We’ve spoken about the coffee pod brewer a few times on this blog in a variety of ways. Mostly we’ve spoken about the coffee pod brewers from the perspective of the individual machines that are available on the market. Today we’ll look at the coffee pod brewer as an overview of the machine and we’ll touch on some of the more popular ones that are being used as well as their benefits and drawbacks.
The coffee pod is not as new as many of us might think. Coffee pods generally are becoming more and more popular amongst folks who are looking for a quick no muss, no fuss quality coffee beverage, but these espresso pods have been around for some time. The first attempt to standardize the coffee pod was with the ESE coffee pods. This stood for Easy Serving Espresso. ESE pods are widely available and can be used in a lot of machines, though not all of them.
If you are interested in a coffee pod brewer that uses these coffee pods, you should pay attention to the packaging, it will say on the box somewhere that they are available for use with that particular machine. ESE coffee pods are also usually used with semi automatic espresso machines and not so much for coffee. In this post I’ll assume that you are more interested in coffee type pods.
Drawbacks of the coffee pod brewer
One of the problems in my opinion with coffee pod machines is that each manufacturer tries to tightly control the market for the coffee pods that can be used with their pod brewer. This is unfortunate, not because the coffee pods are so expensive (because they aren’t), but because it limits the variety and choices available to the consumer.
However, this has been overcome by some ingenious folks who have developed systems so that you can make your own coffee pods to fit into your machine and use whichever type of coffee you’d like in your coffee pod brewer. One of these systems is the K cup filter which allows you to reuse your Keurig coffee pods or K cups as they are known.
The problem with these work arounds, is that you need extra espresso machine accessories, tools and paraphernalia to rig your coffee pod brewer up to accept your own coffee pod brewer to accept these new coffee pods. Not that it is particularly onerous, but it is something to consider.
However, the ease of use and the quick brewing of coffee from these coffee pod brewers is what makes them attractive. So which are some of the popular brands that make the coffee pod brewer?
Your choices for your coffee pod brewer
Here are a few you can explore on your own. The Gevalia coffee and tea pod brewer uses the Senseo coffee pods or more fully called the Douwe Egberts Senseo coffee pods. The Bosch Tassimo single serve coffee brewer uses the proprietary T-disc system which at the moment I have no familiarity with.
Though this might be a brand to watch, it’s a fine looking machine and Starbucks is backing them by offering Starbucks T-discs, Seattle’s Best T-discs (also owned by Starbucks) and Tazo T-discs (also owned by Starbucks) amongst other brands like Nabob etc. There is also the My Invento coffee maker pod brewer by Cafe Invento which uses the Senseo coffee pod system. This too is a very fine and sleek looking system.
There is also the Breville coffee machine or Breville coffee maker that you can choose as a coffee pod brewer. Clicking on any of those links will give you some more information about that system and if you’re curious about the Breville espresso machine I have a write up on that too. Breville uses the K cup coffee pods for use in the Keurig K cup brewer, which brings me to the top two contenders in the coffee pod brewer niche. The Senseo pod coffee maker and the Keurig single serve coffee maker.
My favorite at the moment (subject to change of course) is the Senseo coffee maker. I like it, because Senseo lost their patent on their coffee pod which looks remarkably similar to the ESE coffee pod. I think this decision was the correct one and it benefits us as consumers. You have a huge choice of available coffee pods for this coffee pod brewer because everyone and their monkey it seems got into offering coffee pods for the Senseo coffee machines. Godiva offers Senseo coffee pods and the Millstone coffee pods work with the Senseo pod system too.
The Keurig single cup coffee maker is another terrific choice. Between these two coffee pod brewers it is very tough to call. Keurig has a proprietary system, but they’ve partnered with many companies to allow them to produce the Keurig K cups or Keurig coffee pods. Some of the well known coffee companies that manufacture K cups are Newman’s Own, Green Mountain, Tully’s and Timothy’s K cups amongst others.
I guess at the end of the day, choosing a coffee pod brewer will come down to personal preference, aesthetics, available choice of coffee pods available and reviews. So I encourage you to check out some of the options mentioned above. The Senseo coffee makers are a little cheaper than the Keurig coffee makers, but their coffee pods are both competitively priced. At the end of the day, the coffee pod brewer you choose you’ll be happy with I’m sure. Either one has great reviews and high customer satisfaction. You can’t go far wrong with one of these as a coffee pod brewer for your home.