I signed up for a free coffee maker. (The promotion is over, sorry) Part of the deal is that I share the coffee with friends, and they’ll love it so much they’ll rush out and buy the $70 machine for themselves. Here’s my review. 🙂
First off, I wish they’d have sent me a different color, but beggars can’t be choosers. It’s a pretty cool looking device, and it’s actually fun to use. The water reservoir holds enough water for 2 mugs of water, and it keeps it hot for instant coffee goodness. It’s super easy to use, and is very fast.
Basically, you make sure there’s water in it, and turn it on. In 90 seconds, it’s hot enough to brew a cup of water. It’ll keep the water hot for an hour and a half before auto shutting off. You then put a pod (or two, more on that later) into the filter area, and press the button. 30 seconds later, you have tasty looking, frothy coffee.
There are a few gotchas though. First off, the “pod” of coffee makes a teeny weeny cup of coffee. You know, one of those little dainty looking cups that comes with a set of plates, saucers, etc. No one ever uses those things, but that’s the size cup a pod makes. It’s sad. You can make a full mug of coffee, the size normal people drink, but it takes 2 pods of coffee.
The pods are also rather pricey. They’re not unbearable, but especially with the “takes 2” requirement, it ends up being somewhere around 50 cents for an 8 ounce mug of coffee. For home brew, that’s pretty expensive.
Sadly, the coffee isn’t the best tasting either. It’s not bad, but with it’s coffee-house like appearance, I expected perfection. The froth (crema for you professionals) is really beautiful, and the final product does smell nice. I think it’s just the age of the grind. I don’t really like pre-ground beans anyway, so ground, podded, packaged, and shipped beans have a lot to overcome.
Strength is something that might be a problem for some people. The 2 pods in a mug method makes fairly strong coffee. I really like strong coffee, so it’s actually a perfect brew for me, but most people will need to milk it up, or decide between slightly too strong (2 pods in one mug), or too weak (1 pod in a mug).
The Senseo really excels in convenience, that’s for sure. It’s FAST. It’s cool factor also helps. You feel like you’re brewing a cup of cappuccino, and the crema makes it LOOK like fancy too. (When you taste it, you realize it’s just coffee, but it’s not bad coffee)
My final thoughts? It’s a keeper. It found a home on my coffee counter. It will stay there until I get a fancy espresso maker. And because I’m an honest guy, if you come over, I’ll brew you a cup.
