Tassimo: An End To The $5 Latte By couldashoulda on Nov 21, 2007 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

The Tassimo machine is a single-cup coffee maker, but it's so much more. Specially-coded "T-Discs" are inserted into the machine, which reads a bar code on the disc and brews your beverage to specific temperatures, frothiness and water levels. So far, the disc selection includes latte, cappuccino, coffee, espresso, hot chocolate, regular tea, chai tea and a few others. I've tried everything exept regular tea.

Operation couldn't be easier. You just need to fill up the water supply every few days or so, stick a mug on the tray, insert a disc and push a button. There are no filters or grinds to worry about, although there are a lot of byproducts. A latte takes two discs, for instance, so you're throwing away two discs every time you have one, not to mention the inner and outer packaging on each 8-pack. This is not an especially environmentally-friendly product, but for me, it's leaving a smaller environmental impact than when I had a major affinity for Starbucks.

My drink of choice was the white chocolate mocha, and while you can't legitimately buy their mocha sauce, I really enjoy Torani sauces (you'll want a sauce, not a syrup for lattes). My perfect latte is a generous squirt of mocha sauce, 2 teaspoons of sugar, a latte disc and an espresso disc. All told, it works out to less than $.75 per latte and is just as good as far as I'm concerned. Even my coffee-averse husband loves this thing and has way too many lattes every day.

Hint: don't buy the discs online. They are much cheaper at Target and Kroger, and I'm sure many other retailers. Latte and cappuccino are about $5 for an 8-pack, regular coffee/tea/hot chocolate is around 3 dollars for an 8-pack.