Senseo® Single Serve Coffeemaker

My new, red Senseo single-serve coffeemaker is the sexiest small appliance I now own. I’m sorry, little Shop-Vac; I thought you were sexy before. I still love you, but now you’re just… cute. (Handy, and cute.)

But the Senseo is seriously hot! It makes something I love - coffee - almost faster than you can say it, and much more efficiently (and fun) than the old drip-drip-dripper.

Are my coffee choices limited?

I’ve admired these in Target for quite a while, but something silly bothered me about them, and I never did any research to disprove what I assumed: that you can only use Senseo coffee with Senseo coffeemakers. Now I know better; it’s not true!

I’m not a coffee elitist -probably not even a true connoisseur. But the idea of being restricted to one brand or one type of coffee really put me off. Furthermore, I had a coffeemaker, so I couldn’t see a reason to buy another one, especially when money is tight (stay-at-home mom and all.)

A few weeks ago, I found myself with a broken coffeemaker and, thus, the need to replace it. Remembering my admiration of the Senseo, I finally did a little digging and was 1) pleasantly surprised to learn that the Senseo coffeemakers are not brand-proprietary when it comes to coffee, and 2) overjoyed to find a huge selection of compatible coffee pods. In fact, I quickly learned that there is a whole online world devoted to single-serve coffee (SSC) in general. It was easy to find retailers, reviews and lovers of single-serve coffee and everything that it entails.

Home and ready to brew!

Freshly informed and with my product selection made, I trotted off to Target with fingers crossed that I’d find a Senseo of the red persuasion, and there was one (and only one.) It came with a package of Senseo coffee pods, and I grabbed a package of their cappuccino as well.

Setup was easy - as per the instructions, I ran the machine through a cycle with water only… then it was time for the first cup. I filled the water reservoir to the appropriate line and placed a coffee pod in the podholder. (The Senseo comes with two podholders. More on that later.) I turned on the machine to heat the water, which took all of about oh… 45 seconds or so. Then I hit the brew button, and probably 20 or 30 seconds later, my hot, fresh, coffee with lovely frothy top was ready for consumption. And how did it taste?

Tell me about the COFFEE!

Well, let’s just say I was happy to know that there was more coffee available out there. I tried the cappuccino too and was not impressed with it, either. I really wanted to like it, especially since the Senseo brand of coffee is so readily available at places I visit regularly - like Target, Wal-Mart, and my local grocery stores. I’m sorry, Senseo, but I just do not like your coffee.

So I returned to several of the sites within the virtual SSC world and promptly placed an order for various other types and brands of coffee pods. Having now tried about 10 other coffees, I am happy to say that I have a few favorites and am more than happy with my Senseo coffeemaker. Knowing what to put in it makes all the difference! See below for some tasty links.

About the Senseo

The Senseo coffeemaker comes with two podholders, one for 1-cup, and one for 2-cup cups. It seems weird to say “cup cups”, and I suppose that doesn’t make much sense. You see, there are two brew settings on the machine, for 4oz. and for 8oz. You may be thinking to yourself, who drinks a 4oz. cup of coffee? I wondered that too. But I soon found out that many of my coffee mugs hold only 4-5 oz., so I guess it’s not such an odd thing.

I’m such a geek that I’ve kept a little journal to record thoughts on all the different coffee pods I’m trying. Some are better at the 4oz. setting, while others I can’t imagine drinking brewed at 4oz., as they’d be ridiculously strong. I’m still a newb at this, so I guess it’s either an issue of me not knowing which brew setting I’m “supposed” to use, or it’s a simply a matter of personal taste. I choose to accept the latter.

Besides the podholders, instructions and free coffee pods, that’s all that comes with the coffeemaker, and it’s all you need. I’ve seen some bundled gift sets online, and there may be more around the holidays.

The Bottom Line

Would I buy it again? You bet. Would I recommend you buying one? You bet! Here are my thoughts on the Senseo coffeemaker, in a nutshell (what, you didn’t want to read all the babble above?!):

Pros

• Brew a single cup of coffee, not a whole pot
• Get your coffee FAST
• Did I mention it’s sexy?
• Parts are easy to remove and dishwasher-safe
• Auto shutoff after 1 hour
• Makes a GREAT cup of coffee with a frothy top
• Buy one and get a free, $20 AMEX gift card from Senseo!
• Sooooo easy to use
• Clean! Easily-removed drip tray catches any excess (so far no excess for me)
• Comes in 4 colors: red, blue, white, or black
• Brews TEA pods too!
• Never buy filters again
• No messy coffee grounds to clean up

Cons

• The water reservoir doesn’t hold much - it’s not an issue for me, but if you drink coffee continuously all day, it may be annoying. You can buy a larger, replacement tank to solve this problem. (Also of note: the new Senseo detailed below comes with a large, 32oz. tank!)
• If you are set on using a biggo tall coffee mug or travel mug, it may not fit under the spout on the Senseo.
• Some of the coffee pods may seem expensive if you’re used to buying big cans of the cheap stuff.
• Starbucks does not make coffee pods (they do have an espresso pod)

Possible upgrade?

