Did you know that one of the creators of the K-Cup went to the ER for tunnel vision and heart palpitations due to drinking 30 to 40 cups per day? John Sylvan and Peter Dragone were college roommates at Colby College in Maine during the late 1970s. Sylvan would later quit his job in Massachusetts with the intent of making a machine that had a single serving pod of coffee grounds that would brew it. This would lead to the pair founding Keurig in 1992 , which means excellence in dutch.
The Keurig machine would go through much trial and error, as well as receive financing from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Minneapolis Food Fund, and MDT Advisers. John Slyvan would also be removed from his position, as investors did not like him, and Peter Dragone followed him months later.
Finally in 1997, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters would become the first to offer their coffee in their k-cups, and in 1998, the Keurig B2000 model was released for offices. The success of the B2000 model would lead to the release of the B100, a model for the home use, in 2004. Green Mountain Coffee would later acquire Keurig 2006. Keurig would eventually launch a varirty of products, such as soup, soda, and alcohol for the brand. In 2018 Keurig would merge with the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, making it the third largest beverage company in North America.
In the 2010s, Keurig had started becoming publically criticized for how difficult it is to recycle K-Cup pods, due to the cups being made of #7 plastic, which is hard to recycle and due to people wanting less crap in their water system. They would later release a reuseable K-Cup pod that was later discontinued in 2014 and then re-released in 2015 due to backlash. OfficeMax and TeraCycle would take advantage of this and start K-Cup pod recycling programs. The K-Cup pod was also part of a controversy to lock out unlicensed pods, which resulted in various lawsuits in the US and Canada. This case was later settled in 2021. What a crazy history.
Comments