We can't lie, Keurig Green Mountain K-Cup coffee machines are convenient for caffeine lovers. A popular Christmas gift, the K-Cup machines make single-serve coffee drinks quickly by inserting a pod and some water and tapping one button. But while newer Keurig 2.0 machines are flying off shelves with deals (including free carafes in the new K-Carafe portion packs), many people are pissed with the coffee giant, complaining on the Internet and rebelling by posting hacks.
The coffee controversy started back in March when Keurig announced that their new 2.0 brewers will be exclusively designed to only take their branded and more expensive K-Cup single-use pods. While older models allowed users to purchase other brands of the coffee pods at a cheaper price, the 2.0 models are equipped with a scanner that reads the pods. Pods used that do not include the licenced digital ink stamp on the top foil will be rejected.
When an unlicensed pod is placed into the brewer, a warning message pop ups on the LED screen saying that the pack wasn't designed for this brewer. "Please try one of the hundreds of packs with the Keurig logo," the message reads.
Now the Internet is pissed. A simple YouTube search will bring up inventive hacks to help consumers enjoy their Keurig without shelling out more cash for the pods that already cost more than traditional coffee grounds per pound. These easy hacks include "permanent fixes."
One of the most popular hacks is the old put-the-Keurig-logo-on-top trick. This was first uploaded in September from the site KeurigHack.com. The video, which is set to "The Imperial March" from Star Wars, shows that cutting the foil top off a licensed pod and then placing it over the unlicensed one causes the scanner to read the pod as a Keurig one.
Other hacks include using a small magnet to unlock all menu choices for carafe options. The hack allows coffee drinks to brew more than 10 ounces, which is the limitation for the Keurig pods.
A user on the digital security site SecList also revealed their hack in a funny guide. "Since no fix is currently available, owners of Keurig 2.0 systems may wish to take additional steps to secure the device, such as keeping the device in a locked cabinet, or using a cable lock to prevent the device from being plugged in when not being used by an authorized user," the user jokes.
More seriously, the user starts the guide off saying, "Keurig 2.0 Coffee Maker contains a vulnerability in which the authenticity of coffee pods, known as K-Cups, uses weak verification methods, which are subject to a spoofing attack through re-use of a previously verified K-Cup."
Keurig claims that the changes were made to ensure consistent quality. But this is leaving a bitter taste for many loyal customers and competitors. According to Amazon reviews, the K550 brewer only received a 2.1 out of 5 stars in its first 153 reviews. Treehouse Foods, a third-party pod maker, filed a lawsuit against Green Mountain Coffee earlier this year for attempting to monopolize the market.
Canada's Club Coffee also filed a lawsuit this fall for $600 million in damages.
While K-cups are more expensive and are bad for the environment (only 5 percent of Green Mountain pods are recyclable), Keurig still reigns over the home brewing market with over 70 precent market share.
Green Mountain, which acquired Keurig in 2006, made about half a billion dollars last year. According to the market research firm Euromonitor, coffee pod machines sales have multiplied more than six-times in the past six years from 1.8 million units sold in 2008, to 11.6 million in 2013.
