Café Invento Single Serve Coffee Pod Brewer Arrives for Review
After more than a year of waiting we finally have our little single serve coffee hands on the Cafe Invento Single Serve Coffee Pod Brewer. The Cafe Invento is now available in Canada, and we believe you can ship it o the US as well. You can make one or two delicious cups of coffee with a crema like layer, and the machine does this by using a Multiple podholders, for one or two coffee- or teapods. It has a large removable watertank, for approx. 10 cups of coffee.
The Café Invento Single Serve Coffee Pod Maker also features the Tasteselector, allowing you to select your personal coffee taste - be it light, medium, or darker cups of coffee. Best of all - it has an auto-shut off that powers the machine down after approx. 2 hours. Very green.
The really interesting thing about this new unique coffee pod maker - it features a unique material to make cleaning it up a breeze called Protact. Protact has a synthetic layer which is easy to clean and leaves no fingerprints. Developed by Corus, the synthetic layers have a smooth and silky finish. Inventum is the first in the world to use this material in a product or single serve coffee maker.
Black Mountain Gold Costa Rican Gourmet Coffee Pods
We've been using our Bunn My Cafe lately to brew up this really yummy cup of Costa Rican Coffee. The coffee is both balanced and clean with rich notes of citrus and berry like flavors. We also get a faint chocolate aftertaste, but mostly the berry notes are pretty powerful. Black Mountain Gold was recently purchased by the Rogers Gourmet Coffee family, so we're really excited that the Black Mountain Gold brand of coffee pods will continue to grow and expand.
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January 7, 2009
Review: Emeril's Vanilla Bean BAM! K-Cups for Keurig
Distributed by Timothy's World Coffees, Emeril's Vanilla Bean BAM! is one of 2 new Emeril's K-Cup flavors recently introduced to the single serve coffee market (we'll be reviewing Emeril's Organic French Quarter Roast in the coming weeks). Known mostly for his cooking shows on the Food Network and various food products available at most grocery stores, the coffee scene is a relatively new one for Emeril and his goal was to introduce a coffee which stood out among the rest as having a richer, heartier taste & character. This new vanilla flavor marks the first time he's gone with a medium roast vs. his usually darker varieties.
We chose the 5.25oz brew size on our Keurig one cup coffee maker to extract the full flavors, and were greeted with a strong French vanilla scent which seemed stronger than any other vanilla K-Cup we'd tried before. As a result, we were expecting a stronger vanilla flavor from this smaller brew size but were surprised at how subdued & mild it was. The sweet taste of vanilla was present but was struggling to balance the sour nature of the acidity. We thought there would have been more "BAM!" (so to speak) in the flavoring overall and it left us wanting to throw in a few dashes of vanilla extract. We understand some people will likely prefer less flavorings in their coffee, but when a product is marketed as "having enough BAM! for Emeril himself", the final result is rather disappointing.
Sick of trying to remember all those little things each morning over coffee? Try leaving yourself a note on these mugs. The mugs are available with four color tops - yellow, blue, red or green. They come with 3 sticks of chalk, so you won't have to steal any pieces from your kids. These mugs are hand wash only, but we expect the price of communication on your coffee cup is worth it.
We've been using the Keurig Milk Frother over the past two weeks, and have to say it's easy to use, clean up, and makes great frothed milk. You'll need only one essential ingredient - great skim milk for frothing. If you want to use other milk fat levels - you won't get great froth, but you will get whipped hot milk. There are two levels as well 150 ml for froth using skim milk, and 250 ml for hot milk. Both of these measure levels are marked inside the frother.
December 2008 Monthly Round-Up for Single Serve Coffee - Happy New Year!
December was another amazing month of holidays, eating, and drinking mugs full of single serve coffee. We want to wish everyone an amazing and Happy New Year for 2009. Thanks again for being such loyal readers, and we'll see you in the New Year.
We also want to remind you we're giving away a month of coffee right here at Single Serve Coffee. Don't fret - it's not going to be ground coffee, but it will be whatever single serve coffee you desire. If you win we'll send you a gift certificate from Amazon.com valued at $50 to buy whatever single serve coffee you want, or you can put it towards that second one cup machine you've been wanting.
We also want to welcome all of the new owners of single serve coffee makers received over the holidays. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to win, follow us on Twitter, and also sign up and participate in the Single Serve Coffee Forums.
Looking for a great way to showcase all of those K-Cup flavors you have for your Keurig singles serve coffee maker? We have been using the Keurig Tower K-Cup Holder for over a month, and we love it. Instead of reaching into the cupboard for a K-Cup we can load up the tower with as many varieties of K-Cup coffees, teas, and even white or hot chocolate. We've found this to be a much better design than the earlier K-Cup Carousel because the footprint of the tower is much less. The lazy susan design is also really fluid, and the tower can hold up to 30 K-Cups.
Win a Month of Free Coffee from Single Serve Coffee
That's right - we're giving away a month of coffee right here at Single Serve Coffee. Don't fret - it's not going to be ground coffee, but it will be whatever single serve coffee you desire. If you win we'll send you a gift certificate from Amazon.com valued at $50 to buy whatever single serve coffee you want, or you can put it towards that second one cup machine you've been wanting.
How do you win? Simply sign up for the Single Serve Coffee newsletter by using the form below, or by following this link. We'll be drawing the winner randomly from the mailing list on January 15, 2009. If you're name is on the list - you just might win!
We also want to welcome all of the new owners of single serve coffee makers who received one (or two) over the holidays. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to win, follow us on Twitter, and also sign up and participate in the Single Serve Coffee Forums.
