The last week, I made myself a freshly brewed cup of coffee in my newly bought Keurig K-Mini Coffee Maker.
And to my dismay, it tasted watery.
I didn’t like the taste of this coffee at all.
I was so disappointed at the sight of my coffee, so I gathered up all the relevant information online to find the real reason behind the watery taste of my coffee made using Keurig coffee maker.
As I have read, mainly, this issue occurs if you are not regularly maintaining or cleaning your Keurig coffee machine.
But there can also be other reasons for this problem which I will discuss in this article later.
In this article, I will not only share with you why the coffee tastes watery but I will also share the solutions.
With these solutions, you can easily fix this issue so that you can make yourself a perfect cup of Joe.
Read until the end to find the right solution to fix your Keurig coffee maker and get the right coffee taste.
Table of Contents
- 6 Main Reasons That Cause Keurig Coffee to Taste Like Water
- 5 Simple Solutions to Make Your Keurig Coffee Not Taste Watery
- Why Does My K Cup Coffee Taste Watered Down?
- Why Does My Keurig Make Weak Coffee?
- Final Thoughts
6 Main Reasons That Cause Keurig Coffee to Taste Like Water
1. Addition of Excessive Water Quantity
Well, the primary reason for watery taste of your Keurig coffee is the mixing of too much of water in your coffee.
When you add excessive quantity of water in your coffee, the primary taste and aroma of the coffee degrades.
This makes the coffee to taste like water.
2. Weakly Roasted Coffee
Another main issue could be the weakly roasted coffee grounds that you are using in your Keurig coffee machine.
These are two main reasons that cause watery taste of your Keurig coffee.
There are other important reasons too which can cause this issue which are as follows.
3. Clogged Needle
For those who don’t know Keurig has two needles for puncturing the K-cup.
If the needle is clogged up it won’t be able to puncture the pod properly.
The water won’t run down to brew your coffee.
So, the water will run out instead of passing through it.
Eventually, you will get a horrible cup of coffee.
4. Dirty and Clogged Machine
If your Keurig coffee machine is dirty and uncleaned then blockages are more likely to happen in several parts of your machine.
All the filth and dirt will accumulate in your machine and you will get a nasty and diluted cup of coffee each time.
Therefore, it is essential to clean your Keurig coffee machine regularly to get a fresh cup of coffee each time.
I highly recommend to follow the cleaning routine of your coffee machine on a regular basis.
To know all the actual cleaning steps, you can watch the official Keurig cleaning video below.
5. Lack of Dark Roasted Coffee
Sometimes, your Keurig coffee machine is unable to acquire the right taste and aroma from the lightly roasted coffee beans.
In this case, to get the strong flavor and aroma, you will need to use darkly roasted coffee beans for your regular coffee.
Also, if you want a strong and bold cup of coffee then you will need to mix less amount of water and more quantity of a dark roasted coffee beans.
6. Lack of Filtered Water
In many cases, people who used their regular tap water, complain about the watery taste of their coffee.
Tap water contains several contaminants that affect the overall taste and flavor of your Keurig coffee.
This is why it is important to fill the water tank of your Keurig coffee machine with either bottled water or filtered water.
Filtered water do not affect the taste and flavor of your Keurig coffee and in fact helps in getting the right taste and aroma out of your coffee beans used for making your Keurig coffee.
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5 Simple Solutions to Make Your Keurig Coffee Not Taste Watery
The following are some of the easiest to follow but very important solutions that will make your coffee to maintain its original taste and flavor.
1. Clean the Clogged Needles Properly
Due to clogged needles of your Keurig coffee machine, the coffee made in the machine loses its original taste and flavor.
This is the reason you will need to clean the clogged needles of your Keurig machine every week or two.
You can clean the clogged needles with a safety pin, paper clip, or sewing needle.
But make sure to do it delicately otherwise you might damage the needles.
Disassemble and clean the machine needled thoroughly on a regular basis.
You can use Keurig Needle Cleaning tool for this purpose.
It is very easy to use and can easily unclog the needles in few minutes without any issues.
2. Descale the Keurig Machine
Whenever you find that the coffee made in your Keurig machine is losing its original taste and flavor, then you need to understand that its time to clean your machine.
Due to internal dirt and calcium deposits, Keurig coffee starts to taste watery and metallic.
In order to get rid of these issues, you have to regularly clean and descale your Keurig coffee maker.
The best method to do this is to use Keurig Descaling Solution to get the best cleaning results.
All the detailed descaling process for your Keurig coffee machine is already provided at official Keurig website.
Just make sure to wash and clean the water tank thoroughly and repeat the process more than once if you are not satisfied with the first descaling results.
