These days one can find all sorts of different coffee machines available. There are the old style drip and filter coffee makers. There are more expensive ones that are almost fully automatic. You just add some water into a tank, some beans in the top, place your cup under the nozzle and press a button. Out comes the choice of your coffee. And for real old-style coffee lovers there are also the stove-top varieties. Some are just old coffee pots that you use to brew up your coffee. Others are espresso machines that boil water and use steam to push it through the ground beans. Needless to say there is no shortage of choice.
Yet that choice has become even wider in the past couple of years with the introduction of pod coffee machines. These are quite amazing in that they take away most of the fuss and mess involved. The coffee comes in a small little aluminum container that is put in the machine. It does the rest. It boils the water, gets it up to a very high pressure, then pierces the coffee pod and pushes the water through. Out comes an almost perfect cup of coffee. I was a bit of a skeptic before I tried one of their cups of coffee but soon I was going back for more. The reason is that the coffee often comes out smelling much fresher and better than it would from many other sorts of automatic espresso machines.
There are some disadvantages though. The first is price. The pods are not especially cheap and you often end up paying about $0.5 for each cup of coffee. That may not be much compared with store-bought coffee but it is more than you might pay if you used beans and a grinder in an old fashioned machine. The pods are often protected by patents so only the manufacturer is allowed to make them. That also keeps prices high. Even so, if you love coffee you may think it worth every penny.
If you are like most people, time in the morning is in short supply. Coffee pods allow those who are crunched for time to enjoy a fresh brewed cup of coffee, without having to set a timer or wash a pot. A coffee pod is a small container of coffee beans, doled out into a single serving. These pods are designed for use in coffee makers that produce single cups of coffee each time, eliminating the problem of stale coffee. Simply insert a pod into your coffee maker and a fresh cup of brewed coffee will be ready in seconds. For instance, Senseo coffee pods are a typical brand easily found.
For those who are considering making the switch from more traditional coffee makers to single serving options, there are a few things that should be kept in mind. Short brewing times and increased convenience do come at a slight cost. Pound for pound, coffee pods are slightly more expensive than some of the most popular grocery store coffee brands. While the cost per cup is a bit more, it is still far less than one would pay when ordering coffee from a cafe and the reduction in waste can end up saving money in the long run.
As coffee pods have become more popular, they are being carried by more and more grocery outlets. However, the best deals by far can still be found online in most cases. If you have a favorite flavor or brand, buying in bulk can cut a significant percentage off the price of each coffee pod. Many of the leading brands also offer variety packs, which allow new users to sample a few of their flavors. This is a great option for someone who has just purchased a single serving coffee machine and is new to coffee pods.
Coffee pods are a great choice for anyone who is hoping to save time in coffee brewing without sacrificing taste.
Post provided by Home and Garden Co
When it comes to purchasing a new small coffee machine, it’s really a matter of deciding between an automatic drip brewer and a more modern alternative – the pod coffee maker. Choosing which machine to pick simply by looking at the designs can be confusing and time consuming as well. Fortunately, narrowing down your options is fairly easy. For instance, if all you need to get going in the morning is to brew a single cup of coffee, then looking at pod-type coffeemakers such as a Melitta pod coffee maker might be worth your while.
Pod type machines like those produced by Melitta make it really easy for you to ensure that you get perfectly brewed, great-tasting coffee every single time. Pod type machines like this come with a lot of other benefits as well. For instance, you can brew just one cup at a time and have any flavor you desire by choosing from a wide variety of flavors. Plus, using the machine is very easy and relies on the user simply pressing a button to activate the cycle. If you think you can handle keeping the water reservoir full and placing a pod of coffee into the machine before activating the brew cycle then you have all you need to brew great tasting coffee in one of these revolutionary machines.
Although pod coffee machines are a little bit more expensive than regular drip-type coffee makers, you can make them work to your advantage as you no longer have to brew the minimum 4 cups of coffee just to get yourself 1 or 2 cups. As such, you no longer waste coffee by pouring the extra brew right down the drain. Plus, the flexibility regarding flavors and usage gives you everything you need to enjoy your morning coffee.
