Great Coffee Pods (and Tassimo T-Discs, too!)

Yet another installment of coffee pods by the brand, as opposed to type, as was the last post.  Anyway.  Millstone Coffee Pods are the subject today.  Currently the gourmet coffee pods in the J.M. Smucker Family, you can expect these to be at least superior to Folgers Coffee Pods.  This is because Folgers is also owned by the J.M. Smucker Company.  Of course, it wasn’t always this way…

Before Millstone Coffee Pods, the Millstone Coffee Company made their business shipping whole coffee beans to supermarkets.  This was a fairly new idea, one that Millstone pioneered in 1981 when it was first started in Everett, Washington.  The Millstone name has seen quite a number of owners, though, considering its relative youth.  Proctor and Gamble purchased the majority of the company in 1996.  In 2008, they spun both the Millstone and the Folgers name off into its own company, named The Folgers Coffee Company.  Later that same year, The J.M. Smucker Company merged with The Folgers Coffee Company.  One can assume that there was probably some sort of tax manipulation there since companies of this size rarely move that quickly for much of anything.

Luckily for the Millstone label, The J.M. Smucker Company sees Millstone Coffee Pods as their premier coffee, so quality has not suffered.

When shopping for Millstone Coffee Pods, be aware that there is relatively little variety within the label.  There are only 32 different flavors, including decaf coffee pods, so, if you’re looking for something unique, you might need to look elsewhere.  They do not make teas or ESE coffee pods.  However, if you’re looking for the best version of the tried and true blends, then Millstone Coffee Pods just might be what you’re looking for.

Since they sport the Home Cafe Coffee Pods name, you can bet that they’ll fit just about any pod coffee maker that takes regular coffee pods.  They’re often compared, quite favorably, to Senseo coffee pods as they apparently fit quite well in those machines, too.  Even the Keurig crowd uses Millstone Coffee Pods with pod adapters.  You’d be hard pressed to find a significant number of people that don’t like the flavor of Millstone Coffee Pods, too.

Can’t find Millstone Coffee Pods in your local grocery store?  That’s not surprising.  Since the same company owns Folgers, they’re pretty selective about where they place Millstone.  After all, what’s the point in competing with yourself?  Still, it’s fairly easy to find Millstone Coffee Pods online, and the coffee pod was practically made for shipping.

If you’ve stumbled up on ESE coffee pods without knowing what they are, chances are pretty good you were looking for espresso coffee pods.  They’re one in the same.  The only way to make espresso using a pod coffee maker is using ESE coffee pods.  They can also be used in espresso machines with special adapters.

Some purists may argue that espresso made using ESE coffee pods is not real espresso, but that’s just not the case.  Espresso is really a way of brewing the coffee.  It has precious little to do with the coffee grinds themselves.  In fact, there are products out there, intended for use in coffee pod machines, that are not ESE but are still labeled espresso.  Those are the ones to watch out for because they are basically nothing more than a slightly stronger brew of coffee.

Be aware that your particular coffee pod machine may or may not be able to use ESE coffee pods.  Some of the espresso coffee pods will tell you on their packaging which machines they do and don’t work with but, past that, you’re sort of on your own in figuring that out.  You might want to do some research on your particular pod coffee maker to be sure that it will work with whichever ESE coffee pods you’re considering.  If you find any espresso coffee pods that do not work with any pod coffee makers, but are not labeled as such, feel free to comment back here so that others know to not bother.

In a cruel twist of irony, those who have espresso machines can almost universally use ESE coffee pods.  All they need is an adapter.  The problem with your average coffee pod brewer is that, regardless of the coffee pod or how it’s mounted, there simply isn’t enough water pressure, which is vital in the making of espresso.

There is currently no way to make espresso with Tassimo T-Discs or a K-Cup brewer.  There are some brews that are labeled as espresso, but they won’t give you the thick consistency, although I’m sure the Tassimo T-Discs will do a pretty good job with the crema.  The crema, if you didn’t know, is the frothy stuff that sits on top of espresso.

Of the various coffee pod producers I have reviewed so far, few of them produce ESE coffee pods.  For instance, there are no ESE Melitta Coffee Pods, nor are there ESE Green Mountain Coffee Pods.  In fact, the vast majority of ESE Coffee Pods are produced by companies that seem to focus solely on single-serve espresso.

Want a great American financial success story?  Look no further than Green Mountain Coffees.  This company started out in the 80s as a tiny cafe is rural Vermont who ground and roasted their own coffee and ended up being the driving force behind K-Cups, one of the most popular variants of coffee pods.  Unfortunately, Green Mountain Coffee Pods are actually Green Mountain K-Cups, but there are quite a few people out there that consider coffee pods and K-Cups similar enough to be called the same thing.

Have you tried Green Mountain Coffees, and are hellbent on making Green Mountain Coffee Pods?  Well, you could always make your own coffee pods.  There’s various guides all over the net on how to do it, although the basic idea is to get a small filter, wrap some loose coffee in it, and stuff it in a pod coffee maker.  As Green Mountain actually purchased Keurig, the maker of K-Cups and K-Cup machines, a few years ago, it’s safe to say that making your own is the only way you’re likely to get Green Mountain Coffee Pods.

Green Mountain is mostly famous for their enormous variety of specialty coffees.  Their “Our Blend”, which is their version of a house blend, could be the best coffee in the universe, but they still never would’ve made it out of Vermont without the specialty coffee niche.  Not with the likes of Folgers and other coffee leviathans out there.  If you check out some reviews, though, it’s pretty surprising just how well pretty much all of Green Mountain’s 100+ coffee varieties rate.