Thursday, December 18, 2014

iCoffee Opus, Getting More Out of Your Single Serving Capsules

While I love my Nespresso Pixie, I haven't had a lot of good experiences with other single serving coffee offerings before. My old office at Caltech had a Keurig machine, so I tried the K-cups there before. Was. Not. Good.

Still, the idea of a convenient coffee machine is enticing to have at work. My current office had no coffee machine whatsoever, so when iCoffee asked if I wanted to try out their single serving machine, Opus, I said why not? iCoffee promises a smooth tasting coffee using what they call a SpinBrew technology. It's said to mimic what happens in a french press - so you get a french press style coffee from the machine. Basically, though, this technology sprays water 360' so the water gets distributed around the ground coffee more evenly, so you don't over extract any particular part of the capsule (which tends to lead to bitterness).

iCoffee
Looking dapper on top of the office fridge
The machine comes with a sampler of capsules including Tim Hortons coffee. Yep, that popular chain from Canada.
Tim Hortons
The machine is as easy to use as the others. I had a small issue setting it up but I called Remington and they called me right back and told me how to fix it. Otherwise, put capsule in, set dial to the desired cup size, and brew.
iCoffee
Waiting for my coffee ... it brews much faster than a french press, obviously.
iCoffee
So I've also read the review on cnet.com and that guys didn't like iCoffee. But if you ask me, this cup of joe was way, waaaay smoother than what I had from the Keurig brewer. No bitterness here, while I can barely drink down the other one.

Now, of course, I can't compare the capsule coffee since I haven't had it from another machine (other than the Keurig many years ago, but that was a different type of capsule). That is, was it the coffee or was it Tim Horton's? But luckily, iCoffee comes with a reusable cup that you can use with regular ground coffee. This is by itself another big plus over the Keurig, since now I have more control over what coffee I want do drink and not be stuck with buying K-cups (I imagine most of them aren't any good).
icoffee

I brought in the coffee I've been making drip coffee at home with, a Breakfast Blend I got from my trip to Costa Rica. It's nothing fancy, but I like it. For the first cup I put in about the same amount of ground coffee as I use with the drip (I wasn't sure how much to use and I'm not that good at looking for the manual). I got another smooth cup of joe, but weaker. I'll try using more coffee next time. I get the same smoothness though, and similar taste profiles. And it definitely takes much less time using iCoffee.

Since slowly making drip coffee wouldn't really fly in the office, I'm perfectly happy with iCoffee's results.The iCoffee Opus machine is available for $140 at Bed Bath and Beyond.
Christmas is coming ...

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