MetaChat - Do you love your pod coffee maker?

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20 December 2005

Do you love your pod coffee maker? →[More:]

I want to get one but I guess that the pods of different brands of coffee are not interchangable, because that would be too easy and convenient, right? Can I make my own pods? What do you think of this one, which got a lot of good reviews at Amazon? Which coffee tastes the best?

post by: iconomy at: 14:04 | 25 comments

I heard a while back that these things were sort of generically crappy. They may have advanced the technology, though.

Aren't you supposed to be drinking tea? :)

posted by selfnoise 20 December | 14:12

Hehe. It's a Christmas present for my husband.

I haven't had a cup of coffee in 4 years!

posted by iconomy 20 December | 14:24

<coffeesnob>French press coffee tastes best.</coffeesnob>

And, pods lead to more free time, which is idleness and thus makes you an instrument of the devil!

Honestly? I dunno.

posted by bonehead 20 December | 14:25

I had a coffee from a Kenko-pod machine which was actually rather good. Better than Starbucks imho, but not a patch on a cup from somehwere decent.

I think you can refill the pods with whatever you want with a bit of screwing about.

posted by flopsy 20 December | 14:30

I remember reading somewhere that there's a way to make your own coffee pods to save money.

posted by SassHat 20 December | 14:35

Does the kenko-pod machine play obscure 70's avant-garde rock?

posted by matildaben 20 December | 14:38

I didn't know what a pod coffee maker was before now.

posted by puke & cry 20 December | 14:38

Medium-roast 100% arabica is generally regarded as the 'best' coffee. Something like this.

A dark-roast robusta blend is like a punch in the face. If that's what you're after. And sometimes it is.

posted by flopsy 20 December | 14:50

Hmmm a French press. That's actually a very good idea...a 2/3 cup french press is the perfect solution. You're not such a bonehead after all, bonehead! I stopped drinking coffee because I gave up dairy, and I just can't drink coffee without milk. So I broadened my love affair with tea, and while my husband has tea with me sometimes, I know he misses his coffee, because he goes out to the local convenience store on Saturdays and Sundays and buys a cup of crappy crap. He's too lazy to make a pot of coffee just for himself, and we have a junky coffee maker anyway. I know he'd love to make himself a cup of good joe on the weekends. Now I'm thinking French press is the way to go.

posted by iconomy 20 December | 14:51

avant-garde rock?

avant-garde rock is a contradiction in terms.

as for coffee, dosen't anyone just drink instant anymore. people today are so fucking crafty, everything's gotta be fresh and homemade. You'll drink your instant, eat your TV dinners and aerosol cheese and you'll like it, dammit!

/buzzed & crabby

posted by jonmc 20 December | 14:55

coffee with milk? sacrilege!

posted by flopsy 20 December | 14:58

I do love mine, indecently.

They are easier than their rep too. No more fuss than a regular basket drip machine. Grounds conveniently wash down the sink. Don't believe the hype---I've not plugged a sink drain in decades.

posted by bonehead 20 December | 15:00

Instant==deforested rainforest by souless coporates.

Gourmet==pooped-out by organic goats on scenic hillsides.

posted by bonehead 20 December | 15:03

whatever. that kinda bullshit is what allows fucking starbucks to charge $97 for a thimbleful of coffe served to you by some distracted art student with a flower tatooed on her ankle (because she's a unique free spirit) when she'd much rather be writing bad poetry in a blank book with a sunflower on the cover.