We'll be back next week, but until then you'll just have to read our reviews and older news - and of course do it while enjoying a cup of amazing single serve coffee. When we return we'll have reviews of the new entry level Keurig Office Brewer, Keurig Frother, and a new exciting single serve coffee pod machine.
But right now we want to thank to all our dedicated readers for your support and your trust during an exciting 2008. And a special thanks to all of our advertisers over this past year - without them we wouldn't be able to bring you Single Serve Coffee each day.
Have a great holiday everyone and raise your coffee cups, and remember how fortunate you are to be drinking coffee. :-)
Last Minute Gift Idea: Aerobie Aeropress Single Serve Coffee and Espresso Maker
Looking for a last minute gift idea? Try the Aeropress from Aerobie (read our entire review here). The Aeropress is a perfect gift at $24 for just about any coffee drinker. Best of all it allows any coffee drinker to understand how perfect one cup of coffee can be. How does it work? The Aeropress really is an entirely new way to make coffee. Yes, you could compare it to a french press but you would be wrong. Because of an almost giant syringe like coffee gadget you build air pressure by pushing espresso ground coffee through the chamber with a filter paper on the bottom of the Aeropress. Though a french press has this plunger like action the amount of pressure you build up in the Aeropress and extraction is much much higher.
You can push as fast or as slow as you want and creating different strengths of coffee, but Aeropress recommends letting the coffee mix in the main chamber for about 20 seconds, and then a slow push of 30 seconds or so to make your coffee. We also recommend keeping the water temperature in the 174-182 degrees F range. The coffee will come out without any bitter aftertaste provided you keep the temperature in that range.
We love our Aeropress, and use it more than any other single serve coffee maker to sample our friend's micro batches of coffee. We think you might also just want to pick one up for yourself, and get into the science of the perfect shot or cup of single serve coffee.
Competition grade? Yep. Finally you will be able to challenge your Single Serve Coffee friends to a cappuccino competition. These espresso and cappuccino cups are dishwasher-safe ceramic coffee chalices made free of lead and cadmium glazes. They're also triple fired so that they’re extra durable. They are available in eight vibrant colors, accented in platinum, and hand signed. Additionally, these coffee mugs are the preferred choice of over 30 professional baristi for their regional, national, and international competitions.
Otto Chrome Espresso Maker - Shiny Single Serve Coffee
We love our single serve coffee and espresso, but we like it even more when it comes out of something very shiny. OTTO is a Stove Top Espresso Maker (and very shiny), combining classic Italian style with the standard stovetop functionality. OTTO is made almost completely of stainless steel promising a lifetime of satisfaction from this modern international design classic. OTTO comes with an OTTO tamper, the OTTO experience DVD providing a barista training session, two Italian designed latte glasses and a stainless milk jug, packaged in a robust premium travel case.
We recommend watching the video, because it contains some actually interesting facts about the OTTO. We really like how easy it is to stack up and add the water and espresso. Also - the milk frother seems to actually work well given it's a stovetop espresso maker. OTTO also reminds us of the Atomic Stovetop espresso and single serve coffee maker. We're not sure if OTTO is based on the Atomic design, but it sure does look like it.
Review: Mastro Lorenzo Espresso T-Discs for Tassimo
Mastro Lorenzo embraces the Italian culture where fine espressos and crema coffees were born and are part of daily life. Unfortunately, a quick search on their French website did not yield any further information regarding the company's history. We've tried a few of their different T-Disc varieties over the past several months and have found that their aroma and flavor always seem superior to their competitors. Such is the case once again with their espresso T-Disc.
From the moment you first start brewing your first cup, you'll notice the intense scent of fine Italian espresso will soon fill the room. Close your eyes and you might think you're sitting at café instead of your kitchen. Give the cup a light swirl and let the nose develop… you'll smell the initial burst of acidic bitterness but you'll also notice slight notes of chocolate hiding underneath. Not surprising, these hints of chocolate are also present in the taste and the acid lends an almost citrus-like quality. Kraft describes this coffee as being 100% pure Arabica, but we can't help but wonder if they mixed-in a few Robusta beans without telling anyone.
Social Media Twitter Single Serve Coffee Mug - Follow Us and We'll Follow You
This mug allows you to print the profile pictures of the Twitter friends you follow across it's surface. It also makes a great gift at only $14.
If you didn't know Single Serve Coffee has a twitter account, and we post our news and views there daily as well. We challenge you tofollow us, and we'll print out a mug for everyone here at the Single Serve Coffee after we follow you.
Green Mountain Coffee Virtual Factory Tour - Making K-Cups
Jim Evans over at CoffeeWhiz.com found this factory tour of Green Mountain Coffee over at YouTube. We have visited and seen these coffee machines in actions ourselves, and can say it's quite a single serve coffee show. Mid way through the video there's a really cool little showing coffee being put into K-Cups.
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Café Invento Single Serve Coffee Pod Brewer Arrives for Review
Continue reading: 
December was another amazing month of holidays, eating, and drinking mugs full of single serve coffee. We want to wish everyone an amazing and Happy New Year for 2009. Thanks again for being such loyal readers, and we'll see you in the New Year.
We'll be back next week, but until then you'll just have to read our reviews and older news - and of course do it while enjoying a cup of amazing single serve coffee. When we return we'll have reviews of the new entry level Keurig Office Brewer, Keurig Frother, and a new exciting single serve coffee pod machine.
Looking for a last minute gift idea? Try the 
Review: Emeril's Vanilla Bean BAM! K-Cups for Keurig
