Review: Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe

Review from Single Serve Coffee.com - Coffee Pod Reviews 1163187665458 Flavia- Web-1

The new Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe has a slew of improvements over the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station we reviewed earlier last year. We've been testing the machine over the past few weeks and unlike other one cup coffee makers we've reviewed recently, it's managed to stay there for the entire time and have quite a bit of Flavia coffee run through it.

Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe Features:

Stainless Steel Accents
Separate Hot Water Button
Blue LED Lights
No Cleaning Between Drinks Required
Visible Water Level Indicator
Adjustable cup height
Water filter for purification
Large Capacity Water Tank

What do we think of this new Flavia? How is the Flavia coffee on a revisit? Do the new features make the new price of $169.99 a bit too high or too low?

First Impressions

A well packed box...

First impressions are everything and the stainless steel and charcoal grey color make the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe a much more appealing single serve coffee maker. Upon un-boxing the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe, we were also pleasantly surprised to see better packaging and presentation of the overall machine.

Filter pack for Water Purification

Right away we were struck by how much smaller the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe appeared to be on our countertops versus the older Blue or Red Flavias we tested last year. The stainless steel handle on the water tank was immediately helpful in getting things set up and we decided for this review we would focus on the new dark roast coffees available and not the wide range of drinks the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe can make.

Brewing up Coffee with the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe

A one cup or single serve coffee maker should excel in coffee first and foremost. We thought many of the darker blends in the Flavia's coffee line up were okay, but we longed for a darker roast that would give the coffee maker some legs. The new Intense Dark Roast coffee is quite good and we were glad Flavia provided this coffee to sample with the new Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe.

Water Purification filter goes in the tank...

One thing we noted this time was having to adjust the head of the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe to fit the cup or we got splatter each time the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe made a cup of coffee. The majority of our cups are the same height so this isn't a big issue, but for people with various mug sizes this might become a pain. It's good to note that a full size Travel Mug will fit under the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe brew head.

A Full Size Travel Mug WIll Fit

Brewing coffee happens inside the filter pack much like the Tassimo. Because brewing happens inside the filter pack, there is really no cleaning of the machine or mixing of a tea or coffee for taste. The filter pack basically slides into place as you slide open and slide back the front of the machine. It's easy to insert and when brewing expands to be filled with air or water and then pops open at the bottom. The machine then passes hot water through the filter pack and then finishes with hot air to dry it out and remove the watery mess you might expect. It's really amazing to watch and we love the "pop goes the coffee" or topping or whatever drink you might be making.

New blue LED lights on the different brew cycles and options

Note: Read our Flavia Fusion Review to get a run down of all the different base features each Flavia has...

Flavia Fusion Coffee Thoughts

We are often asked how good we think the coffee is from the Flavia Fusion. We like the darker roasts and just find the lighter roasts to not be that appealing to our palette sans a new Kenyan Dawn we discuss below. We do like many of the chocolate based drinks, and the fact you can make various teas and other hot beverages with the system. If you're looking for a jack of all trades - the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe is for you. If you are solely a coffee drinker, then you may have to look at the Flavia as okay in this department but not stunning.

That being said, the new Intense Dark Roast is quite good and on the Flavia coffee darkness scale of 1 to 7 - it's a seven. We also received a much lighter roast - the new Kenyan Dawn which comes in at brew strength of 2. Surprisingly we found the coffee to be quite good also even though it's a lighter roast.

Conclusions

Pros:

Lots of new improvements
Water Tank Handle is great
Blue LEDs add some pizzaz
New Coffee Roasts are much better than older coffees offered
Color and appeal of maker is improved

Cons:

Given the features the $50 dollar premium is a bit high
Still larger in footprint than other single serve coffee makers

We like the improvements in the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe. We can only hope many of these features make their way into the base models Flavia offers. Besides the stainless steel accents, there's little we wouldn't include in the base models that's found here and this one cup coffee maker makes a solid showing. Like we've said in the past, we think you'll find coffees and hot beverages you like with the large variety the system offers.

The Flavia Fusion Drinks Station Deluxe retails for $169.99 and is currently only available at Bloomingdales. You can however purchase the Flavia Fusion Drinks Station at Amazon.com and other online retailers.

More at myflavia.com

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