8 Best K Cups for Iced Coffee 2022


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With the fast-approaching summer months, most people will be switching to cold coffee. This is the time to make that bold cup of iced coffee in your Keurig coffee maker.

Brewing iced coffee in Keurig is not very different from making a regular coffee; you just need a stronger and bold brew and add ice to it without watering it down. You can also add a dash of heavy cream or milk for a creamy latte.

Whether you are using the “ICED” feature or the Strong-Brew button of your Keurig to make a bold brew, you need the best K-Cup for a strong and flavorful cup of iced coffee. Here are our top 8 picks of the best K cups for iced coffee.

The Best K-Cups for Iced Coffee at a Glance

  • Peet’s Coffee Major Dickason’s Blend Our Top Pick
  • Victor Allen Variety Pack
  • Starbucks Pike Place Roast
  • Green Mountain Dark Magic
  • Solimo Dark Roast
  • Starbucks Dark Roast Sumatra
  • Tully’s Coffee French Roast
  • San Francisco Bay OneCup Decaf French Roast (Commercially Compostable)

Quick Summary: Best K-Cups for Iced Coffee

Peet’s Coffee Major Dickason’s Blend (Top Pick)

  • Full-bodied dark roast blend
  • No bitterness
  • Recyclable K-cups
  • Certified Kosher
  • 100% Arabica
Peet's Coffee Dark Roast K-Cups
Major Dickason’s Blend

Victor Allen Variety Pack

  • A variety pack with different types of roasts
  • Each roast provides unique flavors
  • A choice to find your best roast
  • 100% Arabica
  • Kosher Certified
Victor Allen Variety pack k-cups
Variety pack

Starbucks Pike Place Roast

  • A bold medium roast that leans towards medium dark
  • Rich with no burnt flavors
Pike Place Medium Roast K-Cups
Pike Place

Green Mountain Dark Magic

  • Bold dark roast
  • No bitter aftertaste
  • Certified Kosher
  • Recyclable cups
Green Mountain Dark Magic K-Cups
Dark Magic

Solimo Dark Roast

  • Full-bodied
  • Mild acidity
  • Recyclable plastic
  • 100% Arabica
Solimo dark roast K-Cups
Solimo K-Cups

Starbucks Dark Roast Sumatra

  • Single-origin
  • Full-bodied dark roast
  • Herbal and spicy notes
  • Unique earthy notes
  • Certified Kosher
Starbucks dark roast sumatra K-Cups
Starbucks Sumatra

Tully’s Coffee French Roast

  • Intense and bold
  • Chocolatey and plum jam notes
  • Certified Kosher
Tully's K-Cups French Roast
Tully’s K-Cups

San Francisco Bay Coffee OneCup Decaf French Roast (Best Decaf)

  • Decaf K-pods
  • Bold and flavorful
  • Commercially compostable
  • 100% Arabica
  • Kosher Certified
San Fracisco Bay OneCup decaf pods
Decaf K-Cups

In our previous article about the best Keurig for iced coffee, we discuss how the over-ice and strong-brew features are essential when making iced coffee. Similarly, the bean quality, roast profile, and the amount of coffee in the K-cup impact the final flavor of your iced coffee.

Dark roasts are full-bodied and less acidic than light roasts which can be overly sour especially when paired with the strong-brew function. A medium roast is a great compromise between acidity and boldness.

Poorly done dark roasts are notorious for bitter, overly smoky, and burnt flavors hence ruining your iced coffee experience. The amount of coffee in regular K-Cups is less than in extra bold K-Cup pods, therefore, the latter yield stronger iced coffee.

K-cups are usually sold in batches of more than 10 pods and bulk batches of more than 200 pods are also available. Buying a bad batch can be wasteful and costly especially when the pods are nonreturnable.

We have curated our top 8 picks of the best K-cups for iced coffee so that you don’t have to go through tons of pods to find a K-cup that you like.

Top Pick. Peet’s Coffee Major Dickason’s Blend K-Cups

Peet’s Coffee is a specialty roaster and retailer that is based in San Francisco Bay Area. The company was founded by Alfred Peet, a pioneer of specialty coffee, in 1966.

Peet’s Major Dickason’s blend is named after Sergeant Dickason, a retired soldier and Peet’s customer, who fronted the idea of blending coffee to Alfred Peet. Peet’s coffee was later acquired by JAB Holding Group, the majority owner of Keurig Dr. Pepper.

Peet’s dark roasts are held in high regard for their intense and bold coffee that is smooth with no bitterness. Major Dickason’s blend is an all-time bestseller for Peet’s coffee.

It is a blend of coffee beans from some of the best coffee-growing areas. What’s more, the K-cups are recyclable.