Ultimately, choosing a new coffee maker is all about satisfying your personal goals in terms of usability, performance and price. Simply put, ask yourself what you need the machine for and don’t give up the search until you find the perfect solution. That being said, if you are going to brew coffee just for yourself and you desire consistent performance then a pod coffee maker produced by Melitta may be your best bet.
For almost 100 years now, Van Houtte has been selling exceptional gourmet coffee. The company does everything from bean selection and roasting to packaging of dozens of types of highly-rated coffees. It has recently begun manufacturing k-cups of its coffees, the little packets that are used with Keurig single-cup coffee makers. You’ll be able to find enough different Van Houtte K Cups to have a different one every day of the month. From special dark roasts to flavored coffees, there are k-cups to please every taste. In fact, if you’re a tea drinker, you can enjoy tea k-cups in a variety of flavors.
K-cups are one of the greatest inventions since the drip coffee maker. The coffee grounds are sealed in the container which keeps them fresh and neat. All you have to do is slip a k-cup into the brewer, pour cold water into the reservoir, and push the brew button. It’s as simple as that. In less than 3 minutes you’ll have a perfectly-brewed cup of coffee. Van Houtte coffees are famous for their rich, balanced blends roasted in the traditional European method.
If you read online reviews about Van Houtte k cups, you’ll find that most people who’ve tried them think they are one of the best varieties of k-cups available. Comments includes that they’re rich and full tasting, not too sweet, and and they are the most flavorful without being overbearing. One reviewer remarked that he felt that Van Houtte had the best k-cups on the market when it comes to quality, selection, and convenience and that although k-cups are a little more expensive than regular coffee, they are definitely worth the extra you pay.
Van Houtte offers several different classifications of k-cups as follows:
K-Cups Single Origin – This line includes coffees from places like Kenya, Honduras, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica.
K-Cups Gourmet – 11 regular and decaf coffees as well as gourmet tea packets.
K-Cups Fair Trade and Organic – Ranging from 100% Colombian coffee to blends from Peru and Mexico as well as Ceylon teas.
K-Cups Flavors – delightful flavors including Chocolate Almond, crème brulee, French vanilla, Pecan Praline, and Irish cream.
As you can see, there are Van Houtte k cups to please even the most gourmand of coffee critics.
Green Mountain coffee is a relative newcomer to the world of coffee companies, but it has gotten started with a bang. Since it first started producing gourmet ground roast coffee in a small cafe in Vermont in 1981, it has grown to an entity that is reputed worldwide as a leader in the specialty coffee industry. In fact, at the end of the company’s fiscal year that ended in September, 2008, the company reported more than $500 million in sales. The company operations are run through two business segments: Green Mountain Coffee and Keurig. As you may already know, Keurig produces a line of single-cup coffee makers that use K-cup portion packs to make outstanding coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Green Mountain k-cups have become one of the hottest items in the coffee market.
The new Keurig coffee makers are designed for ease of use and clean up. Simply slip in a k-cup of the beverage you want and press a button. K-cups are pre-measured, so you get the perfect cup of coffee every time. There’s no messy grounds and no spills. The Keurig Special Edition Brewer B60 is a middle-of-the-line system that uses k-cups. This brewer features 3 brew sizes, adjustable brew temperature, LCD display, water reservoir, programmable on-off timer, and removable stainless steel drip tray for easy cleaning. Other models of Keurig machines have many of these same features.
Although Green Mountain and Keurig are part of the same parent company, Green Mountain k-cups are the only ones the coffee part of the entity sells. In fact, there are more than 75 different kinds of coffees, cocoas, and teas available in k-cup form that can be used with the Keurig brewing machines. Several different kinds of Tully’s, Newman’s Own, Caribou, and Green Mountain coffees are represented in the offerings along with a number of different Celestial teas and Cafe Escapes hot chocolates. There are even espresso blend k-cups that you can choose from. If you like, you could indulge yourself in a different hot beverage every morning, because numerous variety packs are available.