Have I mentioned that I hate humanity. But I love people. Really.

posted by jonmc 20 December | 15:09

Grumble. Grr. Snarl.

posted by jonmc 20 December | 15:17

Actually, I was wrong. It's weasel-poop.

posted by bonehead 20 December | 15:25

Also, Mr. mc, as I'm sure you know, the One True Coffee is diner coffee, or around my neck of the woods, Timmy's.

posted by bonehead 20 December | 15:26

Jon, brewed coffee usually tastes better than instant. Capisca, compagno?

posted by iconomy 20 December | 15:28

coffee served by a distracted art student with a flower on her ankle? i think it's sweet. anyway, quality not quantity.

instant==instant
gourmet==gourmet (pre-ground, but still not bad)

posted by flopsy 20 December | 15:30

Yeah, but since my kidney woes began, I've been liniting my caffeine intake to a morning cuppa. In that context coffee is just a caffeine delivery system, so taste is largely irrelevant. And I'm too fucking lazy to bother with all that crafty-assed shit.

and here's a reprint of an old rant about coffee from back in the day:

Now that I've had a few more cups of java, I can rant/rave about it a little more. My hometown , the Gritty Park City , is one of the few American cities of any size that is blessedly Starbucks-free. This is probably good for all involved. I can picture the scene: "Um, gimme one o' dem lah-tay jobs...and a bag of Salt & Vinegar chips and a pack of Newports while you're at it.." not a good match. This dosen't mean we don't like the occasional cappucino or espresso; We'll just pop into one of the local Italian bakeries, like Luigi's over on Main Street and get a cup of some espresso that'll have you chasing cars after 2 cups.

But for the full Starbucks java cult experience, you have to make the trip to the tony 'burbs like Westport or Newtown, where some ad-executives daughter with an ankle tattoo of a daisy and clunky shoes from the "bohoware" collection at Macy's will pour you a thimbleful of overheated joe for seven bucks, although from her expression, it's painfully obvious that she'd rather be writing bad depressive poetry in her filigreed leather notebook. This is not to mention the fact that the whole Starbucks phenomenon has given an entire generation a very warped vision of what coffee is. When I worked at the bookstore we had a coffee bar and my buddies in the barrista corps had to deal with a dozen daily baby-faced 13-year-olds ordering a "skinny half-caf raspberry latte with extra froth." Jeepers creepers, kids, howzabout trying your first cuppa freeze dried Taster's Choice first, hah?

And then there's the local Dunkin' Donuts. Cheerfully resigned working stiffs taking on jeroboams of work fuel, wandering booze casualties trying to caffeine-bomb the fog out of their heads, and on the odd weekday evening, the local AA chapter earnstly sharing post-meeting secrets over a mindboggling quantity of coffee, donuts, and nicotine. All the fine products of course are dished out by a gimlet-eyed, cheap-jewelery-bedecked service industry lifer in a polyester visor who honestly dosen't care whether you live die or shoot laserbeams out your ass. All a very refreshing slice of reality pie. On the minus side, if I took out a hardback book and started reading, they'd probably look at me funny. On the plus, I could cuss, fart, or even vomit and nobody would notice, let alone care.

This Dunkin'/Starbucks dichotomy is a nice illustration of the cultural no-mans-land I find myself in sometimes. If I ever move to another town, it'll have to have good record and book stores, microbrews and poetry readings for my artsy-fartsy boho side and minor league sports, malt liquor, bikers, muscle cars and waterslides for the mook within. So far Portland, ME(when I visited), and Minneapolis and Austin( both by reputation) seem to fit the bill. If you know of any others tell me.

posted by jonmc 20 December | 15:35

I don't know about you, but sometimes I enjoy the act or ritual of preparing something just as much, if not more, than I like consuming it. Making coffee or tea is like that.

posted by iconomy 20 December | 16:57

OK. You prepare it, I'll consume it.

I'd like a sandwich.

posted by jonmc 20 December | 17:00

I too am a coffee snob. I love the idea of french press coffee, and I won't drink coffee if it isn't bracingly strong. However, I just can't get behind coffee I have to choose. Thus, the french press is out for me.

posted by mudpuppie 20 December | 17:22

I remember reading somewhere that there's a way to make your own coffee pods to save money.

Here

There's also lots of reviews on pod coffee machines here

I make my coffee cup-by-cup using a Swissgold filter. I've been using the same one for over four years, and it's still good as new.

posted by essexjan 20 December | 17:36

Thanks essexjan!

posted by iconomy 20 December | 18:49

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