Tastes like ass.
Bosch Tassimo FTW. Lazy as feck. Don't even have to boil a kettle. Tastes like Costa. Costs less. Win win
Instant? Agreed; if I could, I'd take it IV so I don't have to taste it.
But seriously... cartridge brewers? Everything they make tastes like plastic and aluminum. The only thing lower on the food chain than the old Bunn-O-Matic.
mnem
Even I have to draw the line somewhere...
I did a double blind on one made by some walking meat in an actual Costa and I couldn't tell the difference so I'm happy.
Nescafe Dolce crud tastes like plastic though.
Main thing with the tassimo is it's the same process with actual grinds, not concentrated gack like some of the other vendors.
The thing I have with Bosch... it's the thing everybody else thinks is so awesome:
German Engineering. Speaking as someone who has to clean up the mess
German Engineers (Especially Bosch) make in not one, but 3 different theaters of operation (Consumer Electronics, Automation, and Automotive) they all have one thing in common, and it's not only endemic to the breed, it appears to be compulsory:
OVER-ENGINEERING.
The essential design ethic seems to be
"Why use 10 parts to do something, when 50 can do the job just as well?" This applies not only to machinery, but to electronics and appliances as well.
Not everything can be roboticized, or made better with roboticization; I think maybe
good coffee is one of those things where the art is more important, as the tools are pretty fundamental and have already evolved to the point where everything nonessential has been pared away.
mnem
"If your job can be made easier through automation, it can be made to go away as well." ~me