Review: Senseo SL7810/65 Single-Serve Coffee Maker.
Made by Philips in Europe, the Senseo was the first one cup coffee maker to hit the consumer market.
The design was, and is, quite unlike traditional drip brewers. Almost the entire brewer is a single, curved cylinder, on a round base, and available in a variety of different colors.
The base model, the Senseo SL7810/65, is one of the least expensive of all single serve coffee makers, but has all the essential features you need in order to make one cup of gourmet coffee at a time.
The Senseo uses 62mm coffee pods, the most common and widely available pod size.
Here’s how it all works.
It has a pod holder where you place the coffee pod, and a button you press to get the brewing process started (after making sure there is water in the reservoir).
One neat thing about the Senseo is that there are actually two pod holders. There is one shallow pod holder that takes a single pod, and a second, deeper holder in which you can place two pods, one on top of the other.
By placing two pods in the larger pod holder you can either make two cups of coffee, or a single 8-ounce mug of coffee.
That’s a useful feature you won’t find in K-Cup or T-Disc brewers.
Once you start the brewing process the hot water is sprayed evenly across the coffee pod and then forced under pressure through a “frothing chamber” which aerates the coffee and gives it a slight crema in the cup.
If there is a weakness to the Senseo SL7810/65 it is the size of the standard water reservoir which holds only 26 ounces. That’s enough water for just five 4-ounce cups of coffee, or two full mugs.
Senseo has addressed this issue my making a larger reservoir available. But you have to buy it separately.
Finally, if you buy a Senseo you’ll never have to worry about finding coffee pods to fit the machine.
Through a partnership with European coffee roaster Douwe Egberts, there is a very wide choice of 62mm coffee pods available. Other roasters and suppliers also market pods of the same size.
Learn more and buy the Senseo SL7810/65 here...
Reviews of other coffee pod brewers:
