Posted December 8, 2005
Pod coffeemakers—which use pre-measured, pre-packaged coffee pods to automate coffeemaking—have been a hot holiday gift category the last couple of years. Now Braun, the venerable maker of old-school coffeemakers, has upped the ante with the new Tassimo Hot Beverage System. This baby uses patented T-Discs (glorified pods) that let you instantly switch between making single cups of regular coffee, decaf, cappuccino, latte, or hot chocolates with virtually no preparation or clean-up. The cool thing is that each T-Disc has a little bar code on it, which the unit reads to know exactly how much water to use, how hot to heat it, and how long to brew it. T-Discs come in multi-packs and are available from multiple brands (Gevalia Signature Blend, Twinings Earl Grey, etc.) and are generally way cheaper (e.g., $6.79 for an 18-pack of Kenco Classic Blend) than coffee shop cuppas. You probably don’t want to give this thing to a hardcore coffee snob, but if you know any impatient under-caffeinated people…
$170 at J&R Music and Computer World, 15 Park Row, near Ann St., 212-238-9000; jr.com.