We’ve all heard of Folgers coffee. After all it’s been around for as long as anyone can remember, and it’s always been a favorite with coffee drinkers everywhere. That’s because this coffee company that’s been around over a century and a half has continued to change with the times in order to remain a front-runner in the coffee field. From its humble roots in post-gold rush California to the newest trends of the 21st century, Folgers has worked to remain as one of the largest coffee companies in the world. Now, as it embarks on new ventures, such as Folgers coffee pods, this company shows us that it plans on being a player on the world stage for many years to come.
Back during the California Gold Rush in 1849, a man named James Folger left his home on Nantucket to go to the gold fields with his two older brothers. After arriving in San Francisco in April, 1850, he decided that he’d rather work for the high wages being offered in town than to go out to the gold fields. After working for ten years to help rebuild San Francisco buildings that kept getting burned down, he decided to start the J.A. Folger Coffee Company. The company was family-run until being purchased by Proctor & Gamble in 1963 and sold to the J.M. Smucker Company in 2008. Through all of the transitions over the years, the company has maintained a quality profile through its use of TV advertising.
Prior to the advent of coffee pods and drip coffee makers, coffee making was the simple process of boiling hot water with roasted coffee beans. Although this sounds pretty archaic to us now, it worked for hundreds of years. Through the eras of drip coffee makers, percolators, and vacuum brewers, Folgers continued to make changes in and add to their product line. Now after 40 years of electric drip coffee makers, with the 1-serving pod coffee brewers set to take over the market, Folgers has continued to change with the times. They currently offer 4 different varieties of Folgers coffee pods: Classic Roast, Classic Decaf, 100% Colombian, and French Vanilla.
Have you seen the ads on TV about single-serving coffee makers and k-cup coffee inserts? The ads make the new technology look great with the shiny coffee makers and the neat little racks holding the individual k-cup portions of coffee. The looks aren’t deceiving, either. K-cups are available in many great brands and makes perfect gourmet coffee. The process is fast, easy, and doesn’t leave the mess that ordinary coffee makers can do. Unfortunately, however, K-cup coffee is rather expensive which makes it a luxury many people can’t afford. Even with the case discounts that are offered on the Internet, you can end up paying far more for each cup of coffee this way than you would with other types of coffee makers.
Of course, if you’re used to going out and paying almost $2 for a cup of coffee every morning, then a k-cup coffee maker might be a less expensive option for you. Compared to take-out coffee, you can buy k-cups for as little as 38 cents a cup. However, if you opt for more expensive brands and flavors, the cost will go up significantly. For example, you can buy Van Houtte k-cups for around $.56 a cup and Green Mountain k-cups for about $.60 a cup, but if you want something like Tully’s Bellaccino Swiss Chocolate Almond k-cups, they’re going to cost you about $1.14 each. While these k-cups might be okay for 1-cup coffee drinkers, it might get a bit expensive for someone who likes to drink an entire pot at a sitting.
Those who consistently want a delicious cup of fresh coffee without a lot of hassle will probably like having a Keurig 1-cup coffee make and making k-cup coffee. Keurig’s mini personal brewer runs about $80 with models having more features costing upwards of $200 to $300. As you can see by doing a little bit of research online, the cost of these Keurig machines is higher than traditional drip coffee makers or similar pod coffee makers. Therefore k-cup coffee isn’t going to come cheap, but for those of you who want a perfect cup of coffee, this just may be the answer to your dream.
The latest trend in coffee makers is one-cup machines that use coffee pods instead of regular coffee grounds. The drip coffee maker that has been so popular for the past four decades is quickly giving way to these superior systems. A pod coffee maker uses pressure, much like an espresso machine does, to force the coffee through a pre-packaged coffee pod. The result is one quickly-brewed, fresh cup of coffee done right every time. With this method of coffee making, you no longer have the mess of grounds and drips, and you never have to wait for a whole pot of coffee to brew. If you’re like I am, you want your coffee NOW instead of later, so this is a real plus. Various companies make both the brewing machines and the pods. Some of the brands of pods you will find are Senseo, Kona, Newman’s Own, Emeril’s, Folgers, and Melitta coffee pods.
