Using the Strong button on a Keurig coffee maker is the easiest way to make a stronger and more flavorful cup of coffee. But how does this feature work?
The Strong setting on your Keurig makes the taste of your coffee stronger simply by increasing the time it takes to brew the coffee.
What The Strong Button Does
When you choose the Strong setting, it will increase the brew time to over 1 minute to allow the coffee ground to steep longer in water, and therefore, you get a stronger-tasting cup of coffee.
To do this, the Keurig brewer will release water in intervals instead of a stream to allow the ground to steep in water before it dispenses into your cup.
Using the Strong brew setting will create a more robust cup of coffee that will get your morning started just right!
Using the Strong Setting To Add Caffeine
Making your coffee with the Strong brew setting does not add caffeine to your K-Cup coffee, it only makes it taste stronger.
You are using the same amount of ground coffee whether on the strong or regular brew settings, so you’re extracting a similar amount of caffeine.
Increasing the cup size does not affect caffeine, too. If you want more caffeine, brew two K-Cup pods instead of one.
Strong Brew Compared To Regular Brew
Using the Strong button or setting on a Keurig machine makes your coffee bolder by slowing the water flow through your pod. This means the coffee is saturated with water for a longer time.
That said, you should expect your brew cycle to be longer than when using the regular brew settings. How much longer? This would depend on your brewer. It should add an extra 20 to 30 seconds, others, a bit longer than that. The cup size you are brewing will contribute to that, too.
So if you regularly start using the Strong button and also notice that your brew is slowing down, don’t worry, that is part of the process.
Another thing to note is that the stream of water will come down in intervals and not all at once like when you use the regular brew setting. That does not apply to all models., but it’s an important thing to keep in mind so you don’t think your machine is broken.
Flavor-wise, Strong Brew produces an intense and bold cup of coffee. The regular brew will produce a classic and balanced-tasting coffee.
Keurig Brewers with Strong Brew feature
Keurig Strength Control vs. Strong Button
On some brewers, there’s a single ‘Strong button’ which is what I explained above. On other brewers like the K-Supreme Plus or K-Supreme Plus Smart, there are multiple strength settings.
How The Strength Selector Work
I am going to take the K-Supreme Plus SMART as an example here because it has a variety of 5 strength settings:
Balanced – Rich – Robust – Strong and Intense.
How they work is that, just like the single Strong Button, they increase the amount of time it takes to brew the coffee to steep the grounds longer.
Brew Strength | Brew Time |
Balanced | 1 minute |
Rich | 1 minute 10 seconds |
Robust | 1 minute 16 seconds |
Strong | 1 minute 27 seconds |
Intense | 1 minute 36 seconds |
So as you can see, it’s just a matter of increasing brew time to increase the boldness of the coffee’s taste.
In brewers like K-Elite or K-Supreme Plus, you’ll find three adjustable settings for brew strength. Switching between those will only mean you are increasing the brew time to get a stronger-tasting cup.
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