Quick, Hot & Delish!

Mmmmm…. Coffee….

While I am not as big of a coffee drinker as I used to be, when I have a cup I want it to be bold with flavor. One of the things that I have found with at home coffee machines, even those of very high quality and expense, is that they often lack consistency. I have tried many many machines and until recently the most consistent cup came from my old fashioned French Press.

In comes the Senseo…. It looked so inviting in the ADs that I just had to have one! So I jumped onboard, and am soooo glad that I did!

The Senseo is a coffee pod system, which means that I have to either purchase of make my own coffee pods in order to have a cup of coffee. The pods enclose the grounds, which allows the Senseo machine to use a high pressure system to force hot water quickly through the pod to capture all of the coffee goodness that I want in my cup. Senseo also ends the brewing process with a nice topping of coffee froth to give my coffee that Italian Cappuccino look.

What I like most about my Senseo is that every time I make a cup with the same type of coffee it tastes the same! If I put in a dark roast pod today and make a cup and it tastes great, 5 months from now I will expect and receive that same great taste from a dark roast pod (my favorite, by the way!).

My second favorite thing is the convenience. I fill the back chamber with filtered water, drop it in the slot, pop up the top and insert a pod or two, latch it down press the front button for the water to heat, wait for the light to stop blinking, hit the 2 cup symbol (a European cup is 4 oz so this selection will give me an 8 oz cup) and within a few second I have a hot steaming cup of delish! How simple is that!

Since after the first use there is always water inside the pot, the next heat up is almost instant, so another person can come by remove my used pods, throw in a different flavor or maybe a tea pod and make a cup for themselves in seconds… just like that! No fuss.

To do a simple cleaning, I just toss the pods, rinse the pod holder and spout - both easily removed and just drop back in - and do a quick wipe of the metal plate where the water comes out as there may be some coffee or tea oils. That’s it! Soooo easy! Every 6 months there is a process of doing a longer cleaning that is really easy and entails running vinegar and then water through the system to flush it out. No disassembly is required.

Since I use my own cups to capture the coffee from the machine, there is no pot to clean. Since the coffee is not made inside the machine, there isn’t anything to give the coffee an off taste.

Since the first time I used my Senseo I have been in love with it. I highly recommend this coffee machine to both small and large families. For those with larger families, you may want to invest in the larger water tank to put on the back as the one that comes with the standard machine has to be refilled after every 18 oz of coffee made - 4 European cups worth.

Gotta go make myself a cup right now... Mmmmm.... coffee...