The Pacific Northwest may be all about coffee, but I’ve got a secret for you: I would never, ever drink plain black coffee. Like most everyone, we own a coffee pot that makes black coffee and that’s about it. The funny thing is, I don’t really know anyone who does take their coffee black… well, unless you count my sister who takes it black but then adds cream and sugar. The proof of which is in the fact that after 6 years of ownership, we have only used that coffee pot once. When we are looking for coffee, we have always gone to a coffee shop so we could each get our specialty drinks.
Or, at least we used to go to coffee shops and get a good cup of coffee, but now we are the baristas and make our own drinks in the comfort of home. Using the TASSIMO home brewing system that uses special T Discs to make both black coffee and specialty drinks, we now make cappuccinos, espressos, teas, lattes, macchiatos, hot cocoa, and more with the press of a button. In fact, you can make all sorts of coffee drinks for a whole group of people, giving each one their own freshly brewed, made-to-order beverage in about a minute without having to clean up or set up in between brewing cycles.
The really cool thing about the TASSIMO system is that you don’t have to have natural barista talent to make great tasting coffee –- the unit actually reads the bar code information on each of the little T Discs you insert and automatically makes the perfect drink every time. This way when you are mix and matching TASSIMO T Discs, say to make a latte, there is nothing different for you to do for the different discs even if one has milk and the other has coffee. The machine itself knows to gently brew the coffee for one and froth up the milk for the other. To make sure you can really fine tune your drinks when the brewing cycle is finished the TASSIMO gives you the option of adding more hot water to the beverage, which is great for those who like their coffee a little weaker or if you’re making cocoa for a child and want to thin out the chocolate flavoring a bit.
The upkeep on the TASSIMO system is absolutely minimal, with no parts to clean or rinse, you merely have to fill the 52oz water tank when it is empty and that’s it. No filters, no mess, and no throwing away a full pot of coffee that no one cared to drink. It’s so easy to brew a great tasting and piping hot beverage that we find we use the TASSIMO daily now instead of going through an espresso stand on the way in to work, and some days the coffee brewer really gets a work out. The amount we have saved so far in making our fancy schmancy coffee house beverages at home is well worth the price of the T Discs to us and makes the TASSIMO T20 one of the best kitchen gadgets we own.
For those of you who have used a pod type coffee brewing system in the past and were dismayed at the selection of coffees to choose from, you will be thrilled to note that TASSIMO has partnered with the biggest names in coffee to bring you the best tasting coffee with the biggest variety of brands and flavors. Names such as Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Gevalia, and Maxwell House are just some of the brands you can purchase T Discs of, with each having a wide variety of coffees to choose from. After searching our local markets and coming up with a rather limited selection of T Discs, we found the greatest variety and selection of TASSIMO products at Bed Bath and Beyond and now go there to stock up when our coffee cupboard gets bare.
Price: You can buy the TASSIMO T20 at Target.com where it retails for $99.99
A huge thank you to TASSIMO for sending their T20 Coffee Maker for review. All opinions are 100% ours and no monetary compensation was received for this Rave Review.
