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.

There’s a lot of buzz lately (get it?  Coffee?  Buzz?  Come on, you at least grinned, right?) about coffee pods.  They’re not exactly brand new, but they seem to just now be getting their comeuppance in the public light, and lots of people are discovering that it just makes more sense for them to make their coffee one cup at a time.  Most of the queries on the web seem to be centered around certain brands of coffee pods, though, so I figured I would give a (very) quick overview of what’s available, and where to buy.  In this post, I’ll do the top two.  Check back often, though, because as I get to the more obscure brands, you just might find something new!

Senseo Coffee Pods

Senseo coffee pods are made exclusively for the Senseo coffee pod machine.  This gives Senseo the ability to make their pods, as well as their machines, to work extremely well with each other by not having to worry about other brands of makers and pods.  They seem to be the most popular coffee pods by a rather large margin.

Melitta Coffee Pods (Often misspelled as Melita Coffee Pods)

Melitta coffee pods come in right behind Senseo in popularity, and also have the distinction of not tripping my spell check.  Apparently Melitta is an English word, but Senseo is not.  Anyway, Melitta coffee pods are like Senseo in that they make their own coffee pod brewers and pods, but they don’t claim to be exclusive to one another.

Senseo coffee pods are the way to go if you want the best possible results from your Senseo pod coffee maker. Although there are many suppliers of coffee pods that will fit the Senseo pod coffee maker, the blends themselves are quite different and will not necessarily give you the same consistency and quality with each cup. Senseo coffee pods are made by Senseo, for their coffee pod machine. They don’t make any other type of coffee pod or any other type of pod coffee maker, so you can be sure that Senseo has the best methods of making their own coffee pods.

The packaging of Senseo coffee pods are made in a special way to ensure quality and freshness with every cup. Why bother with coffee pods at all if you’re not going to do everything you can to be sure you get the best cup of coffee every time? Their packaging, which is made of plastic along with a very thin layer of aluminum, provides an excellent barrier against oxygen. This keeps your Senseo coffee pods fresh, as oxygen will have the coffee grounds themselves stale before the coffee pod ever makes it to your pod coffee maker, resulting in an inferior cup of coffee. But this is only one of the many differences between Senseo coffee pods and the others that will fit your pod coffee maker.

To remove the oxygen from the coffee pods before they are completely sealed, Senseo packs them under nitrogen to remove the oxygen. This process occurs in a protective atmosphere, so that the experts at Senseo can be sure that no contaminants enter the process. This packing technique is the result of much technology and research, and is yet another example of how Senseo coffee pods should be the only thing you put in your pod coffee maker. Nitrogen, by the way, is completely safe to humans as it is a major component in the air we breathe every day.

In case you get the urge for something sweet, there are even Senseo coffee pods which come in chocolate flavors so that you can use your pod coffee maker for something other than your daily buzz. Senseo Vienna, Godiva Chocolate Crème and Café Noir are the three that Senseo currently offers on their website, but future releases are always a possibility.

Since folks at Senseo have created their pod coffee brewer specifically for the Senseo coffee pods, wouldn’t that be the only right way to go?   If you have a Senseo coffee pod machine, it just makes sense to use Senseo pods.