New coffee brewer: TASSIMO

Guys, I don't know if any of you are coffee junkies, but can't live without it. Hot and black is my favorite, but I also love lattes, cappuccinos, etc. I love it so much that I started up a foodservice division that installs coffee and cappuccino machines as part of my company and for about 2 years I had a big bucks ultra fancy commercial espresso machine in my conference room.

Anyway, yesterday the lovely Mrs_B surprised me with a gift. And it wasn't even an expensive fancy-pants overpriced coffee gadget. A Tassimo Coffee machine. At just over $100 it actually makes a good brew, makes a decent espresso and a good cappuccino or latte and even tea. It brews everything fresh, one cup at a time. And it is real brewing, NOT instant coffee. Unlike the "pod" machines, it will brew a real cappuccino under pressure and even inject steamed (powdered) milk, so they used technology to get past the limits of the "pod" brewing machines. For techno-junkies, it even reads the "bar code" on the coffee packs you put into the machine and sets the machine to inject just the right amount of hot water so an expresso is a perfect 3 ounces, but a traditional cup-o-joe is 11 ounces.

For any other java junkies out there, this is a nice gift for yourself: http://www.tassimodirect.com/Tassimo/discover/the_system.aspx


No, I do not (knowingly) own stock in the company that makes the machine (BRAUN).

Re: New coffee brewer

Bob,
Looks like a nice machine.
A couple questions if I may.
Do I assume correctly that when installed, you need to connect it to a water supply? Is their a reservoir that can be filled instead? I'm thinking of one for my office.
Ballpark, how much are the disks for regular, good-ole fashion Maxwell House coffee?
Oops, I closed the window. Can I use my own mugs or do they come with their own cups/mugs.
How often do you need to clean (if ever) the machine itself?

Thanks
Brian

Re: New coffee brewer

bczoom said:

Bob,
Looks like a nice machine.
A couple questions if I may.
Do I assume correctly that when installed, you need to connect it to a water supply? Is their a reservoir that can be filled instead? I'm thinking of one for my office.
Ballpark, how much are the disks for regular, good-ole fashion Maxwell House coffee?
Oops, I closed the window. Can I use my own mugs or do they come with their own cups/mugs.
How often do you need to clean (if ever) the machine itself?

Thanks
Brian

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Brian, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can:

1. It has a water reservoir as part of the machine, there is no provision to install a water connection. This is clearly a consumer grade appliance. It has a 2 year warrenty.
2. I don't know the prices per cup, but I suspect they are double or triple the cost per cup versus brewing a whole pot. I got this as a gift, and also got about 60 or so of the coffee packs plus a coupon to get 2 more boxes of them free via mail order.
3. You use your own cups. Any regular coffee mug will work. Any regular espresso cup (demitasse size) will work. Most medium tall thermal travel cups will work, but the giant size cups will not work.
4. The machine is essentially self cleaning. The grounds & filter are self contained inside a hard plastic and foil pack, the brewed coffee is expelled through a small nozzle. The grounds & filter never actually come in contact with the machine (because they are contained inside a package). There is a cleaning "puck" that comes with the machine, if you have hard water you'd probably have to clean it once a month, it takes about 1 minute to clean and all you do is inset the cleaning puck and cycle it to brew. If flushes the system, and takes about 1 minute. The only thing is you end up with a half of a cup of hot water that you have to dump after the cleaning cycle.
5. It would be ideal for a personal brewer in your office to provide a few people with fresh brewed coffee, it eliminates the waste of burnt or stale coffee, it is easy to use (I can do it).

Re: New coffee brewer

well Bob i like my coffe black also, this is just to let you know i signed up tonight, but still don't what the heck i am doing

Re: New coffee brewer

frank_f15 said:

well Bob i like my coffe black also, this is just to let you know i signed up tonight, but still don't what the heck i am doing

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Frank, Good to see You here ! I'm also a coffee addict. John

Re: New coffee brewer

Frank, nice to see you here.


As for the coffee black, we are currently drinking a latte with some added chocolate and cinnamon and it is really pretty darn good! And to be honest, the $10,000 Franke SuperAutomatic machine (I used it as a demonstration machine so it was a legitimate business tool) that was in my conference room probably made better espressos, and it could make 600 cups of it a day, but for a bit over $100 for this little Braun unit, makes a darn fine espresso, takes up less counter space, doesn't require 230Volts or a water line, and is easier to clean.

Re: New coffee brewer

frank_f15 said:

well Bob i like my coffe black also, this is just to let you know i signed up tonight, but still don't what the heck i am doing

Click to expand...

Welcome Frank.

Re: New coffee brewer

I thought I would pass on an update.

Wayne from TBN sent me a regular email asking about the TASSIMO machine. He posts under LMTC and mostly posts in the Yanmar forum.

I thought I would clarify some things about TASSIMO. First, I still love this little machine. But it is limited in what it can do. You can NOT use your own coffee, you are limited to the Tassimo plastic pucks that come pre-filled with various blend of coffee. You can adjust the brew to brew weaker or stonger coffee, but that is the limit.

Tassimo will brew:

• Coffee
• Espresso (as well as Cappuccino and Latte drinks that require Espresso)
• Tea
• Hot Chocolate

Tassimo differs from the "Senseo Pod" systems in several ways. The 'pod' systems do not brew tea, hot chocolate or espresso. The 'pod' systems cannot steam milk for cappuccino or espresso.

There is a competitive coffee system called the Kurig K-kup system. It is very similar to the Tassimo system in that it uses a small container that contains a pre-measured dose of coffee and a filter. It is known for making very high quality brew, and it can also brew tea. The Kurig system cannot steam milk for cappuccino and latte drinks.

Tassimo offers something that is very interesting in that it can accept different size plastic pucks, that flexibility allows it to have pre-packed milk, tea, chocolate or coffee.

All 3 types of systems are low mess, high speed systems that are great for making INDIVIDUAL cups of coffee. If you are looking for a system that will make you a single cup of coffee or tea, any of the 3 will do the task. If you want a cappuccino, latte or hot chocolate, Tassimo is the clear choice.

• Senseo is the lowest cost system, all models I have seen are roughly $89 to $99. The coffee pods are also the lowest price of the 3 and the most commonly available.
• Kurig offers several price points from about $100 to almost $200. I've only seen this brand via mail order.
• Tassimo is mid-priced, mine was on sale, but the normal price is about $169 and included 2 boxes of coffee pucks plus an offer for 2 more free boxes via mail order.

MY OPINION is that these machines (all 3 brands) are ideal for that single cup of coffee in the afternoon when you don't want to make a whole pot. They are great for the morning when you/your spouse might want 1 or 2 cups of coffee on the way out the door. They are probably not so good if you drink a lot of coffee cup after cup.

If I am home in the morning I will brew a full pot of coffee on my regular brewer. If I am leaving for work on my normal schedule, I use the Tassimo for a single cup. I find since getting the Tassimo I drink more coffee in the afternoon or evening (decaf) when I otherwise would have had a soda because I didn't want to brew a pot with a traditional machine.

I should point out that I no longer use this machine, after a few months of very heavy use, I found it was blowing coffee grounds into the cup of coffee on too high of a frequency. Also, due to a business aquisition, I received a free coffee brewer from Keurig so I have been testing that machine for the past couple of months. For information on that system, see this thread:

http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?p=52146#post52146