Review: Creative Pods Coffee Pod Sampler Pack

We've recently been introduced to an amazing coffee pod from Creative Pods. The mission at Creative Pods is to provide their customers with the finest possible quality and variety in single serve coffee and tea pods, and a major component of this effort is the quality of the raw materials (coffee, tea, mate, etc) and the fact that they grind to order. Coupled with this goal is their pledge to use eco-friendly/organic materials whenever possible and to clearly identify any necessary deviations from this policy.

Creative Pods is a small cottage business formed by two people (Carol and Tom Maziarz) that love coffee, tea and mate as well as traveling and meeting interesting people that grow or drink these hot beverages. Creative Pods has developed equipment and methods that allow them to package to order. This means processing very small (sometimes less than ¼ pound) batches that would be impossible with commercially available equipment.

“None of our pods are prepared ahead and stored. We want to ensure that our customers experience the same wonderful aroma and taste that they can receive from their local barista.”

Creative Pods has 5 main components to their philosophy of coffee pod creation for amazing single serve coffee:

1. Pods are custom made for each machine based on individual grind and quantity of coffee for each machine.
2. Highest quality coffee for the price.
3. Freshness is the key
4. Eco-friendly - unbleached cardboard boxes, work with native growers - foils are their only departure from "eco-friendly" and they plan to give customers a choice
5. innovation - tea pods, mushroom pods, mate

How do they stack up in the Creative Pods sampler pack? How good are their pods compared to shelf stored coffee pods for Senseo or Krups Home Cafe?

For this review we focused on brewing up the super fresh Hawaiian Kona for Senseo. We received a duplicate set made for the Krups Home Cafe and will have our impressions of the coffee for it soon. Since each set of coffee pods from Creative Pods is made to order for your particular single serve coffee machine. You can order custom coffee pods for your Senseo, Bunn My Cafe, Melitta One:One, Grindmaster, and Krups Home Cafe single serve coffee pod brewers along with a few others as well.

The packaging for the Creative Pods is well done and made out of biodegradable cardboard box along with the foil being very minimal. What we would like to say is - ordering these coffee pods means ordering them and using them right away. With the use of such materials, the coffee pods are not going to with stand weeks of non-use. That being said, you can smell the rich coffee flavor and aroma upon upon opening a coffee pod.

We opened the Hawaiian Kona for Senseo and the nose was there right away. A little earthy and a little kona - one of our favorites. We fired up the Senseo and looked over the instructions for brewing a cup. Since we have moved on from the standard Senseo and have a Senseo Supreme, we dialed up the required 6 oz setting, pre-moisted our coffee pod in the single cup holder, and pushed the brew button.

The aroma from the brewing coffee was noticeably better than the standard Senseo coffee pods, and right away the dark color could be seen in the Bodum Pavina Double Walled coffee cup. We then took a sip right after brewing - WOW. This is good coffee. We don't think the Senseo Supreme has brewed up such a yummy cup of coffee since we've had it. The Hawaiian Kona for Senseo is rich and interesting and super fresh.

So how does all of this stack up against the five Creative Pod components for coffee pod success?

1. Pods are custom made for each machine based on individual grind and quantity of coffee for each machine.
Yep - dead on the pods worked great. They weigh in at 9.1 grams and fit perfectly.
2. Highest quality coffee for the price.
They are a bit expensive. At $0.59per pod this isn't cheap but it's very good coffee - based on 8.99+2.99 shipping and 20 pods per box
3. Freshness is the key
They are super fresh and super yummy so far.
4. Eco-friendly - unbleached cardboard boxes, work with native growers - foils are their only departure from "eco-friendly" and they plan to give customers a choice
We'll give this a big check
5. innovation - tea pods, mushroom pods, mate
We love the handcrafted but we are reviewing mushroom pods or mate pods right now. So no go.

So in the end for the Hawaiian Kona for Senseo - part of the sampler pack of coffee pods from Creative Pods - we have to say - big thumbs up. These are very fresh, very yummy coffee pods and we're excited to try all of the rest of the flavors in the box including Yemen Mocha and others.

More at Creative Pods

Read More in: Coffee Pod Reviews | Coffee Pods

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