Are you in coffee purgatory?
That’s the moment in the early afternoon when you’re trying to decide between staving off sleepiness with another cup of coffee or feeling the dredges of caffeine withdrawal.
Little did you know, there’s actually a pretty simple prescription for your woes. Half-caffeine K-cups are a great way to recharge your batteries and forget about staying up all night. In case you were worried.
One of the biggest concerns with decaffeinated beverages is that a lack of taste follows. This isn’t typically a concern with half caffeinated coffees because they’re made of a 50/50 blend of a regular coffee and a decaf coffee of the same roast style.
So leave those concerns behind and join us as we discuss not only the best tasting but the best K-cups with only half the caffeine.
Also note, we have reviewed our favorite decaf k cups here… you know, for later in the day. 🙂
The Best Half Caff K-Cups We’ve Reviewed
Maud’s Worlds Best Half-Caff K-Cups
Combine your love of quality-controlled coffee and the environment with advanced recyclable pods from a fifth-generation roastmaster you can trust. This is a fantastically bold cup of coffee with only half the amount of caffeine. This half caffeine blend combines two of our best selling flavors to give you one delicious cup of coffee!
Maud’s Worlds Best half-caff is a medium blend coffee flavor, combined with Mellow Mood Decaf and bold Tall Dark & Handsome to create a fresh blend of half the caffeine and all the flavor.
Skinnygirl Half-Caff Coffee
This is rich and smooth medium blend which uses 50% Swiss Water Process decaf beans for a delicious cup with half the caffeine kick. Avoid the afternoon jitters by trying out Skinnygirl’s Half-Caff medium roast coffee. Premium ingredients. Skinnygirl is made for those who want to have a full flavorful coffee without the guilt that comes with the typically added sweeteners.
The Skinnygirl brand makes a great coffee drink for those who are counting calories and also watching caffeine intake. It’s good for all of us, once and a while, and with premium Arabica beans you’ll never worry about a poor tasting brew.
Green Mountain Coffee Half-Caff
Green Mountain coffee has long been a staple of accessible craft coffee for the Keurig brewer. It’s a Ying and Yang between notes of chocolate and raisin lead to a smooth, nutty finish. Made with 100% Arabica coffee each K-Cup pod is filled with the freshest ground coffee and brews a perfect, great tasting cup of coffee, every time.
Since an average K-Cup contains between 75-125 mg of caffeine per 6 ounces of coffee one can expect to cut their caffeine consumption in half with ease. Try out Green Mountain Coffee Half-caff K-cups if you need that late afternoon pick-me-up.
Folgers Half-Caff Coffee
Folgers coffees get a lot of critiques for their redundant flavors and mass production, however, one thing you can count on is their consistency. The Folgers half-caffeine K-cups are no exception. Folgers created a way to enjoy a bold cup of coffee that satisfies the urge for a pick-me-up but doesn’t sacrifice any of the taste with this impressive K-cup.
This is still the famous mountain-grown coffee but with half the caffeine. When you want more than decaf but less than a regular cup, fire up your k-cup coffee maker with Folgers and make this your choice.
Newman’s Own Organics Coffee Special Blend
Newman’s Own has long been a worthwhile company to support as 100% of their profits go to charity. They’ve created some wonderful coffee for the K-cup format and this half caffeine blend is no different. Combining medium roasted Central American coffees and darker-roasted Indonesians make for a rich and robust coffee, with ample body to stand up to all the cream and sugar that you might want to add to the party. Bold coffee without all the headache of an extra caffeine buzz.
Newman’s Own Special Blend and other coffees are certified fair trade and organic. Bold yet refined. Strong yet smooth. A study in contradiction, and overall done well. Be advised this is the higher end of caffeine content on this list, but if you’re struggling with your caffeine intake this is a great way to start weening yourself off.
These half-caff coffee k-cups are typically decaffeinated using the “natural water process”, or through the blending of two kinds of beans. If you’re looking to lower your caffeine intake but still love the benefits and taste of a great cup of coffee. As always, if you’re looking to perfect your coffee arsenal then feel free to check out our coffee gear over here.
Our 6 Favorite Half Caff K-Cups for Keurig Style Machines
There are lots of different reasons why you might want to stock some half caff k-cup coffee in your pantry. Maybe you are overly sensitive to caffeine, maybe you are trying to consume less caffeine, maybe you are saving your low caffeine coffee for the afternoons or evening.
Whatever the reason though there are more half-caff options now than ever before and I think they taste a lot better than mixing regular coffee with decaf… you know you’ve done that before, probably more than once too!
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In the list below you’ll find some partially caffeinated k-cups from the Keurig brand, and many other non-Keurig brands including my favorite in this list Maud’s.
I’m a big fan of smaller brands, craft brands if you excuse the reference to the craft brew scene!
Maud’s claims their’s is the best half-caff coffee in the world, I’m not sure about that but it is the best I’ve ever tried and I’ve used their coffee twice before when weening myself off of caffeine before undergoing surgery. That’s a long story but needless to say I didn’t want to deal with caffeine withdrawals while recovering.
In any event all of the brands on this list are good at what they do so give them all a look and buy based on your own values.
