Re: Coffee and Tea Capsules
Like the OP here I have stayed clear of coffee "pod" machines.
Their convenience is unmatched in being able to make a quick and "proper" cup of coffee. The problem is however, that it ties you into to one or more brands of pods and then your are tied in to the inferior and questionable coffee in those pods.
It's a clever trick they pulled off really. They took something that is universal and available in nature and manged to create a proprietary product out of it, just like Apple makes proprietary cables for all its devices so they can sting you every time.
Coffee is different for everyone I guess but anyone who is serious about coffee and wants a proper cup, wouldn't touch a pod machine.
When you buy quality coffee you look for 2 dates on the packet. One is the usual Best Before date but the more important is the "Roasted On" date. Without that latter date you have no idea how old that coffee is, when it was roasted. Pods in particular seldom have this (unless they've chnaged this recently). Really you have no idea at all how fresh that coffee is and how long those pods have been sitting on a shelf.
You are being charged a highly inflated price for inferior coffee and that business model is predicated on the total convenience of a pod machine. Each to their own I guess.
I realise of course that you can buy your own empty pods and fill them with your own coffee but the reuslts can be hit and miss and pods can leak creatign a mess etc. Having to faff filling your own pods really takes away a lot of the convenience of a pod machine.
In the end they are not for me. If I were really passionate I would buy a proper coffee machine but they are hugely expensive and require a reasonably amount of training to use.
I'm still happy to buy at a decent coffee shop and have the ambience of watching the world go by and using the WiFi.