Review: Kienna Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer

The Sun Cafe single cup pod brewer makes coffee one cup at a time, and its patented pod drawer works with a wide variety of pods, allowing you to choose your favorite coffee or tea. Innovative extraction system brings out the full range of the coffee or tea for a perfectly balanced cup, and the brewer comes with a variety pack of Kienna Coffee pods.

We've said before in other articles on the Sun Cafe coffee pod brewer that the look and design is the same as the Simplehuman coffee pod brewer - well they do look the same, the coffee extraction and updates make this a totally new brewer that makes an excellent cup of coffee.

It's very shiny and very stainless all at the same time.
We love the blue light on the oz indicator.

Feature Set of the Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer

• Stylish LCD display for quick and easy-to-use.
• Brew 5 to 12 ounces of coffee or tea to preferred strength by changing the volume setting. Specifications:
• Voltage: 120V-240V, Frequency: 50/60Hz, Power: 1400W
• Water reservoir capacity: 1.24L (44oz. )
• Boiler capacity: 0.45L (16oz. )
• Brewing temperature: 90Centigrade(198F)
• Brewing volume: Approx. 113-340ml (4-12oz. ) (programmable)
• Pump pressure: 2.5 bar * Product dimensions: 28H x 32Wx22Dcm
• 1 year warranty part and labor

Setting up the brewer was very easy - with priming done in less than 3-4 minutes. Make sure and close the handle on the side or the Sun Cafe coffee pod brewer will not prime without the pod chamber in and the handle in the closed position.

The controls are simple with a button to cycle through the brew sizes, a button for brewing - and of course the power button. Cycle time to heat up the brewer is in the 1-2 minute range, and we used clear pure filtered water for all of our tests of the Sun Cafe Coffee pod brewer.

Making a Cup of Coffee with the Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer

The Sun Cafe coffee pod brewer uses coffee pods in the 61 mm size and as large as 10-12 grams in weight. The Kienna brand coffee pods fit the coffee pod drawer perfectly, so we recommend to start with the Kienna brand coffee pods for the best fit and extraction for this coffee pod brewer. We test with Baronet, Fratello, and some other coffee pods using only one coffee pod and had great success as well.

So what do you do to make a cup of Sun Cafe coffee? Simply pull the pod drawer out, insert the coffee pod, and then insert the coffee pod drawer - and then put a cup under the spouts (yes there are two - so you can make two smaller cups of coffee at one time in the 4oz range each if you are using the 8oz setting), and press brew. In less than a minute you'll have a piping hot cup of single serve coffee.

We did test the temperature at the brew head - Kienna claims a brew head temp of 198 F - but we could only get in the 176 F range at the cup. This is to be expected, as the piping hot 198 F water is at the coffee pod layer, and not on the cup layer. The coffee produced is quite hot, but we would like the coffee to be more in the 183-186 F range at the cup.

Of the coffee varieties we tried from Kienna - all were solid performers. We liked the Mission Bridge blend because it had a solid morning cup of coffee feel to it. The Sun Cafe Coffee pod brewer comes with a variety pack, so we think you'll find something within that suits your single serve coffee taste buds.

Video Review Feature of the Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer

Conclusion

Pros

• Easy to set up and use
• Works with a large range of coffee pods as large as 12 grams
• Quick brew time

Cons

• Doesn't allow you to use two 7 gram coffee pods
• We wish we could just put the pod in and not have to push the handle down as well (we're lazy)

We think the Sun Cafe is a welcome addition to the growing world of single serve coffee and coffee pods. We think you'll be very happy when using the Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer each morning, and the price at $129.99 puts it in the mid-range of coffee pod brewer prices which also makes it affordable.

At Sun Cafe Coffee Pod Brewer

Thanks again to Coffee Giant for sending us the Sun Cafe Coffee Pod brewer to review.

Read More in: Reviews | Single Serve Coffee Machines

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