At the beginning of the year, Sara Lee’s sale of the Senseo brand to Smuckers. For one-cup coffee fans, Senseo is (or was) one of the major coffee pod roasters and manufacturers. As part of the sale, Senseo coffee pods will cease to be available in retail outlets after March 31st, 2012; however, the coffee pods will still be available through select online retailers.

Senseo offers eleven different roasts: Kona Blend, Breakfast Blend, Espresso Blend, Colombian, Kenya Blend, Hazelnut, French Vanilla, Sumatra, Dark Roast, Medium Roast, and Decaffeinated. So, if you’re a fan of Senseo and their eleven different coffee pods, we’d suggest stocking up while you can. The coffee pods are currently the cheapest per-serving form of one-cup coffees available.

The My Invento Coffee System is an elegant single-cup pod brewing system. Manufactured in Europe, this striking coffee maker can brew one or two cups of coffee at a time. The My Invento single cup coffee brewer is made of a unique polymer-coated steel that resists scratches, smudges, and corrosion. The brewer can be found on Amazon.com priced as low as $119.95.

Owned by Sara Lee Corp., Senseo was one of the first companies to introduce one cup pod brewers in America and still has a leading position in that market. The Senseo single cup pod brewers can be purchased online or in retail stores. You can learn more about Senseo one cup brewers by visiting their website.

BUNN started making one cup pod brewers for offices and has since introduced the MyCafé line of single serve coffee brewers, including a model for homes. The home version retails for $99.95 and can be purchased online or in retailers. If you’re interested in the office model, please contact BUNN directly.

Bunn MyCafé

Senseo

MyInvento

Many coffee roasters make coffee pods. Each roaster produces pods from a wide range of coffee varietals grown around the world. These green coffee beans are then roasted in a range of styles. It may take some trial and error to find the brand, varietal, and roast you enjoy most.

Typically, 8 grams of ground coffee are used in each pod. Because some coffee drinkers like a stronger brew, several roasters make pods that contain up to 12 grams of ground coffee. If you like a stronger cup, look for pods that contain 10-12 grams of coffee. Also, some one cup pod brewers accommodate stacked pods to help you brew a stronger cup.

Finally, pods are packaged in different ways. Some brands, like Senseo, package the pods in a single, large bag, and other brands put each pod in a separate foil package. Since exposure to oxygen degrades coffee quality, purists believe that the single-use foil packages keep the pod coffee fresher longer than those pods packaged in a single bag.

Two types of coffee pod packages

Popular One-Cup Coffee Brewers

We’re here to help you decide which one cup coffee maker you might like best. Then, once you make your decision, we’ll try to provide more information to help answer questions about your single cup brewing choice.

We do know of a few different sources that have compared different one cup coffee makers. Recently, CoffeeReview.com, the world’s leading coffee buying guide, tested a number of single cup coffee brewers. They seemed to prefer the Keurig K-Cup system and the Nespresso capsule system.

In addition to consistently brewing great coffee, these one cup coffee makers are engineered to be quick, easy-to-use, and clean. An article in Popular Mechanics compared eight popular single cup brewing systems to see which brewers best lived up to their promise of quick, delicious coffee.

Finally, from time to time, we look at how often internet users search for the different one cup brewing systems on Google. If you use this to measure the popularity of each of the systems, then Keurig is the leader followed by Tassimo. Coffee pods were a common search term a few years ago, but have seemed to have lost much of their popularity since.