Single Serve Capsule Reviews

(As brewed in a Juan Valdez Pod Coffee Maker in a Juan Valdez 55mm pod at a cup volume of 5 ounces): Shallow, sweet, smoky aroma, with some peach-toned fruit and a hint of cardboard. In the cup simple and bittersweet with a possibility of reading the bitter side as walnut. The cardboard tones hinted in the aroma turn disturbingly old-board woody.

(Tasted as produced by the Melitta One:One single-serve brewing device using a Melitta 44mm pod at a cup volume of 8 ounces): Soft, shallow aroma with vanilla- and peach-toned fruit notes. In the cup this coffee landed on the palate like a liquid brick: bitter, hard and monotoned. Some sweetness and vague suggestions of vanilla and caramel were quite overwhelmed by bitterness in the cup and a soapy astringency in the finish.

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Subdued aroma, with dry fruit (cherry?) and fresh leather notes. In the cup shallow in sensation but crisply balanced, with suggestions of Meyer lemon, white wine, tart cherry edging toward chocolate. Thin but pleasantly sweet, cherry-toned finish.

(As brewed in a Bunn My Cafe MCP single-serve brewing device using a 62mm pod at a cup volume of 5 ounces): Distinct sweet cocoa notes in the aroma, along with hints of low-acid fruit, cherry perhaps. In the cup richly acidy, lean-bodied but rich, with continued sweet cocoa and tart cherry notes with a shimmer of vanilla. Rich, tart but not overly astringent finish. The same pod brewed in the Krups 1010 at a cup volume of 6 ounces scored an 85 with a basically similar profile and description.

(As tasted in a Krups 1010 single-serve brewing device using a 62mm diameter "Home Cafe" pod at a cup volume of 7.5 ounces): Sweetly acidy, winey, high-toned aroma, with some rounding caramel and vanilla notes. In the cup surprisingly full-bodied, sweetly balanced, complicated by wine (more rose than cabernet), vanilla, floral notes. Cleanly sweet, cherry-toned finish. (In the Black & Decker One Cup Coffee Maker and Mr. Coffee AT13, lower-priced single-serve machines taking similar-sized pods, the same Folgers 100% Colombia pod attracted a rating of 81. In the Bunn My Cafe, a machine designed to take multiple sizes of pod, the same pod scored 82.)

(As brewed in a Senseo single-serve brewing device in a Podhead Sensation 62mm pod at a cup volume of 5 ounces): Sweet, round, fairly deep aroma with hunts of chocolate and cherry. In the cup the chocolate and tart cherry notes grow more distinct, complicating a rather rich, sweetly balanced cup and carrying into the clean, round finish.

(Tasted as produced by a Braun Tassimo Single Serve Coffee Maker brewing a Tassimo T-Disc at a cup volume determined by the coding on the capsule, in this case 3.5 ounces): Simple, sweetly smoky aroma, with some depth of sensation and floral and fruit hints. As would be expected given the short serving size, full-bodied in the cup, with a fermented musty fruit that reads as walnut and bitterish semi-sweet chocolate. Cardboardy undertones, perhaps owing to staling. Simple but surprisingly clean short finish, with some mild astringency in the long.

(As brewed in a Bunn My Cafe single-serve brewing device using a 62mm pod at a cup volume of 5 ounces): Lovely aroma: balanced, delicately sweet, floral, with orange-toned citrus notes. Radically simplifies in the cup: turns ordinary, sweetly shallow, gently acidy, lean-bodied. The orange notes resurface in the thin but cleanly refreshing finish. (Same pod as brewed in the Krups 1010 at a cup volume of 6 ounces: Watery, shallow, delicately sweet acidity, remote suggestions of caramel and fruit, basically underextracted. Rating 79.)

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Sweet, round aroma complicated by cherry-toned fruit notes. Rather rich in the cup, with decent body and sweet, wine-toned acidity but little else in the way of nuance. Clean, round short finish, slight bitterness in the long.

(As brewed in a Melitta One:One single-serve brewing device in a Podhead Arabica Express brand 44mm pod at a cup volume of 5 ounces): Subdued, faintly rich aroma, with wine and walnut notes and regrettable hints of cardboard. In the cup medium bodied with a roundly acidy, wine-like character and a touch of lush sweetness, though the cardboard still lurks. Rich in the short finish, mildly astringent in the long.

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 7.25 ounces): Distinct vanilla and caramel aroma with a hint of sweetly acidy fruit, orange perhaps. In the cup light in body and delicate in mouthfeel, soft and simple in flavor with dilute hints of caramel and orange. Moderately rich in the short finish, very slightly astringent in the long.

Thin but intense aroma, with distinct papaya-toned fruit. Medium-bodied but lively in the cup, where the high-toned fruit, still reminiscent of papaya, takes on a delicate chocolate richness. Sweet, balanced acidity.

The authoritative aroma is dominated by low-toned fruit: apricot or papaya. In the cup the fruit brightens, lifts and intensifies, suggesting a tartly sweet temperate fruit like green apples. Light-to-medium-bodied but roundly smooth in mouthfeel; sweetly acidy.

Sweet, low-key, expansive aroma. In the cup rich and cleanly roasty, with an agreeable bittersweet balance complicated by fresh leather, chocolate and a shimmer of sweet grapefruit. The grapefruit persists in the rich but astringent finish.

Balanced, low-toned aroma with a tickle of fruit and chocolate. Maintains its character in the cup: low-toned, understated, balanced, complicated by a faintly chocolate-inclining prune and apricot.

The aroma is round and intense but limited in nuance. The cup adds a complicating hint of chocolate-toned fruit to a similarly limited but balanced and deeply resonant profile.

Smoky, leathery and sweet in the aroma, with a hint of low-toned fruit. Softens and relaxes in the cup, with the smoky fruit sweetening toward chocolate. Lean in mouthfeel but rich in impression.

A coffee seen from the far end of the taste telescope, intriguing but shrunk and diminished. The aroma is lushly sweet with a hint of grapefruit. The cup is sweet as well, but complicated only by an agreeable but simple acidity. Once past the aroma little nuance of any kind. Slightly astringent in the finish.

Virtually no aroma. The cup is potatoey and flat on first impression, but with patient drinking a quietly satisfying profile emerges, with a balance of bitter, sweet, and acidy tones complicated by a low-key fruit that sneaks up on milk chocolate.

The aroma is delicate to a fault, more neutral than balanced. The mouthfeel is lean and the flavor watery, with a faintly sweet, delicately acidy character complicated by attractive grapefruit notes.