew your own coffee in your Keurig machine, your own ground coffee. Now in addition, the MCU also has this pod tray. And this pod tray is going to allow you to make use of filter pods, whether they be coffee, tea or anything else, you can use them in this pod tray. I’ve found that an 8 ounce pod is what fits best in here, So Sense pods fit very well and maybe some other ones that you might find on the market.
Now you can also brew pods with the Keurig B70. It’s a little more complex and probably not something you’re going to be putting into practice as often. But you could put a pod into the brew basket and brew into that pod. Your results of the beverage that you get out of the Keurig at that point may vary. So that’s where the MCU definitely offers some very cool options for being able to brew different types of beverages and do them all using the different brew trays.
Both of these machines can also be multi-use in their own way in the sense that they can just make hot water that you might need for being able to make oat meals or noodles meals and various things like that. The way that the MCU does that is, again using another tray. There’s four of these trays that come with the machine.
This is the last one right here. This the hot water tray and this allows you when clicked onto the MCU, it simply allows you to make hot water using the MCU. Now you can do that on the B70 as well, and all you need to do is open up the brew basket, close it back up without putting a K-Cup in and then you can run some hot water out of the machine.
Both of these are pretty multi-use when you come right down to it. Now an option that neither of these offer is the ability to make espresso, and that’s something to keep in mind. You could have, of course, use an espresso ground coffee in one of the brew-your-own options for either of these machines, but it’s not necessarily going to be a true espresso as what were used to from a machine that actually has a pump that’s meant for brewing espresso. So that’s something to keep in mind.
Now again as I say, brewing is automatic on both of these. On the MCU, the operation’s very simple. You have this one brew button right here and you simply press that after clicking on whichever tray you happen to be using, and press that button and you’re going to start brewing. And I’ll show that to you in a moment. You’ll also notice that the MCU has this pulse button.
The pulse button is going to cause the machine to brew the coffee a little bit more slowly, and that way you can get a stronger brew out of the machine. Now that is where there is a major difference between the MCU and B70, because over here on the B70 if we want a stronger brew coffee, we either need to use an Extra Bold K-Cup, because an Extra Bold is going to have more coffee in it and therefore give us a more bold coffee brew out of the machine, or we need to restrict the amount of water that we brew into our K-Cup. And to do that, we make use of a smaller brew size on the B70. Now that’s something I should mention between these two, is that the B70 definitely wins when it comes to brew sizing, because it’s a whole lot easier.
The B70 allows me to, using this LCD menu that it has right here, choose the brew cup size that I would like to make use of by simply pressing one of the left or right buttons. When the machine is ready to brew, I select a cup size on the screen right here, and then I can start brewing. Now over here on the MCU, things are a little bit different, and that’s because it’s definitely more manual when it comes to choosing your cup size. In order to do that you need to actually open up this water tray that’s on top of the MCU. And you’re going to see markers that show you how many ounces of water you can add to the machine.
When you’re ready to brew, you want to take a pitcher of water. And BUNN says specifically to not use distilled water. They say to use filtered, but they say that minerals in the water help the flavor of the coffee. I’ve never really seen that announced in a manual for a single serve coffee machine, so that’s sort of a first. So in order to brew, you simply pour water into the top of the machine and choose the brew size that you would like to make use of. So for right now, I’m going to use about 10 ounces. Now when you start to brew, the machine is going to take that water down and into the internal water tank in the machine and it’s going to heat that water up. So it does have an internal water tank.
The thing is you cannot see that tank. You’re going to notice on the back of this machine, I can’t see the tank. I can feel it. It’s warm right here, but I can’t see it and I can remove it. That’s something that I do find to be a little bit of a draw back here because I have no idea how much water is in this machine. And the only way I know it’s time that water is if it starts blinking at me. In comparison to the B70, well you can see really easily. Here’s my water tank. It’s super easy to access, it’s super easy to fill up.