Victor Allen Variety Pack K-Cups (Variety at its Best)

These K cups are a product of Victor Allen, a specialty coffee roaster that was started in Madison, Wisconsin in 1979. The company sources 100 percent Arabica coffee beans from over 25 countries across the World and makes unique blends of smooth and flavorful coffee. The pods are blended and roasted in the United States

Victor Allen variety pack consists of two medium roasts, a dark roast, and a light roast as follows:

  • Donut shop medium roast K cup. Donut-style coffee that has a bold aroma and versatile enough to be paired with either a cruller or a glazed donut
  • Colombian medium roast K cup
  • Morning blend (light roast) K cup
  • French roast K cup

You can also add flavored K cups such as caramel macchiato and hazelnut flavors as well as decaf and organic K-cups depending on the size of pack that you purchase. The packs range from 42 K-cups to 200 pieces and you are at liberty to choose the number of pods of each pod-type to fill the pack that you want and the coffee tastes really good.

Most people prefer the medium roasts and the French roast pods from Victor Allen for Keurig iced coffee. The morning blend is a little too sour so you may want to avoid it in your selection.

If medium and light roasts are not your cup of ‘COFFEE’, go with either the Italian roast or the French roast for bolder iced coffee.

We prefer the variety pack with the mix of different roasts as it affords the opportunity to shift from the chocolate-tinged dark roasts to the slightly more balanced and sweeter medium roasts and even further to the vibrant and fruity morning blend without spending on extra K cups.

You can reserve, for example, the light roast or medium roast pods for hot coffee and use the French roast to make iced coffee.

Starbucks Pike Place Roast

Starbucks Pike Place Roast is a medium roast that borders on a medium-dark roast. These K cups yield coffee that tastes similar to what you get at Starbucks. If you love your Starbucks coffee, Pike Place K cups are all you need to make great iced coffee in your Keurig.

They are bold and the iced coffee is flavorful even after adding ice. There is no chance of experiencing burnt flavors with this carefully roasted medium roast.

Green Mountain Dark Magic

Green mountain dark magic is blended, roasted, and retailed by Green mountain coffee roasters a subsidiary of Keurig Dr. Pepper, the company that makes Keurig coffee makers. Surely, they must know a thing or two about making great pods for their coffee makers. However, that is not the reason that dark magic makes it in our top 8.

Dark magic K-cups are genuinely more flavorful than the regular K cups that you would find in a grocery store. The company sources coffee beans from Indonesia, Central America, Colombia, and East Africa.

Expect no bitterness from dark magic K cups and your iced coffee will be rich and strong. The cups are recyclable.

Solimo Dark Roast K-Cups

Solimo is a label under Amazon Brands that primarily focuses on kitchen and home goods. Like the other K-cups in this review, Solimo dark roast K cups are compatible with Keurig 1.0 and 2.0. They are a blend of 100 percent Arabica coffee from Indonesia, East Africa, and Latin America.

The coffee is rich with no smoky flavor. It is smooth enough to drink as black iced coffee but you can also enrich it with creamer or milk.

Starbucks Dark Roast Sumatra K Cups

Starbucks dark roast Sumatra K-cups are just the treat for single-origin Keurig coffee snobs. Sumatra is an island in Western Indonesia and is the largest producer of coffee in the country. Sumatra’s rich volcanic soil gives the coffee its inimitable earthy notes that are the backbone of Sumatra’s single-origin coffee.

The coffee also has unmistakable herbal and spicy undertones. The K-cups pack a punch and are just what you need for a single-origin cup of iced coffee.

Tully’s Coffee French Roast K-Cups

Tully’s French roast K cups make a rich cup of Java with nuanced anise and plum jam notes. Tully’s coffee is slow roasted at low heat to gradually bring out the rich chocolatey notes.

Tully’s Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster and retailer that was founded in 1992 in Seattle, Washington. The company was later acquired by Keurig Green Mountain but continues to roast and sell coffee under Tully’s Coffee brand name.

Its French roast is rich and perfect for iced coffee.

San Francisco Bay Coffee OneCup Decaf French Roast (Best Decaf and Fully Compostable)

San Francisco Bay OneCup decaf French roast is a flavorful decaf that is packaged in 100 percent commercially compostable pods. The coffee beans are 100 percent Arabica and are sourced from Central and South America and are decaffeinated through the Swiss water method.

The pods are made from plant-based materials and they do not use the traditional K-Cup plastic. See our post about decaf coffee and diuresis.

Patrick

Patrick is first a coffee lover and then a trained barista. His bucket list includes sky diving and sipping on Java in the Himalayas.

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