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Ok, I'm about to sound like a paid advertisement, but here it goes. I've got the high end model of the Keurig single cup coffeemaker. The coffee "pods" that work in it come from a variety of companies. I buy my pods on-line and can pick and choose the brands I want. There is Timothy's, Green Mountain Roasters, Gloria Jean's coffee beans, and many other brands to pick from. You can also get tea pods to use in the machine. Green teas, black teas, flavored teas, herbal teas, you name it, they have it. The coffee pods are airtight little self-filters, so to speak. The coffee I have purchased so far has not ever been "stale". Nor the tea. They taste great. Now, I've run into a couple of flavors that I didn't like the taste of, so I duly note it and don't purchase those flavors anymore. The machine makes about 8-9 cups of coffee/tea before it needs to be refilled w/water, that boils up in about 10 minutes and the machine is ready to go again.

I had Thanksgiving at my condo this year, and there were 9 in attendance to eat the bird. It was so nice to not have to prepare the coffee ahead of time, and pour it into multiple carafes, have to toss the grinds and clean the pots out. I just tossed a pile of pods (both coffee and tea, and both decaf and regular) into a basket, passed it around, and had everyone choose their own pod. They had a lot of fun going through the various flavors (I had a bunch of different ones) and picking out their favorites. I popped the pod in, pushed a button and out came a fresh cup of coffee. They queued up and I did them one by one, sending them happily off w/the likes of Southern Pecan, Columbian Decaf, Cappucino, French Roast, Blueberry Lemon Tea, Earl Grey tea, Hazelnut coffee, Dark Roast, etc. etc. And even more fun, when they wanted another cup of coffee, they got to choose something new and different the second time around.

No cleanup involved, just toss the used pod, and plunk in a new one. It pops a small pinpoint hole into the pod, both top and bottom and then serves as it's own filter as the water runs through the pod. There is no mixing of flavor tastes, as no part of the machine is left with residue of either coffee or tea on it, so when switching between coffee and tea, never the twain meets. I love my machine, my guests seemed to get off on it bigtime, and it sure was a lot less work.

The Keurig machine, while more expensive, has the best and most amount of pods from good companies to choose from. They've come out with a cheaper version machine than mine was (the new one is somewhere over $100 as opposed to the over $200 I paid, when they first came out). Moral of the story is I should have waited a bit longer, as the new and cheaper version is a good one and gives you a choice of sizes of cups of coffee (large or less large), whereas mine only makes one size cup. It doesn't bother me at all, but a choice of cup sizes might be more attractive to many.

There, did I talk you all into it yet? Did my sales rap make inroads? I hope so. I'm an advocate for this kind of machine. It was great at a party, and it's great for me in particular at home, as I am single. I get to choose from a gourmet variety of coffees (and teas) and it's like having a coffee shop in my home. And, as I live in the frigid tundra of Chicagoland, that's a good thing as I don't have to truck through a pile of snow to get to my specialty coffees. Finis, for now.....