If you’ve been around this blog here a few times, then you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the Senseo coffee maker. I have one at home, because it is just a great way to offer single serve coffee to guests when you have them over. And if you have a few guests over and you’ve got a few varieties of Senseo coffee pods, well, now you have a taste party sensation!
Okay, I might have already lost some of you by now. So we’ll back up just a bit and start from the very beginning. As that song goes, a very good place to start. Senseo coffee makers are single serve coffee makers, very similar to the Keurig’s single serve coffee maker. As a matter of fact, I’d say that the Senseo coffee maker and Keurig are direct competitors. And in all honesty, I’d say it’s pretty hard to choose the better one. I guess it depends on what you’re looking for.
Some background on the Senseo coffee maker
The Senseo coffee maker is a brand of the Dutch companies Philips and Douwe Egberts, which in turn are subdivisions of the larger company Sara Lee. Douwe Egberts for those of you who are curious goes back hundreds of years. In fact it started off as a small grocery store in Holland owned by the guy named Egbert Douwes. They changed his name around obviously to get Douwe Egberts and put the “s” on the other name. Anyway, Egbert’s grocery store was called De Witte Os or “The White Ox” and was founded in 1753.
The thing that annoys me a little bit with the single serve coffee maker generally, is that they try and use patented coffee pods so that you have to buy from them. Thankfully, Keurig K cups or Keurig coffee pods have been licensed out so that a coffee pod from Timothy’s K cups for example will fit the Keurig coffee maker. The Philips Senseo coffee pods on the other hand are generally more easily made, and these espresso pods for instance are made by other companies, and there are even machines available now that allow you to make your own coffee pods for the Senseo coffee machine.
Why choose a Senseo coffee maker?
Okay, so why would one choose to use Douwe Egberts Senseo coffee pods? Well, because of the large number of choices out there. For example, Senseo makes over 18 flavors of coffee pods that will fit your Senseo pod coffee maker, and as mentioned earlier, if you want to make your own, a simple machine for less than fifty bucks will have you making coffee pods of whatever type and flavor of coffee you choose.
Now as mentioned earlier, for the Senseo coffee maker, you have your choice of 2 coffee makers that Senseo makes. This is another reason folks choose the single serve coffee maker, the price is reasonable. A coffee pod from Senseo for example will make a cup of coffee for around thirty to fifty cents. That’s pretty inexpensive. And if you get to making your own, then the price drops quickly and dramatically. The Senseo coffee machines are also quite inexpensive. The 2 current models will cost you between $80 and $150 depending on which version you get. You can even get an older Senseo HD7810 for half of that, and it’s a reliable machine that should last you some years more.
But if you’re looking for new, then the 2 choices you have are the Senseo SL7810 or the Senseo SL7832. The latter one is the larger and more expensive one. That’s the version I have and I’m very happy with it. Also known as the Senseo single server supreme coffee machine, it allows you to brew up to 10 ounces and has an interactive LCD screen. It also has a large 32 ounce water tank and comes with a pretty decent 2 year warranty.
The Senseo single serve gourmet coffee machine will only brew 8 ounces and has no display. Nevertheless, it is a simple but reliable machine. If it were me, and it was me not long ago, I’d spring for the more expensive one with the larger serving available and the LCD screen. Either way, you’re getting a fresh, personalized cup of coffee in less than a minute from your Senseo coffee maker.