We Tried Bone Broth Made In A Keurig (So You Don't Have To)

By Anthony Todd in Food on Feb 2, 2016 3:53PM

Photo via Lono Life

As a health conscious office-dweller (ha), I'm always looking for more opportunities to get healthy protein into my diet, especially if they involve no effort and alluring gadgetry. I've also always been weirdly obsessed with making food with a Keurig machine, mostly because it feels very science fiction-y (just add water and press a button!). That's why, when I saw an ad for LonoLife's K-Cup Beef Bone Broth, I couldn't resist.

Bone broth is all the rage, and it's frankly sort of a silly trend. I know there's technically a difference between stock, broth and bone broth, but I use bones to make my homemade stock, so I've never been quite sure that I care. My regular old stock, made from leftover rotisserie chicken and vegetable scraps, is cooked forever and has tons of gelatin (which is supposed to give bone broth its healthful properties), so I never quite jumped on the bone broth bandwagon, preferring boring old soup.

Until now.

LonoLife makes two flavors of K-Cup bone broth, chicken and beef, as well as regular "broth" made with veggies, chicken or cream of mushroom. It's got no sugar and no gluten (which is good, because it should be made with water, veggies and meat) and no preservatives (except for the fact that it's dried, powdered and put into a tiny plastic cup meant to have hot water blasted through it). LonoLife also likes making comparisons to other products without anything to compare to: "Our beef bone broth is more flavorful and better for you." Than what? Than anything else, apparently.

The box arrived at my office, boasting the sort of packaging copy dreamed up by a starry-eyed person who rides their bike to work and does tough mudder races on the weekends. It read: "LonoLife was born out of a bold, beautiful belief: The bigger your dreams, the braver the leaps you take, the better you should fuel yourself."

Let's come back to earth for a second. They've basically created bouillon in a plastic cup. Your dreams can stay exactly the same size, large or small, that they were before.

Unfortunately, something inside the box leaked, and there is now strange beefy powder all over my office, which smells OK now. but I suspect won't be so awesome in about two days. As soon as it arrived, I rushed to my Keurig, popped in some bovine goodness and stood back, waiting for the magic.

...It's fine.

I wish, for comedy's sake, that I could claim that this product is utterly revolting, but honestly, it's not at all. Like many Keurig-brewed products, it smells better than it tastes—it has the aroma of a rich roast beef. The taste is mostly of salt, with some of the unctuous texture of broth. I actually think it's better when it's a bit colder, as more beef flavor comes through. With 10 grams of protein per cup, I could totally drink this as a snack, though I will admit it's a bit odd to have the aftertaste of a steak in my mouth at 10 in the morning while sitting at my desk.

There are just two problems. First, the price. At $2 per K-cup, $20 for a pack of 10, it's a bit expensive, especially since bone broth is incredibly cheap to make in bulk. But if the convenience is the thing, maybe it's worth it. The other? As with all Keurig products, it's tough to get out the residue of every other thing made in the past week by your officemates. The packaging suggests using the "clean" button on your machine before brewing your broth, but my Keurig doesn't have one. So my bone broth tastes vaguely of coffee, which, depending on your tastes, may not be the worst thing in the world.

Final verdict? A resounding meh.