Single Serve Espresso Maker Lingo – A Primer on K-Cups, Pods, and T Discs

We’ve all read the joke about how really hard it can be to purchase espresso currently. Between several other connoisseur coffee outlets, potentially Starbucks is most (in)renowned for offering us phrases like “venti,” “cappuccino,” and “macchiato.” For those who enjoy coffee tradition, its varied and specialised jargon is part of its appeal. For people who basically want a sizzling cup of joe to wake up in the morning, sometimes the past matter they will need is to find out a new language.

Irrespective of whether you’re a self-proclaimed espresso connoisseur or an old-fashioned, just-give-me-a-cup-of-coffee kind of particular person, a single of the quickest and least difficult means to get terrific coffee at residence is the single provide coffee maker. But, like any other coffee accoutrement, you have to master the lingo in purchase to make an educated choice about which process is best for you. As it so transpires, this article is about exactly that. The first thing you have to choose is if you want to go handbook or electrical. This article concerns electric powered solitary provide espresso makers an write-up quickly to observe will describe guide coffee makers.

Electric powered solitary serve espresso makers come largely in 3 varieties, according to the brewing and filtering programs they use. Keurig and Tassimo make up two types because they each and every have their own special brewing process, even though a broad selection of brand names, this kind of as Senseo, Cuisinart, and Black & Decker, use common-sized coffee “pods.”

Pods – Solitary Provide Pod Machines

Pod equipment use little disks of coffee prepackaged in their possess filter-paper. To brew, you slip a pod into the device and press a button. The most important advantage of the pod equipment is the selection of espresso offered. Because the pod is typical, lots of unique corporations can give their espresso in pod sort, from perfectly-recognized names these as Lavazza or Millstone to more recent entries these types of as Senseo’s Douwe Egberts pods. In addition, you can buy your personal pod-maker, these as the Excellent Pod, which allows you pick out any model of espresso and make your own ready-to-use pod.

K-Cups – Keurig Solitary Serve Coffee Makers

Keurig, from the Dutch for “excellence,” takes advantage of a distinctive filtration product or service named a K-cup. A K-cup is a self-contained unit that you position specifically in your Keurig espresso maker. The machine punctures the K-cup and sprays warm water above the grounds, which drips as a result of a miniature filter and into your cup in about a moment. Numerous companies, these kinds of as Caribou Coffee, Timothy’s, Espresso Folks, Tully’s, and Gloria Jean’s, present their personal K-cups, so you actually have a great collection of high-quality coffees that are conveniently out there on-line. But the really cool matter about K-cups is that, given that they are self-contained, you can switch beverages with out acquiring to clean the device. That signifies you can buy Twinings or Bigelow tea K-cups, as well as Ghirardelli hot cocoa K-cups.

T Discs – Tassimo Single Serve Espresso Makers

Tassimo devices, like Keurig, use their individual, self-contained filtration termed a T Disc. T Discs are very similar to K-cups but they insert a hello-tech component: a bar code on each and every T disc tells the device precisely how to make your beverage, be it espresso, espresso, sizzling cocoa, or tea – that is water temp, brewing time, and quantity, all with the press of a solitary button, one particular correct immediately after the other. Brands earning T Discs contain Starbucks, Seattle’s Most effective, Maxwell House, Gevalia, Carte Noire, Tazo, and Twinings.

A Notice on Espresso Devices

Just one last observe: technically, an espresso machine could qualify as a single serve coffee maker, because it generally generates one particular or two shots of espresso per brew cycle. The most important distinction in between most espresso equipment and what have a tendency to be classed as solitary serve espresso makers is that espresso devices use free grounds which you evaluate and tamp your self, while the one provide machines all count on pre-packaged grounds. In addition, solitary serve espresso makers such as the Keurig or Tassimo equipment have the added gain of earning more than just espresso or espresso, so with them you can you should all your friends, whatsoever their satisfaction.

So, there you go – armed with these basic phrases you might be prepared to sound good when you speak one provide espresso makers.