Do espresso pods work in my Senseo or other single serve coffee pod brewers?

Coffeepod
Note: This is a real coffee pod. About 62 mm wide and 7-14 grams in weight depending on the coffee pod creator.

We get this question at least 3-4 times a week from readers looking for more coffee pod variety for their single serve coffee pod brewer and the answer is - no. Espresso pods will not work in single serve coffee pod brewers like the Senseo, Bunn My Cafe, Melitta One:One, simplehuman, Krups Home Cafe, and other single serve coffee pod makers .

Espresso pods are typically much smaller and much harder packed with a much finer grind. Single serve coffee pods typically are 55-62 mm in diameter and come in sizes from 7-14 grams. One quick and easy way to tell a coffee pod from an espresso pod? Espresso pods usually have a tab on the side to help remove the pod from the espresso machine.

Coffee Pod Espresso

Why such a variety of shapes and sizes for single serve coffee pods? There really is no standard for coffee pods unlike some espresso pods. One variety of espresso pods that is a standard is the E.S.E. variety. What does E.S.E. stand for? Easy Serving Espresso. This is the gold standard for espresso pods, and any espresso machine like the Francis Francis from Illy - which is E.S.E. certified - these espresso pods will work the best. If you really want to learn more about espresso pods visit our sister site: SingleServeEspresso.com.

Now back to coffee pods. How do you know what coffee pods work in your single serve coffee brewer?

Just about all of them with some success. Baronet, Cool Beans Pods, Molto Coffee Pods, Folgers Coffee Pods, Senseo Coffee pods, and others are come in a variety of shapes and sizes and the majority of single serve brewers also come with single and double coffee pod holders to use with the larger or smaller pod holder.

Single serve coffee machines with double and single pod holders:

Senseo Standard Edition
Senseo Deluxe Edition
Senseo Supreme Edition
Grindmaster coffee pod brewers
Home Cafe coffee pod brewers
Bunn My Cafe (even though the Bunn has 1 holder it can be used as a double coffee pod holder)

Some single serve coffee machines like the simplehuman coffee pod brewer or the Krups coffee pod brewer only have coffee pod holder. These machines though can usually take up to a 10 gram coffee pod.

How do you find out what size and gram weight coffee pods are? Well - you can look on the web site your ordering from or you can simply email the store and ask. Another good way is to visit the SingleServeCoffeeForums.com community and get the low down. One of the best charts we know of is at CafePods. They have a full listing of espresso and single serve coffee makers and what espresso and coffee pods work with what machines.

Here's a run down of typically coffee pod sizes:

Senseo Coffee Pods: 7 gram coffee pods - 62 mm
Baronet Coffee Pods: 9-14 gram coffee pod - 62 mm
Melitta One:One Universal Coffee Pods: 8-9 grams - 55-62 mm

The list could go on forever. There are over 400+ varieties of coffee pods out there in different shapes and sizes that work in your will work in your Senseo, Bunn My Cafe, Melitta One:One, simplehuman, Krups Home Cafe, and other single serve coffee pod makers, so finding the right ones isn't that hard if you use a few of the tidbits above and if you ask around and read up on the coffee pods you're buying.

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Posted by Jay Brewer at February 9, 2007 10:05 AM

In point of fact, Starbucks ESE pods will work in a Melitta 1:1, but I do not advocate or endorse doing it. Here's why.... When I first bought my Melitta, I saw Starbucks ESE pods. Asking the clerk 'Will these work in my Melitta 1:1 single serving machine'? The answer I got was 'probably, but you can bring them back if they don't'. So I bought a package, took them home, popped one in and proceeded to brew a watery cup of garbage. Hmmm, thinks I, the water is flowing around the pod. So I open up 2 pods and JAM them into the podholder and close the lid with the utmost of force. And hit brew. within seconds a thin stream of pure black gold started pouring out. And kept coming and so on until I had a counter top flood. But by this time, I had put a measuring cup below the Melitta and was able to drink the horribly bitter cup I'd made. So it does work. Sorta. And please don't do this because you will break your machine. Tom
Posted by: Thomas Davie at February 9, 2007 4:09 PM