It’s really easy you know just what’s going on with your B70. So that’s something where I have to say that the B70 really wins. When it comes to ease, the B70’s a lot easier to use. That water tank’s easy to fill up, it’s easy to brew with. I really like this machine. I also like the MCU, but I have to say that it’s a little strange to use it, figuring out how much water is it and when it’s ready to brew, things like that. So speaking of that, let’s go ahead and brew some coffee with both of these machines, so that I can just show you how they work. I’m going to make use of the K-Cup tray for the MCU.
This is pretty easy to use. You open up this tray right here, take your K-Cup, pop it in, and close this down on top of it. Now something that I’ve noticed is that every time I puncture one of my K-Cups, I have coffee grounds that sort of spray out a little bit. A little bit of a drawback, so you kind of want to get rid of those so that you don’t get coffee grounds into your coffee.
Now I’m going to click this on to the MCU. Now again, I poured some water into the machine there in order to get it ready for brewing. Now I’m going to place a tumbler right here and I’m just going to press the brew button. Now one thing I will give to the MCU is it definitely moves very quickly. It just brews that K-Cup very fast.
There’s a lot of pressure in here, and I’ve found that it makes that cup of coffee very quickly, which is great. But again, this really all depends on how quickly you want your cup of coffee. Because as I say, you do need to pour in as much water as you want to make use of, and various things like that in order to be able to actually brew with this machine. So that’s something that I don’t think is necessarily the biggest draw back with this machine, but I have found that it takes a little more attention for me to brew a cup of coffee using it.
That right there is a cup of coffee out of the BUNN MCU. It is a good cup of coffee. Of course, that all depends on the on the K-Cup that you happen to be making use of. I am using Extra Bold K-Cups from Green Mountain here. Now let me show you how easy it is to make a cup over here on the B70. We’ve talked about this many times. I’ll show it to you guys one more time. Drop your K-Cup in, close up your brew basket. Now you’re going to choose your cup size. I’m going to add my tumbler.
There’s also a little bit more clearance, I have to say, on the B70. It’s a lot easier. Just put a large tumbler under there and get going. So now choose your brew size and go ahead and just start brewing with the B70. Now the B70 usually will take just a little bit more time in order to add some pressure and get the water going and start brewing your K-Cup. But again, I have to say the B70 usually moves pretty fast and does make a great cup of coffee.
So you can see that brew time is pretty much about the same between both of these machines. The B70 may take a little bit longer, but they’re really depends on the cup size that you happen to be making use of. With the MCU, again, you can adjust that cup size, but you need to actually add the amount of water that you want to make use of. So, I personally find that when it comes to ease, the B70 is still pretty much the winner when it comes to put in a pod, brew it, and get a cup of coffee really quickly.
The MCU does that very well as well, but it’s definitely a little more involved. You have to make use of these different tray types and various things like that. So that’s a quick overview of just about all the features between these two machines. Obviously you can see that there’s some pluses and minuses between both. It really depends what it is that you want to get out of each of these machines in the long-run. Let’s talk pricing on both of these machines.
On the BUNN MCU My Café, you’re looking at about $179 being the suggested retail price. So about comparable between the two. So the bottom line between these two machines, it really depends on what it is that you want out of a single serve brewer. The BUNN machine I do think is very cool, but I think it takes a little bit more setup than the average person might want in a single serve machine. I’ve found that getting this machine primed takes a long time, which can be a little hard if you just want some coffee.
And if you come to it and it’s not ready to brew, you have to get it ready to brew. On the B70, it’s ready to brew. If it’s turned on, if you use the auto on function or something like that, which allows the machine to automatically turn itself on and get ready to brew, you’re going to be able to come to this machine, drop in a pod, start brewing, step away, come back and you have coffee immediately.
So this machine is definitely much more brew some coffee, walk away, come back and grab that cup and get out the door. I think the bottom line here, of course as always, this is going to depend on what you want, but I think the bottom line is that the B70 still offers, I think, just as much flexibility as the MCU and definitely wins in the world of speed and ease.
However, the MCU definitely a cool machine. It might be cool in an office, or if you like to take your time when you’re making your coffee, but still have it fairly quick, check out the BUNN MCU My Café. So there you go guys. A quick overview between both of these machines. Take care.
