November 21, 2004

Review: Home Café Cappuccino Pods

Review from Single Serve Coffee.com - Coffee Pod Reviews

When Home Café launched earlier this year, we did a review on the machine and thought the overall quality of the Black & Decker version might be offset with the “specialty pod holder” and what pods would work in it might forgive the lack of quality of the machine. Well - read on to see whether this feature redeems the machine and the coffee you can currently buy for it.

The Home Cafe Specialty Pods

The Home Café Specialty Pod holder does in fact fit the newly released cappuccino pods from Folgers. The pods are nearly 4 times the size as a typical 62mm pod, and contain quite a few more calories as well. Each Cappuccino pod is 170 calories per cup and 9 grams of fat. So - if you are on a diet - you might want to stick with black coffee, but in its defense, this isn't a whole lot of calories for a 7oz cup of coffee with cream and sugar.

Our Impressions of the Cappuccino Pod Coffee Drink

For our review - we are currently not using the Black & Decker Home Cafe, but we are using the new Mr. Coffee Home Cafe (detailed review to follow of the Mr. Coffee Home Cafe this week). I don't think this makes a bit of difference, but it's nice to call out. Right? ;-)

You brew of cup of this new Capuccino Pod Coffee using the Specialty Pod Holder and one of these new giant pods. The process is the same as brewing a regular cup of Home Cafe coffee.

Fill the reservoir
Place the creamy pod (they call them creamy pods) in the Specialtyty Pod holder
Close the lid and place a mug under the spout (note on the Mr. Coffee Machine - make sure and have the extra base installed so your mug is higher to reach the spout)
Press the 7oz brew button.

After brewing the cappuccino - we didn't add anything. We simply passed the drink around and all took sips. My first reaction - it's very sweet - and a bit watery. The flavor was on the “it seems like it tastes like fake cappuccino would taste”. My wife (who loves a latte or cappuccino) said, “It's very fake - and sweet. It's not awful. Maybe if you like Folgers you'd love this.”

I think the thing that's missing is any bite of espresso or coffee taste along with the sweetness. That being said, it wasn't awful - just not great. Since you get 8 pods per bag, at 16 pods per order - roughly costing $14 bucks with shipping - that's about a little less than a buck per drink. So on the price per drink quotient - it's not that expensive, but it's also nothing great either compared to a coffee shop cappuccino.

We are going to get some perspective from some other people who have purchased the Home Cafe in the next few weeks. But our first reaction at Single Serve was - B-.

Where to Get the Cappuccino Pods

Update:We can't find the Cappuccino pods anywhere online. You can order the Home Cafe Pods Folgers French Vanilla 16ct (Buy 5 get 1 Free) coffee pods though.

Cappuccino Conclusions

Though we aren't a big fan of the cappuccino pods, we do look forward to trying the other Specialty drinks this Specialty Pod holder will have to offer. The cappuccino drink is a great start for the Home Cafe, and we are sure that the coffees and specialty coffees will continue to get even better as they roll out more choices and offerings.