Caza Trail is the Best K-Cup Value on Amazon and Coastal Blend is the Best Flavor.
It's unfortunate that Amazon lumps all Caza Trail reviews together so if you are looking for reviews on a particular flavor you have to do a lot of digging. We have now tried 4 of the flavors that are available as 100 ct packs, which are the only ones we buy because of the price per ct. My wife and I agree (not always the case) that our preference is Coastal Blend > Kona Blend > Medium Roast Bold >> Dark Roast. We haven't tried Donut Shop or Breakfast Blend because we rarely prefer competing brands with those flavors. Please note that we usually use some dairy in our coffee and we prefer a blend that stands up to that, preferably with some additional flavor cutting through. I think the Dark Roast probably works for people who only drink coffee black or who like a really mild blend. The Dark Roast has no bitterness, which could be a good thing for black coffee but it means it is overwhelmed even by 2% milk (we like whole milk or half and half, but will go with 2% in a pinch).
However you take your coffee, the Medium Roast is probably a good flavor to start with. It's definitely middle of the road and the reference to Newman's own is good, although I would say Caza Trail is better. Coastal blend has the same body as Medium Roast but with additional flavor that we find really appealing. I drink from large mugs and often and up mixing caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees. I find both the Coastal and Medium Roast blend well with each other and with other coffees I like. For me, that's the difference between the Coastal and Kona blends. Both have that distinctive extra flavor, but the Kona is more of a light aromatic acidity that while distinctive, doesn't really blend well with other coffees I like. If you only drink one flavor at a time, the Kona would be fine.
Which brings me to the reason that Caza Trail is the Best K-Cup on Amazon. It's the only reasonably priced conventional K-Cup that has both good flavor and enough coffee per K-Cup to make a strong 12 oz coffee. Most Keurig coffee makers have a choice of sizes. Most often that works out to 6 oz, 8 oz, and 10 oz. I find that many K-cups make a strong enough small cup, but really can't go beyond the 8 oz size. All of the Green Mtn coffees not labeled "Bold" are essentially that way. But the ones they label as "Bold" or "Extra Bold" have more coffee per K-Cup. ALL of the Caza Trail Coffee's would be labeled as "Extra Bold" under this system. There is definitely the same amount of coffee in all of them, even though only the Medium Roast has Bold in the name. (That's so you know to compare it to Newman's Own, I think.)
So why do I say you get a 12oz cup not a 10 oz cup. Well, try it yourself. if your machine has three settings, make a comparison between a cup made with the largest setting (10 oz) versus one made by using the small (6 oz) setting twice. You'll see that giving the grounds more time to soak in the water from the first small shot ends up providing extra non-bitter flavor for the second shot. It's the same reason that pour-over (manual) Malita coffee makers have you wet the grounds, pause, and then continue to pour your hot water. My experience is that 2, 6 oz shots produces both a larger AND a better tasting cup than a single 10 shot.
Finally I say that Caza Trail is the best "conventional" K-Cup on Amazon because in terms of flavor and price, the San Francisco Bay coffees, particularly the Fog Cutter and French Roast, are just as good WHEN THEY ARE FRESH. My problem with the eco-friendly packaging of the SFB coffee is that I love variety and I just can't seal the bags long enough to keep the SFB coffee fresh. I know I should love creating less landfill waste (actually I burn the SFB cups so it's basically zero land fill waste) and I would if I was willing to drink one flavor at a time (and I could get my wife to do the same). It could be quibbled that SFB also has less coffee per k-Cup and so is more like a good regular than a good bold coffee. That's true, but I would still go with 8 oz cups of SFB over 12 oz cups of CT if they were all as good as they are when you first open the bag (so fresh). But for me the lack of shelf life makes it not even close. Caza Trail is better.
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