Review: We Cracked The Code For The Absolute Best Way To Enjoy L'Eggo Keurig Coffee

I have an undying love for waffles, and if you're reading this, I have a feeling that I'm not alone. While using a recipe to whip up some waffles from scratch is definitely tasty, it's still nice to lean on Eggos and keep it simple. There's something about those crispy little squares all filled up with melted butter and maple syrup that brings out the animal in me. But what makes waffles even more enjoyable is a good cup of coffee. The roasty taste of coffee paired with the sweet taste of waffles is a match made in heaven. So when I heard that Eggo teamed up with the Two River Coffee Company to develop some new waffle-flavored coffee, I was excited to give it a try.

Available in coffee pods that are compatible with Keurig machines, Eggo is releasing five new flavors of waffle-inspired coffee: Maple syrup, vanilla, chocolate chip, cinnamon toast, and blueberry. After scoring a variety box with all five flavors, I fired up my Keurig and gave each coffee pod a try. To get a thorough perspective on this coffee, I tried each flavor in two different ways — I sipped each coffee totally plain on its own to appreciate its natural taste, then I added a little sugar and a splash of cream. In many ways, the results took me by surprise.

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer/distributor/etc.

Eggo coffee is available for purchase at stores nationwide. You can also buy it online at Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Two Rivers Direct. A 40-pack of a single flavor is available for $24.99 and a 12-pack variety box is available for $12.99.

If you happen to be in New York City, you're in luck. Eggo Coffee Cafe will be offering free cups of coffee (and waffles!) to the public for a limited time on Wednesday August 21st for a few hours between 10 am and 3 pm and then from 8 am until 3 pm from Thursday to Sunday. I think we can all agree that chowing down on some free waffles and sipping on some free fresh coffee is a pretty nice way to kick off the day. The company is also giving away cups of coffee and free waffles from August 21st to August 25th at eggogiveaway.com. The bottom line: There are plenty of ways to hook yourself up with some waffle-centric yum.

I feel like vanilla gets a bad rap. A lot of people seem to think it's boring, but I think it depends on the type of vanilla being used and I've always found vanilla to be highly satisfying. I started off with the vanilla coffee in an effort to ease into the flavors, figuring it would be the most neutral of the bunch. As the coffee brewed, the alluring scent of vanilla filled the kitchen and my tastebuds eagerly buzzed with anticipation. When the coffee was finished brewing, I held the steaming up under my nose to fully take in more of its aroma. It smelled wonderful. At the same time, the coffee was still piping hot, so I brought it over to the table and waited a couple of minutes for it to cool down a bit. Burning my tongue would ruin the rest of this tasting session, so I wanted to be careful.

Much to my surprise, despite the strong scent of vanilla flowing from the coffee, the actual flavor of vanilla was more subdued. The coffee was also a bit more bitter and acidic than I was expecting. Because these flavors are all inspired by waffles, I assumed that the pods would be more sweetened, but that wasn't the case. The flavor of the vanilla here feels more like a faint aftertaste, but the smell is wonderful. After tasting the vanilla coffee plain, I added some sugar and a little cream, and it tasted much better. 

Considering cinnamon has such an assertive scent and flavor, I thought this coffee would be bolder than vanilla. Another mistaken assumption on my part. As the cinnamon toast coffee brewed, the smell of cinnamon was noticeable, but it wasn't as pronounced as the vanilla. The scent of cinnamon was more delicate, as if cinnamon buns had been baked in the oven a few hours ago, and all that remained were a few elusive drafts lingering in the air.

Once again, I sipped this coffee totally plain at first. The taste of cinnamon was also understated. I definitely think that the flavor of cinnamon could have been stronger here. I added some sugar and cream and, just like with the vanilla, the coffee tasted more balanced and somehow the flavor seemed to be more noticeable. I think that I preferred the vanilla flavor over the cinnamon flavor because the vanilla has a bolder presence.

Eggo's maple syrup coffee was one of the best-smelling coffees in the mix. As the coffee brewed, the scent of buttery maple syrup filled the air, and if I were blindfolded, I would have easily believed that I'd been magically teleported into a diner somewhere whipping up waffles and pancakes. Or perhaps even watching maple syrup being made.

Even though the first two flavors that I tried weren't sweet at all, I thought that the maple syrup would certainly be more sugary. After all, the word syrup is right there in the name, right? Wrong again. While this flavor smelled lovely, it definitely lacked the sweetness and the maple flavor that I was expecting. At the same time, the coffee still tasted good — the maple flavor just takes more of a backseat than I was expecting. Like the other flavors, a little sweetener and a splash of cream goes a long way here.

Brewing Eggo's chocolate chip coffee, I expected the smell of chocolate chip cookies to flood the house. While a chocolatey scent was undoubtedly present, the aroma on this wasn't quite as rich as I'd imagined it would be. Don't get me wrong, though: The scent of this flavor was still pleasant and made me excited to give it a taste.

Similar to my expectations with the maple syrup flavor, I associate chocolate chips with an inherent sweetness, but this coffee was more acidic than sweet. The flavor of chocolate wasn't immediate or even remotely bold. Instead it crept up, almost bashfully, to gently coat the tongue after a swallowing mouthful of this coffee. Even though the taste of chocolate in this flavor was a bit weak, the coffee was still enjoyable. For me, adding a little sugar to this was a must and helped amplify the subtle undertones in the coffee's chocolate flavoring.

Blueberry was the Eggo flavor that I was most intrigued by. All of the other flavors that I tried seemed like obvious choices that would blend smoothly with coffee. While blueberry-flavored waffles make perfect sense, the concept of blueberry coffee strikes me as a bit more unusual and adventurous. Right off the bat, the scent of this coffee is tied with maple syrup as my favorite. It really did smell like a mouthwatering batch of blueberry waffles or as if fluffy blueberry muffins were baking in the oven.

The flavor on this was also more closely aligned with my expectations than the other coffee flavors. There was a light fruitiness that seemed to only strengthen as the coffee cooled in my cup. Because fresh blueberries have a natural tang to them, the slightly acidic flavor of the coffee complemented the blueberry flavoring. I was a little skeptical of this flavor at first, but in the end, it won me over and ended up being one of my favorites of the bunch.

Overall, I think that Eggo coffee is a clever concept that's worth trying. Even though the coffee flavors weren't as rich or as sweet as I'd imagined, I think that drinking this coffee while also eating waffles smothered in maple syrup (which is how this coffee is really intended to be enjoyed) would deliver the richness and sweetness necessary to help balance out the coffee's natural bitterness.

I get the feeling that there may have been a conscious effort to ensure that this coffee wouldn't be overly sweet, since it's intended to be enjoyed with Eggo waffles and maple syrup. While that approach makes perfect sense, I do think that consumers may be expecting these flavors to taste more waffle-like than they actually do. I think that if Eggo decides to improve upon this first round of development, infusing this coffee with richer flavors and a little more sweetness would be a smart move.