Now that I have and love my Senseo, I see that there is a new model coming out that’s available for preorder at Amazon (review coming soon from SingleServeCoffee.com.!) The Supreme model has a metallic chrome finish (squee!), 32oz. water tank (!), multiple volume selection via digital thingy on top (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 10oz.), and an adjustable spout for taller cups. It’s a bit pricier than the original (mine was $59 at Target), but with the new features, it just may be worth it. If you order it at Amazon in October, you can take advantage of a $25 discount, PLUS, you get the free $20 AMEX gift card from Senseo… so 45 bucks saved is not too shabby!
Check it out at Amazon:
Senseo HD7832 Supreme Single Serve Coffee Machine, Metallic Chrome

• Details on Amazon’s Kitchen & Housewares October promotion
• Details on the $20 AMEX gift card offer from Senseo

Related links & single-serve coffee resources

Single-serve coffeemakers by Senseo

• Senseo - black
• Senseo - white
• Senseo - red (gift pack)
• Senseo - blue
• Senseo extra-large water tank

Other single-serve coffeemakers

• Flavia J10NBK Fusion Drinks Station, Red
• Flavia J10NBK Fusion Drinks Station, Blue
• Flavia Fusion(tm) Drink Station Black
• Melitta MES2B OneOne Single Serve Coffeemaker, Black
  
• Keurig B-40 Elite Gourmet Single Cup Brewing System
• Keurig B-60 Special Edition Gourmet Single Cup Brewing System
• Braun Tassimo TA 1400 Hot Beverage System
• Bunn MCP My Cafe Professional-Grade Single-Serve Coffee/Tea Machine
• Krups KP1010 Home Cafe Single Serve Coffee Machine

Where to buy coffee pods

• Aloha Island Coffee 22 Varieties 14g pods avail.
• American Coffee Services 47 Varieties Sells: Baronet, JavaOne, Melitta FREE Samples
• Baronet Coffee 26 Varieties FREE Samples
• Better Coffee RECOMMENDED!!! 95 Varieties Sells: 52nd Street, Aloha Island, Black Mountain Gold, Cafe Gourmet, Cafejo, Eldorado, JavaOne, Reunion Island, Timothy’s Sampler Available FREE Samples Single’s Available
• Black Mountain Gold 7 Varieties
• Coffee Cow 9 Varieties Sells: JavaOne
• CoffeeForLess 38 Varieties Sells: Folgers, Green Mountain, Melitta, Millstone, Timothy’s, Wolfgang Puck
• Coffee Giant 40 Varieties Sells: Green Mountain, JavaOne, JavaPods, Melitta, Folgers & Millstone FREE Samples
• Coffee & Tea Warehouse 13 Varieties Sells: CafeJo FREE Samples
• Coffee Warehouse USA 24 Varieties Sells: Douwe Egberts, Folgers, JavaOne, Millstone
• CoffeeWhiz 104 Varieties Sells: Baronet, Black Mountain Gold, Eight O’Clock, Gevalia, Green Mountain, Mellita, Reunion Island, Timothy’s, Wolfgang Puck Sampler Available 12g pods avail. Single’s Available
• Community Coffee 4 Varieties
• Cool Beans Pods 20 Varieties Sampler Available FREE Samples
• Creative Pods 13 Varieties
• CV Coffee 28 Varieties Sells: 52nd Street, Reunion Island, Wolfgang Puck
• EspressoZone 3 Varieties Sells: Aloha Island
• Gevalia 8 Varieties
• JavaOne 11 Varieties
• JavaPodz 13 Varieties Sampler Available FREE Samples
• Juan Valdez 4 Varieties
• Melitta 6 Varieties (Make sure you get the larger universal size) FREE Samples
• Molto Coffee 7 Varieties FREE Samples
• PODhead 24 Varieties Sampler Available FREE Samples with order Single’s Available
• Pod Pack International 8 Varieties
• Premium Pods 15 Varieties Sells: CafeJo FREE Samples
• Preva Cafe 1 Variety
• Timothy’s 6 Varieties

International

• Ambassador Coffee (Canada) 8 Varieties Sells: Reunion Island
• EasyPods (UK) 17 Varieties
• Gourvita (Germany) 14 Varieties
• Playfair Coffee Distributing (Canada) 16 Varieties Sells: Higgins & Burke, Mother Parkers Sampler Available FREE Samples with order
• Timothy’s (Canada) 6 Varieties
• Typical Dutch Stuff (Netherlands) 48 Varieties FREE Samples
• Van Houtte (Canada) 8 Varieties

And last but not least, available from your grocer

• Archer Farms (Target)
• Senseo/Douwe Egberts 12 Varieties
• Espressione (Target) 3 Varieties
• Folgers/Millstone 11 Varieties
• Maxwell House 4 Varieties
• Molto Pods at Crate & Barrel Online and B&M 4 Varieties
• Yuban 3 Varieties

SSC Websites

• SingleServeCoffee.com The Mecca of SSC news, reviews, and resources
• SingleServeEspresso Like the above for espresso-drinkers
• Coffee Review All about SSC from Coffee Review
• Epicurian.com Thoughts on several SSC machines, though the Senseo is strangely absent

Accessories and other stuff

• Typical Dutch Stuff has these cool Senseo cups, pod storage, coffee sets, and lots more.
• Presto 09401 MyPod refillable replacement pod/holder with this gadget, you can apparently use any coffee you want with the Senseo coffeemaker. I dunno. I wonder about whether or not coffee grounds would sneak out of it, and right now I’m happy with my pods.
• Brabantia 362149 Stainless & Clear Coffee Pod Canister Small ialso available w/red or blue top)
• Brabantia 371622 Stainless and Clear Coffee Pod Canister Large (also availabe w/red or blue top)
• Brabantia 371424 Matte Stainless Coffee Pod Waste Bin