Let’s use Melitta as an example of what you get with this type of system. A Melitta coffee pod gives you a pre-measured amount of coffee inside a filter. All you have to do is place one in the machine and hit the brew button, and in less than a minute you’ll have a perfect cup of coffee or tea. For each coffee pod, you have a choice of two different brew sizes. You can either select the 5 oz. European style for darker, richer coffee or the 8 oz. American size for what we here in the United States consider a regular cup of coffee. By making your coffee one cup at a time like this, you’ll never end up with stale or burnt coffee the way you do when you brew whole pots and leave them sitting on the warming tray.
Melitta coffee pods contain only 100% high grown Arabica coffee and come wrapped in foil to ensure freshness. You’ll like the fact that Melitta pods contain 30% more coffee than other brands do, so you get a fuller, richer cup of coffee. While you may have to use two pods made by other companies to get the flavor you want, you never have to use more than one Melitta pod. You can buy them in numerous different flavors, and they will fit Melitta coffee makers and almost any other brand of coffee maker you can name.
Keurig is the developer of the K cup coffee maker systems that utilize new technologies to produce exceptional coffee. Instead of using regular ground coffee, these systems make use of little pre-measured packets of coffee that the company calls K-Cups. Housed in these convenient little cups you’ll find some of the premium coffee blends from all over the country. No where else will you get this kind of convenience as well as variety. Pop the little k-cup into your Keurig machine, and you can experience a variety of American coffees right in the comfort of your own home.
There are a number of different models of k cup coffee makers available, and there’s sure to be one to fulfill every kind of need. You can start with a Mini Personal Brewer in your choice of black, red, or white. This convenient little machine leaves a very small footprint and is appropriate in many places where a larger unit would just take up too much space, such as a cabin, an RV, a dorm room, or even on your desktop at the office. This little model will heat and brew you a cup of coffee in less than three minutes.
If you’d like to have a larger K Cup coffee maker with more features, you can choose from the Elite Home Brewing System, the Special Edition Home Brewing System, or the Platinum Home Brewing system. These machines will allow you to set the number of ounces of coffee you want to brew and come with many removable parts that you can just put into the dishwasher for easy clean-up. Both the Special Edition and Platinum models are programmable. You can also opt for a model called the OfficePro Small Office Brewer. It features a drainable water reservoir to enable you to move it to where you want it without dripping, a feature which the home brewers don’t have.
The variety of coffees you can buy to go with your k cup coffee maker will amaze you. You can choose from Donut Shop coffee, Green Mountain, Newman’s Own, Caribou, Kona, and Emeril’s French Roast. In addition, you can buy a selection of different flavored coffees, hot teas, iced teas, and hot chocolate k-cups to make this a versatile machine that can be used by the entire family.
Not being a coffee drinker myself, I’ve cussed my wife out for years because of the mess she’s always made with her coffee maker. When I started to read about pod coffee maker, I became quite interested, because they sounded like a plan for cleaning up the mess for good. No wet coffee grounds to dig out of the trash can, and with 1-cup brewing, no sloppy pouring messes. It definitely sounded like something I wanted to check out, and I’m guessing you’d probably like to read on so that you can get more information about pod coffee makers, too.
A single cup pod coffee maker is simple to use that even a child could do it. Once the pod is in its proper place and the reservoir is filled with water, it’s all a matter of pushing a button. In less than 2 minutes’ time, you’ll have a cup of perfectly-brewed coffee. There are a couple of secrets that make pod coffee makers a step ahead of the drip coffee makers we’ve all been using for the past 40 years. The new technology uses pressure to force hot water through the coffee pod. The pressure involved also leaves a smooth, frothy layer on top of each cup of coffee. Drip coffee makers use no pressure at all.
