Yeah, return it. I feel the same way that you do about coffee, I want a post of 4 or 5 cups for the two of us. If you like coffee, better to get a grinder and grind whole beans (not Starbucks, tho, which has lousy beans.) The grinder can take up very little room, and you can use your regular coffee most of the time except when you splurge on good beans. We grind our coffee every day.

The one-cup units would not work for me at all.

I am a one cup drinker, but still wouldn't work for me. I drink very, very weak coffee. In a hotel I tear a hole in the packaged coffee and take out 3/4ths of the coffee, then brew what's left in the bag.

First thing, $100 for a coffee maker is absurd. Gift or not. I too like a good old fashioned pot of coffee. And the price of the individual cups is outrageous. You could be talking 50 cents per cup! 3 cups a day times 30 days and that's $45 a month just for coffee! Not to mention the waste of all those mini containers in landfills.

No, I'll keep my Mr Coffee.

I think for you, the Keurig isn't a good deal.

We bought one for mil who lives alone. She was drinking instant coffee because she only drinks one cup a day and doesn't want to waste an entire pot of coffee. The coffee maker and coffee isn't cheap, but it makes her life better. I would say there is value in it and worth the cost in this instance. The K cups make a good gift.

We also have a Keurig that dh won. It was fine when we only needed two cups of the coffee in the morning and our drinking times were staggered such a pot of coffee would be old tasting when the other person drank it. Add in kids who drink coffee and it adds up rather quickly. I'm keeping the because sometimes just dh or I want a want a single cup at night. The trick is to keep the kids out of it.

I don't know how hot the water gets in a K, but instant is so much better for my stomach than coffee made in a pot. The reason is the hotter the water is the more acid there is in the coffee. With my instant I don't get my water near as hot as a coffee pot. Really makes a difference.

In your situation I would return it.

Yes, return it. I got one a couple years back when I got married. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But then I kept having to buy the refills and they are NOT cheap. They do make something so you can put your own coffee in, but I find it annoying. I like a full pot of coffee.

If you think about the time it takes to get 3-4 cups from a Keurig, I think a reg. coffee maker is actually faster and more convenient.

My friend gave me a single-cup/(mug - if it's short enough) maker with a permanent basket.

Open the top panel, put a spoonful of grounds into the basket ... pour in the mug-ful of water ... turn on the switch.

In three minutes - mug full of coffee.

Being lazy, I like to add the sugar first, to let the falling coffee do part of the stirring. But that entails carrying the water from the jug in a different mug ... not such a big problem, since I have two hands. Water from the tap/my well is polluted: I bring water in jugs from the city.

I find that I can add about five spoons of grounds before the blast of steam at the end of the brew blows grounds out into the water reservoir. At which time it becomes advantageous to throw all of the grounds into the compost bucket and start over.

If you try to make a new mug-ful without adding new grounds ... the coffee's a bit thin.

ole joyfuelled ... with a bit o' fuelling help from a shot o' coffee, from time to time

My dad was like you, loved his coffee pot. Shunned my keurig...until I bought the reusable k-cup. You add your grinds, instantly (45 seconds) brews a cup of coffee. Use more or less grinds depending on strength, or a bigger mug (more water to grinds).

He ended up buying his own. He never would have spent the money on the individual pods, but his re-useable k-cup means he gets fresh coffee with every mug. Which he loves because it's never burnt, or too strong from sitting, or cooling off. Keurig for the win.

(and the reuseable kcup means that it doesn't cost him anything extra. Perhaps less because he doesn't throw out unused coffee in the bottom of the pot...)

I bought DH those reusable cups for Xmas b/c he has a Keurig at work. There it makes sense. At home it's Mr. Coffee. I know someone who bought Keurig for their new house, I don't know how much coffee they drink but guy said they never could manage to get a good cup of coffee from a pot. Makes me wonder what they did all those years before K was invented?

Wow, you guys go to a lot of work for your coffee. I'm impressed!

We use a Chemex-style drip to make from 2 to 8 cups at a time. If we're drinking it immediately, it's the smaller amount; otherwise, I brew into a glass-lined thermal pitcher which keeps it steaming hot for almost eight hours with very little degradation.

I specifically buy Chemex filters, which I consider the best on the market. Paper filters and metal filters don't work as well; we can taste the difference and don't like them. When the drip is done, bag and used grounds get picked up with one hand and slung into the compost bucket. No mess, no fuss, no fouls.

Super strong coffee - we use dark roast at a super-fine grind, just above Turkish - but with Chemex drip you can make it as weak or strong as you want, simply by adjusting amounts of grounds and/or water.