Coffee Pods and Machines: Are They Really Worth It?

We're coffee snobs around here. My husband and I have been known to drive fifteen miles out of our way on road trips to find a good cup of coffee; gasoline station coffee just won't cut it. Even in a snow storm on I-80 a few years ago we bypassed the Mobil station on the interstate and instead wandered off course to find a coffee shop where we could get our good drinks.

With our coffee snobbery firmly in place, we decided to try a coffee pod machine at home. In the end we tried two single serving coffee machines--The Senseo single service machine, and the Mellita One coffee pod coffee maker, and have settled down into coffee bliss with one, while the other found its way to my mother-in-law's home.

I found the Mellita One machine on sale at Target last year, for $9.99, and was able to buy a large box of clearanced One coffee pods on Amazon.com for an outrageously cheap price. The Melitta One was fairly complicated, and the pods--even those made by Mellita--never quite fit easily into the pod holder. When you use a coffee pod machine, you're making one cup of coffee at a time, and the machine is designed to quickly heat the water (which you pour into a holding tank, just like a regular coffee maker) and push it through the coffee pod, to brew a fresh cup each time. No coffee filters, no mess--just a perfect cup of coffee, one serving at a time, with a pod you throw away in the end.

The quality of the Mellita coffee was average; we weren't impressed. However, my mother-in-law, a woman in her 60s who isn't afflicted by coffee snobbery, loved the coffee and the machine, and readily took it when we acquired our Senseo coffee pod machine.

The Senseo machine is much easier to use than the Mellita One, and the best part: each cup of coffee has a layer of crema, or foam, on top. It's like getting an espresso but without the bitterness. Amazon.com sells Senseo coffee pods for $1-$2 less per bag than at the grocery store. Using Amazon.com, I spend about $3.75 for 18 pods, or $.21 per cup of coffee. Coffee pods can be found for about $.25 each atmost grocery stores. Some single serve coffee machine owners prefer to use plastic "make your own pod" devices that allow you to put your own coffee into a device that you fit into the pod machine. The Senseo allows you to make one or two cups of coffee at a time through the use of shallow or deep inserts that pods are inserted into; this flexibility means you can make a larger cup, or a more intense cup of coffee, for those who prefer their brew stronger.

While that's certainly more than buying a cheap store brand of coffee and brewing it in a traditional coffee maker, the ease of the Senseo, the lack of waste, and the quality of the coffee makes it worthwhile. Senseo coffee is slightly above average, and the pods tend to be the least expensive brand. We treated ourself to Aloha Coffee's pods, for sale on Amazon.com. Their Kona blend cost $.90 per pod, and was worth every penny. If you would normally spend $1.50 or more for a good cup of regular coffee in a coffee shop, the pods are a bargain. On the other hand, the Senseo pods are a good workhorse brand: they get the caffeine in you and are reasonably pleasant to drink.

Senseo has offered some interesting promotional deals recently. Last summer consumers could get a $20 American Express gift card when they purchased the $50 machine. Go into your favorite search engine and do a search for "Senseo promotion" to see more recent offers.

In the end, the Senseo is worth it, while the Mellita One works well for my mother-in-law.