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I’ll be providing short reviews of all the K-Cup coffees below in no particular order:
- Green Mountain Medium Roast Half-Caff
- Maud’s Gourmet Half Caff Coffee Pods
- Skinny Girl Half-Caff Coffees
- Colombian SWP Half Caf K-Cups
- Folgers Half Caff K-Cups for Keurig Style Brewers
- Half Caf Coffee Pod Variety Pack by Fresh Roasted Coffee, LLC
My Reviews of The Best Half Caff K-Cups
Many of the larger brands below can probably be found in your local grocery store but some of the smaller specialty brands I’ve never seen sold anywhere other than Amazon. Each link below points to the largest size sold on Amazon as this is typically the best per cup value.
Green Mountain Coffee Medium Roast K-Cup for Keurig Brewers, Half-Caff Coffee (Pack of 96)
Green Mountain has a few different half-caff k-cups listed for sale but they are all basically the same medium roast coffee packaged in k-cups that look slightly different.
The differences have to do with the batch and production facility and not the flavor profile.
I like these because they are economical and taste good enough for me. They’re not my favorite but then again I’m picky and I tend to like lighter, more acidic roasts.
This coffee will be great for people on a budget, who like medium roast coffees, and who like to buy in bulk.
Check pricing out on Amazon here.
Maud’s Gourmet Coffee Pods – World’s Best Half Caff, 100-Count Single Serve Coffee Pods
This k-cup is labeled as a Medium roast but it’s actually a 50/50 mixture of dark roast regular and medium roast decaf. The result is something a little darker than medium, smooth and very drinkable.
Because the regular in the blend is a top quality coffee the entire cup made from these k-cups really doesn’t have any of that decaf taste that so many people can pick up on.
These pods are made by a small batch micro-roastry in San Diego and if you care about this all coffee used in these K-Cups are organic and fair trade.
Older batches of these k-cups were made with some lids that didn’t stay on but recent offerings holdup better. I think these are the best k-cups on this list and recommend them to everyone.
Check pricing for Maud’s half-caff k-cups on Amazon here.
Skinnygirl Half Caff Coffees, Demi-caf, 24 Count
Another excellent option in the low caffeine k-cup market.
Colombian SWP Half Caf Coffee Cups, 72 ct. of Single Serve Capsules for Keurig K-Cup Brewers
This option is for those people who love Colombian coffee but want some caffeine but not a lot.
Folgers Half Caff Coffee K-Cups for Keurig K Cup Brewers and 2.0 Brewers
This option was the surprise to me; I liked it a lot and it’s priced affordably coming from Folgers.
Half Caf Coffee Pod Variety Pack by Fresh Roasted Coffee, LLC
This is another smaller roasting company that makes their own blends. This will get the job done!
The Top Questions We See All The Time
Our customers routinely ask variations of these same questions when shopping for low caffeine k-cups and coffee grounds. Check below for anything that you may want clarification on.
- How Much Caffeine is in a Half Caff K Cup – Every brand, roast, and flavor profile will contain more or less caffeine than others and individual brewing characteristics such as temperature and ratio of water to grinds will change the amount of caffeine in any cup but on average you’ll find that most half-caff k-cups brewed with roughly 8 ounces of water will contain roughly 50mg of caffeine. This is in comparison to 90-120mg in regular k-cup coffee and 10mg in decaf coffee. If you are weaning yourself off of too much caffeine then these k-cups will help you bridge the gap between full strength coffee and decaf without having to mix brewed or ground coffee yourself.
- How Do They Make Half Caff Coffee? – When a coffee company makes decaf coffee they actually remove caffeine from the beans during production. With half-caff coffee however they literally mix fully caffeinated beans with decaf beans to produce something in between. For k-cups they will then grind and stuff those cups with the mixture. Basically when you mix beans or grounds at home you are making the same exact thing as half caff coffee. Buying it already mixed just makes things simpler for you. If you regularly buy standard brands of coffee then half caff coffee will be just fine for you but pre-made blends don’t typically get packaged with gourmet beans. If you really want the best coffee possible with the least caffeine possible then you will likely have to mix the beans yourself. Even still brands like Maud’s or Fresh Roasted Coffee, LLC offer excellent options that taste great and are super convenient.
- Is Half Caff Coffee Good For You? – Half caff coffee in either ground or k-cup form is just as good for you as any other type of regular or decaf coffee. It is not made with instant coffee so you don’t have the health concerns that come with that. You still get all the antioxidants that come with regular coffee just a lot less caffeine.
If You Try a Few Different Half Caff Coffees You’ll Probably Find One You Like Better Than The Others
Lastly it’s worth stating the obvious.
If you buy small boxes of a few different brands you will probably find one variety that just tastes better to you than the others. It’s what I do all the time.
Personally I’m a big fan of Maud’s k-cups (Maud’s on Amazon here) when I want something low in caffeine but to my surprise I also like the Folgers varieties too and they have a few different options in a few different roast profiles. (Folger’s half-caff k-cups on Amazon here)
I also always recommend anyone looking for low caffeine coffees to consider some of the better decaf varieties out there too. Decaf coffee isn’t actually devoid of caffeine, there’s still a little bit in there.
If you are trying to ween yourself off of caffeine then it’s a nice step down from half caff to decaf before finally going cold turkey. I also just like keeping a box of decaf on hand for guests that come to dinner of myself when I get a coffee raving at 10pm!
We have a full review post for decaf k-cups here. Check it out if you found this post helpful