illyESE Espresso Coffee Pods - Intenso - Bold Roast (18 Coffee Pods) 131g

Lovely coffee

Love the product, loved the service !!

I own a DeLonghi espresso machine which is compatible with ESE pods. I have mostly used pre-ground Illy coffee in the past but struggle pulling a perfect shot as mine is either bitter or sour. It's very rare I pull the perfect shot.I decided to give these coffee pods a try as they are much easier to tidy up rather than banging early in the morning trying to get rid of the coffee grounds in the filter basket. I originally thought that because these are pods they're not going to taste very nice. Wow, was I wrong! These taste perfect, not bitter or sour. The aroma is excellent. I have made a Cappuccino and Mocha and I must say, this pod has really made a big difference to the espresso taste!The problem with using pre-ground coffee or coffee you have ground yourself is that you have to tamp correctly and put the correct amount in. It doesn't really matter with a pressurized system such as that you get with most home espresso machine but I found that if I barely tamped, the water would get through really quickly leading to an awful tasting espresso even with a pressurized system (I have a DeLonghi EC155). What amazed me was that when I used these pods, the water / coffee flows through slowly, hence extracting a lot of flavour but not too much. You must stop the espresso machine when the coffee starts to look brighter in colour / blonde. Luckily, these pods take away the worry of whether you have put enough coffee in the filter basket and if you have tamped correctly.Because it is in a pod, the coffee is already ground correctly (finely ground for espresso) and packed / tamped together correctly. These 2 work hand in hand to produce a perfect espresso without having to have any input from you (apart from having to put it in the ESE filter basket of course!).As you can expect, it doesn't make a mess, you just have to throw the used pod in the bin. The instructions are very clear and tell you that you should insert the pod in the filter so the illy logo is at the top. Each pod is individually well wrapped to keep the coffee fresh.Using pods can be more expensive than pre-ground coffee or coffee beans, but as I am getting a perfect shot of espresso out of my machine each time with these pods, I really don't mind paying that little bit extra.The reason I have only given this 4 stars is because the coffee is not very strong (although I don't like strong coffee, I know a lot of people do). Another reason is the slightly higher price to using pre-ground coffee or coffee beans and the fact that it tends to 'blond out' a bit quickly so it is really just for a single shot of espresso. I haven't used shot glasses to measure out how much in terms of volume a pod can produce as I pulled the shot directly into my cappuccino cup, but I have noticed that it 'blonds out' quicker than if I were using pre-ground coffee, so I have to stop it a bit earlier. But either way, I have had a VERY NICE / PERFECT cappuccino with this as I feel that the amount you can produce with a pod is enough.If you're considering whether to buy a cheap espresso machine with these pods, or a complete pod machine such as a Tassimo or Dolce Gusto, get an espresso machine and these pods! The tastes are completely different. I have noticed that the espresso you get with a tassimo machine just tastes like instant coffee rather than a fresh coffee you would get at a coffee shop.I highly recommend this to anyone who loves coffee! Will I stop using pre-ground coffee for this? I will be using pods more, but I won't stop using pre-ground because sometimes I like having control of how much coffee I put in the filter.I hope this review helps you to decide whether to buy these or not, drop some comments if you have any questions.

Beautiful coffee .. strong but not bitter

easy to use. cant buy from local shops

Fab Illy coffee in handy pods that save on the cleaning up if you're in a hurry etc.. I do use 2 per cup though, as am used to using the 'deep' coffee basket/filter (14g I believe) as I like my coffee nice and strong. They can also go straight into the compost afterwards, unlike the metal and plastic coffee pods which seem to be all the rage at the mo. These are a nice accompaniment to our coffee machine, for when in a hurry or you just cannot be bothered with spilling coffee granules all over the place like I do lol, and not a huge step back in flavour from when we grind our own beans fresh.

Nice snd strong coffeeHighly recommend

I bought these pods to try with my Handpresso Hybrid in order to create a more convenient travel solution than having to pack my porlex hand grinder and coffee beans. The coffee, on taste and consistency, is great. I compared these pods to my home ground and prepared domepods. Extraction was between 20-25 secs, crema volume was 3/4 that of the domepod and taste was above that of a coffee shop experience. I should add that domepods created with coffee ground in my De'longhi KG79 on its finest setting produce a far smoother and superior tasting coffee with excellent volume and crema - truly fantastic and not comparable to Illy's ESE pods.The packaging is excellent at retaining the freshness of the contents. I was very surprised at the outcome and so for the convenience of an almost instant, no mess, great tasting espresso wherever I have a hot water source, I cannot fault Illy's ESE pods one bit.It is the cost of the pods that I find hard to accept. At the time of writing, 1kg of arabica coffee beans is, on average, £15.00. Illy are charging £56 per kilo! I am happy to pay for the packaging; the beans must be ground, packed into their pod, wrapped in foil and packaged - a lot of processing for each 7g portion. However, there are alternatives which cost far less than Illy, with more variety and almost equally (subjective I know) good taste.I chose Illy as the benchmark for my trials but will not ever buy them again due to the price as I do not consider the product in any way value for money when there are some very good substitute products out there.I appreciate that I have not used Illy's pods in a quality electric machine, but I don't need to. I choose to make coffee my way and have developed techniques which allow me to create great tasting espresso without the expense, maintenance and work of using a £1000 machine. The Illy pods work out at about £0.40p per cup. My own Columbian beans allow me to make espresso for under £0.10p per cup in a Handpresso Wild hybrid using a De'longhi KG79 grinder or Porlex hand grinder. At the time of writing, Costco are selling Columbian Supremo beans for £7.77 per kg - 142 cups at £0.054p per cup. Garroways and PureGusto, both available from Amazon, create some fantastic pods for an average of uder £0.17p per cup and that's is acceptable to me for having a very convenient quality solution that allows me to, on occasion, not have to grind and prepare fresh coffee for a day out and running the risk of it going stale.