Senseo Coffee Pods
What Are Your Options?
Douwe Egberts coffee pods
The standard Senseo coffee pods come from Douwe Egberts. There are many different flavors available:
- The standard roasts: Mild Roast, Medium Roast, Dark Roast
- Decaffeinated (this is a decaffeinated version of medium roast)
- Speciality Blends: Sumatra Blend, Brazil Blend, Kenya Blend, Colombia Blend - these single origin blends are a bit more expensive, but well worth the money
- Flavored coffees: Paris: French Vanilla, Killarney: Irish Creamery, Vienna: Hazelnut Waltz
- Cappuccino
- Barista Blends: Caramel Macchiato, Vanilla Latte and Café Mocha
- Espresso (it does not really produce an espresso, but it makes a nice intense cup of coffee)
Third party coffee pods for Senseo
If Douwe Egberts Senseo coffee pods are not to your taste, there are many third party coffee pods that can be used with your Senseo coffee machine.
I recommend that you try some of the pods made by Aloha Island Coffee. They have some 100% pure Kona coffee pods and when you use them in your Senseo you get a really delicious cup of coffee.
You may also try the coffee pods from Gourmet Cafe. They have many different roasts (French Roast, Sumatra Mandheling, Kona Blend, Estate Costa Rican and Colombian Supremo are just a few to try). They are pretty good value for money. You can get them from Amazon for around $6 for 14 pods and each pod makes full 8oz mug of coffee (the Douwe Egberts Senseo pods only make 4oz each).
If you are into flavored coffee then JavaPodz has a very good selection (they have a lot of unflavored coffees too). How does "Almond Amaretto", "Chocolate Cappuccino " or "Mocha Cinnamon Swirl" sound like?
Some other brands to consider are Caféjo, JavaOne, Timothy's, Black Mountain Gold, Baronet, Eldorado, Fratello, Molto, Reunion Island.
Tea pods
There are also many tea pods available. Pickwick (belonging to the same company as Douwe Egberts) has a large selection of tea pods, but unfortunately most of them are available only in Europe. Solera has quite a few different tea pods for both traditional teas and herb teas. JavaPodz also makes several pods for tea.
Now here is a tip: you can actually use ordinary round tea bags to make tea with Senseo. It saves you quite a bit of money and the difference in taste is not that much.
Using your own coffee
If you want to use your own coffee, you have several options. There are refillable filters that allow you to use ground coffee:- Coffeeduck permanent refillable filter is your best bet if you have the original Senseo (Model 7810). It is very easy to use and to clean and most users are very happy with it. However, it does not work with other Senseo models like Deluxe or Supreme.
- Ecopad refillable filter is widely used. The drawback is that it can be a bit messy to use.
- There is also Presto refillable pod holder that is worth considering.
