The Senseo coffee maker offers you choices galore because of the variety of Senseo coffee pods that you can find in a whole different bunch of flavors. If you’ve been reading anything much on this blog lately you’ll know that I’m a fan of the Senseo coffee pod system of brewing terrific single cups each time.
If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at my other posts on coffee pods and how they work, I’ll give you a quick overview here before we look at the Senseo coffee maker in more detail. A coffee pod or a coffee pad as the Europeans call it is like a vacuum packed round tea bag. Except of course that it contains ground coffee. You’re probably more familiar with the espresso pod that you can put into many different type of espresso machines for a great shot of espresso that is consistent and bankable in flavor and quantity of beverage each time you use it. The same is true with Senseo coffee pods. The idea is very similar. Each cup of coffee you get is consistently yummy because each coffee pod is practically the same as the other ones. Now I’m not going to get into the subtle nuances of coffee and the different, important yes, and subtle flavor distinctions that can occur in the same batch roasted differently. And also from the same plant each harvest. For our purposes let’s just assume that each coffee pod offers the same flavor profile and terrific cup of coffee because they are manufactured to exacting standards. That’s the point I’m trying to get across.
Many pods for the Senseo coffee maker
Now having said that, all the different Senseo coffee makers will take the Senseo coffee pods. Luckily for us, Senseo lost the protection of their patent for the coffee pod, so you will find that there are a large variety of manufacturers offering coffee pods that fit the Senseo coffee makers. I’m certain that this has helped keep the price down with the competition.
Something else to bear in mind. The Philips Senseo coffee maker will only accept coffee pods either by Senseo or third party manufacturers. This is obvious, but what I’m getting at is that you can’t use a Senseo coffee maker to brew ordinary coffee, so you’re stuck with their proprietary system and coffee pods. Now, I personally don’t find this to be a huge hardship as I have a regular brewer too, and a Senseo coffee maker can be had for less than $100 and you’ll find that each coffee pod will only set you back around $0.30 to $0.50. So it certainly isn’t going to break the bank. And of course, nowadays you can make your own coffee pods with the perfect pod maker. I haven’t tried it, and it’ll probably work fine, but I wouldn’t expect it to be as good as using the real coffee pods. But it is available and a handy option.
Types of Senseo coffee maker
Okay, I really meant this post to be about the different types of Senseo coffee makers that are available. A sort of overview if you will. But I ramble and I’m running out of space, so I’m going to talk about just one of them. The Senseo coffee maker that I have, which is the Senseo new generation coffee maker. Firstly I like it because it is silver, and that just looks very nice in my kitchen. Secondly, it’s the new generation, and because of that it has additional features that you won’t find in the Senseo original coffee maker.
This coffee machine can brew your choice of coffee, cappuccino or tea of varying strengths and sizes. You can enjoy anywhere from 3 ounces of beverage all the way up to 10 ounce. Usually I go for 10 ounces but then I like to enjoy my coffee for a while. I’m not a sip and run doppio kinda guy. Except when I’m in Italy!
This Senseo coffee maker also has an adjustable spout to fit your favorite mug, it has an LCD display with the current water level which is very handy and it has an over sized water reservoir of 32 ounces or for those of you on metric that’s practically a liter. Now the Senseo new generation will set you back between a hundred and two hundred dollars, but in my opinion it is well worth it. You’ll be brewing single serve coffee in under a minute, fresh every time, exactly how you like it from your brand spanking new Senseo coffee maker.