Keurig is bringing back 'My K-Cups' later this year

Keurig's K-Cups are a strange phenomenon in tech and coffee. Reviled by their creator, their DRM circumvented by creative coffee lovers, K-Cups stand as a necessary evil for many. Keurig's reasoning for DRM K-Cups was control; they wanted to control the hardware, content, and output. As consumers grow weary of the games Keurig plays, sales are starting to take a hit (always the surest sign a company will re-position themselves). In their most recent earnings call, Keurig CEO says a fan favorite, refillable K-Cups, are coming back.

My K-Cups were Keurig's original plan to keep hardware sales separate from the rest of their portfolio. It was a cup you could pack with your favorite coffee, and the very thing Keurig swiped off the table in their recent coffee hardware reboot.

"Quite honestly, we were wrong" said Keurig CEO Brian Kelley of My K-Cups. "We underestimated the passion the consumer had for this. We missed it. We shouldn't have taken it away. We're bringing it back."

"We heard loud and clear from consumers who really wanted the My K-Cup back. We want consumers to be able to bring any brand and bringing the My Cup back allows that. My K-Cup was a terrific addition for the consumer. It wasn't used a lot, but for the consumer it was a nice element to have if they were given coffee as a gift."

Kelley also said My K-Cups went away because of the latest Keurig hardware. As designed, My K-Cups just weren't going to work with it, so they scrapped it altogether.

Whoops.

It won't come soon (enough), though. My K-Cups aren't earmarked for Keurig 2.0 machines until the holiday season, but hey — at least you can give the gift of coffee to a Keurig owner again.

Source: The Washington Post, Seeking Alpha