3. Use Two K-Cups for Brewing Coffee
Sometimes, the brewed coffee using the single k-cup becomes weak and watery.
If you want a stronger and bold coffee version, then you can try brewing two k-cups at a time.
Just make use of one k-cup immediately after the other k-cup and test the strength of your coffee.
Watery taste usually goes away by using this simple k-cup trick.
4. Use Strong Button Feature of Your Coffee Machine
In some cases, the Keurig coffee machine produces weak and watered down version of the coffee due to unknown reasons.
In this case, you may use the “Strong” button on your coffee machine and get bolder version of your coffee.
Strong button helps in making less watery coffee and add bold blend to your coffee.
Latest Keurig coffee machine models do have this “Strong” button which you can use yourself to get strong coffee flavor.
5. Do Not Include Last Few Drops in Your Coffee Mug
If your Keurig coffee machine is brewing out watered down version of the coffee, then you must try out this method.
Take out your coffee mug just before the last few coffee drops come out of the brewer.
This must be done because the last few drops do not contain coffee itself but it consists of mainly hot water.
It will prevent the addition of extra water which makes your coffee watered down.
So, try out this method yourself and I am sure you will see the pleasant change in the taste of your coffee.
Why Does My K Cup Coffee Taste Watered Down?
The main reasons why your K-cup coffee taste is watered down are as follows.
1. Addition of Extra Water
The quantity of water used is more than required.
You can fill the water reservoir up to three-fourths or even one-half to cut down the water content in your coffee.
2. Clogged Needle
Sometimes, the machine needle is not able to punch the k cup properly.
If the needle is clogged then Keurig coffee comes out to be diluted.
Not only needles but the water reservoir and all other parts of the machine need regular maintenance and a thorough clean-up.
Calcium deposits and scale build-up with time inside the machine.
This is the reason, you need to regularly descale your coffee machine every 3 months to get rid of accumulated bacteria and filth.
I recommend to use Keurig Descaling Solution to thoroughly clean and descale your Keurig coffee maker.
3. Water is not Heated Properly
Yes, you also need the right water temperature to get the best flavor and taste of your Keurig coffee.
Your coffee can also taste watery if the water in the machine is not properly heated.
Therefore, it is important to properly preheat the machine before setting it on the brew.
4. Use of Same K-Cups Repeatedly
Some people do use the same k-cups several times.
This obviously makes your subsequent coffees more watery and weak.
Therefore, it is not good to use the same K-cups over and over again several times.
It will make your coffee taste watered down and metallic.
If you want the best k-cups to use repeatedly without getting watery taste in your coffee, then I suggest you use reusable K-cups.
These are some of the main reasons why your Keurig coffee tastes watery.
It can spoil your whole morning experience.
You can try these solutions one by one.
If none of them works for you then there could be a bigger issue with your machine.
In this case, it is best to contact the Keurig customer support and get the problem solved through their technical guys.
Why Does My Keurig Make Weak Coffee?
Keurig can make weak coffee because of its packaging.
Let me explain why.
When K-cups are prepared in the factory, coffee beans are grounded before their packaging is done.
After grounding them, they are exposed to an atmospheric oxygen.
This is the time when coffee grounds lose their freshness and start becoming stale.
K-cups, which you buy from local stores, have been packaged for about a month or so.
This time is enough for the coffee grounds to lose their freshness and strong taste.
Even when the coffee beans are roasted and stored aside for packaging, at that time, they start to get stale.
The roasted coffee beans cannot be packaged at once because they emit carbon-dioxide gas.
Therefore, when you make coffee from these K-cup pods, their coffee tastes weak in comparison to your regular coffee grounds.
Keurig is an efficient machine and makes you a cup of coffee in seconds.
But Keurig does not use high temperatures for heating water.
Also, the time of contact between the grounds and water is very less.
All these reasons eventually lead to making in a weak flaovred coffee.
Final Thoughts
By now, you must have understood all the main reasons why your Keurig coffee taste like water.
I have already mentioned the effective solutions which you can quickly implement to solve your problem.
In the nutshell, try to regularly clean and descale your Keurig coffee machine and use a darker roast for a strong cup of coffee.
You can even use 2 lighter roast pods for a bolder taste.
If your coffee tastes weak then it’s better to replace it with your coffee grounds.
If your problem is not resolved then seek assistance from Keurig technical support.
References:
https://coffeeaffection.com/keurig-making-weak-coffee/
https://coffeebrewster.com/best-coffee-maker/keurig/tastes-watered-down/
https://www.wecravecoffee.com/keurig-coffee-tastes-watered-down/