After Green Mountain Coffee Roasters invested in the company, Keurig began releasing machines in 1998. Their solution? Creating a single-serve coffee brewing method. They were college roommates during the late 1970s, and the pair met up once again during the early 1990s, reuniting as business partners.īoth Sylvan and Dragone previously worked in an office atmosphere and noticed a problem with the traditional, drip-brewing coffee method used there: when brewing a large pot of coffee for the office, the java would often get cold, stale, or go to waste as the workday passed. The Keurig was first designed in 1992 by John Sylvan and Peter Dragone. Before we get into the breakdown of the K-Cup, let’s take a look at the Keurig machine itself.