Sunday Fun Day Tassimo Taste Test

A few years ago I went to Paris with my fellow birthday twin Kathleen Ryan to visit my friend Paige Yoder Celestin. It was the first trip to Paris for both of us and we fell in love with everything and anything about our visit.

Kathleen and Paige outside of Place de la Concorde

Paige and Lynne at Le Grand Colbert

Paige has always been the most fashionable person I know, since our early days in New York City when she lived at the Webster Apartments for Women and worked as an Executive Assistant for Louis Feraud to her current location in Aix en Provence. We were fortunate to visit when she lived just outside of Paris in Montreuil.

One of the things I fell in love with was Paige's coffeemaker. You dropped a pod in and out came a wonderful cup of Joe. She also had a separate steamed milk maker that sealed the deal for me. I think the brand she had was similar the the Nescafe Dolce Gusto, a Ferrari version of what was available in the U.S.

So my first splurge when I recovered from my trip was to purchase a similar coffee maker. A few years ago there were two main contenders on the market: Tassimo and Keurig. I went with the Tassimo since it had the ability to make cappuccino with those freaky irradiated milk cartridges. As someone who has diligently checked the milk carton expiration date all my life, I don't understand how those "milk" cartridges last so long, but it was the selling factor for me. I don't really like flavored coffee very much, which is what Keurig seemed to favor.

The Tassimo was all the rage in my household for about four months. I bought every possible variation of coffee, cappuccino, latte and hot chocolate. In case you don't know, each beverage comes in a pod with a barcode on it. The machine reads the barcode and adjusts how much water it heats up and passes through the pod. Then you toss the non-recyclable, environmentally unfriendly little case in the trash, but there are no coffee grounds to measure or clean up.

Since my purchase I go through phases where I will alternate between the Tassimo and my Braun, in between trips to Starbucks. Shopping for the Tassimo has become increasingly limited as Keurig clearly won the market. Only Bed, Bath & Beyond has a decent selection of Tassimo pods now, and I predict my coffeemaker will end up in the electronic waste section of my garage.

Today I decided to do a taste test with three of the versions of coffee pods I've acquired: Maxwell House Morning Blend Coffee that makes a 12 oz. serving (it only takes a couple of overflowing mugs to remember this), Gevalia 15% Kona Coffee Blend, and a newer pod maker King Joe Dark Roast Coffee. I measured one tablespoon of 1% milk in each cup. Aren't my vintage Metlox California Poppy Trail cups nifty?

The Morning Blend tasted like coffee water, now I know why I am not perky even though I'm drinking a larger serving per pod. Gevalia was okay, but had some floral overtones. King Joe was the clear winner of the three. To make it fair I should have included a cup from my Braun and tested without knowing which was which. Clearly I had nothing better to do this morning but share this with you. The good news is after drinking three cups of coffee I am wide awake! 

What do you drink in the morning?