There are a variety of coffee pods you can choose from that will suit any taste. Whether you prefer the flavor of regular coffee in mild, medium, or dark roasts or flavored varieties, there are many different ones available. You can also buy tea and cappuccino pods to use with your machine. Many coffee companies, such as Kono and Folgers, also make coffee pods along with their regular coffees.
You’ve never experienced the convenience you’ll get with a new pod coffee maker. No more waiting for an entire pot of coffee to brew or drinking stale coffee that’s been sitting around on a warming plate. It will be easy to see yourself getting spoiled with the coffee maker of the 21st century, the pod coffee maker.
How many times have you made yourself a pot of coffee in the morning and then only had time to drink one cup before you had to get to work? It happens in kitchens throughout the country every morning. When you get home you then have a pot full of cold, stale coffee to throw away. It seems like a real waste, doesn’t it! These are the times when it would be nice to be able to make only one cup so that you could find time to drink it or take it with you, but instant coffee just doesn’t have the appeal of a freshly brewed cup. So how about trying a Senseo Supreme – Single Serve Coffee Maker with your choice of Senseo coffee pods?
You get the best of all worlds with a Senseo Supreme. You can use it to brew just one cup of the finest gourmet coffee you can buy in less than a minute, so it will fit coffee back into any tight schedule. And in case you get busy and forget to turn it off before you leave the house, no worries. It will shut itself off within an hour, so there’s no chance of it becoming a fire hazard like other appliances can be if left running. With its large coffee reservoir and Senseo coffee pods, this machine has a system that mixes perfectly balanced portions of each into a cup of coffee sure to perk you up in the morning or any other time of day. It even puts froth on top of the cup for you.
The Senseo Supreme is more than just a coffee pot. You can also use it to brew tea and cappuccino. Many parts of the machine are removable and can be washed by popping them in the dishwasher, so clean-up is a breeze. The machine comes with a supply of 8 coffee pods and coupons for 10 free pods of cappuccino and 20 pods of tea. In addition, it was designed with a spout that can be moved to accommodate your favorite coffee mug no matter if it holds 3 oz., 4 oz., 5 oz., 6 oz., 8 oz., or 10.
Senseo coffee pods come in fifteen different flavors, so there’s sure to be something you’ll enjoy. You can buy pods of mild roast, medium roast, dark roast, decaffeinated, Vienna blend, Kona blend, and several other different kinds. Each package of coffee pods holds 108 single serving pods, so you can try a different one every day if you like.
Single cup coffee makers have been catching on all over America, because, let’s face it, not everyone has time or the desire to drink an entire pot of coffee. Even 4-cup coffee makers are too much for those busy mornings when you’re doing everything on the fly. People everywhere are finding that the 1-cup machines provide an excellent alternative for those who just don’t need 4 or 8 cups, and they’re far easier to use than it is to try and make less and guess the proportions in your larger pot. With a single cup coffee maker, you can brew yourself the perfect cup of gourmet coffee is under a minute. How’s that for convenience?
Several different companies have starting producing single cup coffee makers in order to meet the demand. Many of these will be brands you already recognize as being prominent in the small appliance industry for many years. Some of these include Cuisinart, Keurig, Black and Decker, Senseo, and Melitta. You can do a little research online to find information about how well each of these models work and to find one that will fit into your price range. Both the Senseo HD7810 and the Keurig B60 are both given high ratings by most review sites. The Keurig is more solidly built and has the capability of brewing using either pods or ground coffee. However, it is more than double the price of the Senseo machine which most users find to make a fast cup of coffee.
Coffee pods are available to be used specifically with a certain type of single cup coffee makers, but the pods are interchangeable, and coffee companies, such as Folgers, make generic pods for use with any machine. The trouble with coffee pods is that they are expensive (about 25 cents per cup), and some models require that you use 2 pods to get a cup of stronger coffee. There are models, such as the Black and Decker Brew N Go which are designed only to use regular coffee; however, reviewers found it both messy and hard to clean. The best things about the Brew N Go are it’s inexpensive price tag and the fact that it drains into a thermal coffee mug making it convenient for those on the go.
