Peet’s Coffee, a speciality coffee roasting company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, launched three coffee K-Cup pod varieties featuring popular flavours using single-origin Brazil coffee. The company says that they launched the new product to meet consumer demand for a more premium coffee in the comfort of their own homes.
The K-Cup, a trademark of American beverage-making conglomerate Keurig, is a single-serving brewing capsule with a filtered plastic container topped with an aluminium foil lid. The capsule is widely believed to be one of the least sustainable pod designs. The pods will be compatible with any Keurig machine.
K Cup pods do not have a significant market share outside of the US, but inside North America, they hold a dominant market position. Ten months ago, JDE Peet’s announced a $110m investment in building out their manufacturing capacity for pods, and this latest news appears to show a continuation of that strategy.
Peet’s Coffee K-Cup pods are available in three flavours: caramel brûlée, vanilla cinnamon, and hazelnut mocha. These coffee pods were in development for more than a year to ensure they could seamlessly combine the flavours with Peet’s signature single-origin Brazil coffee. Peet’s says that their customers will taste the lightly roasted Brazil coffee’s subtle sweetness and the rich nuances of the natural flavours.
Flavoured coffees appeal to a wider consumer base than hardened coffee enthusiasts, as well as being more popular in regions, like Russia and parts of Asia, that don’t traditionally drink coffee.
Senior beverage innovator for Peet’s Coffee, Patric Main, stated:
At Peet’s, we are always thinking about ways to heighten coffee experiences. Our flavoured K-Cup pods offer the decadent taste of a fresh coffee bar beverage right at home. We made sure to get the flavours just right to complement the highest quality coffee. Our goal with this line is to offer the best-flavoured coffee in the K-Cup pod category for a perfect cup, every time.
Currently, these flavoured K-Cup pods are available in packs of 10, 22 and 24. Variety packs will be available later this Autumn/fall.
Peet’s Coffee created this new product as a response to the changing habits of coffee drinkers as well as the desire for more varieties of coffee flavours. Based on a major grocery retailer’s card data, more than 27% of homes with Keurig machines are brewing flavoured K-Cup pods, which is a 10% increase as compared to pre-COVID times.
Today’s coffee consumers are looking for convenient ways to drink their favourite cup of coffee at home due to a shift in lifestyle of working remotely and ever-changing schedules. However, despite some countries slowly returning to normal and people can visit their favourite coffee shops again, the habit of brewing a premium cup of coffee personally might stick for many consumers.
