Don’t know, just personal preference.

Scott

As to noise, they have a pump and if you don’t have a solid counter that will act as a resonator and make the noise louder … but it won’t make nearly as much noise as your ices dispenser. It’s sort of like an aquarium air pump … since your living quarters are separate from your kitchen it will be a non issue for you. From what I’ve heard from people that have heard both, the tassimo sounds more like a miniature espresso machine.

The generally consensus from the coffee drinkers ar the big pluses:
1) Freshness / flavour
2) Speed and convenience – pop in a kcup, push a button ans voila! Coffee
3) Variety – note 3 people can have 3 different typse of coffee is they want.

Minuses:
1) cost – minor. Offset by increased enjoyment and less waste
2) can’t get K cups at the local store – major especially since none of the folks in my family are big into ordering online.

How loud are the machines, Chris? I listened to a couple of sample recordings and they didn’t sound too bad, but one of the complaints I’ve read is that the single cup machines are a bit noisy. The Tassimo are supposedly really loud compared to the Keurig… but it is hard to compare based on a scratchy recording.

I didn’t really expect the tea to be very good either, but it is nice to have that confirmed. I have three boxes of K-Cups on order: one “sampler” pack from Green Mountain; one box of their “Fair trade” Columbian; and a “K-Cup variety pack” from Timothy’s. The Timothy’s pack includes some tea: I figured I’d give it a try just to see how it worked. The shipping on the coffee is the killer: $15 or thereabouts for 24 coffees, then $9 for shipping from Timothys and $15 from Green Mountain (in the US).

I’m trying all the different types because, although I’m not a coffee snob, I have found that different manufacturers produce substantially different versions even using the same beans. My theory is that I can narrow down my preferences by trying a bunch of varieties in rapid succession: either that, or end up with a lot of coffee types I don’t want to drink Once I decide what kinds of coffees I like, I’ll have to order bigger batches to cut down on the percentage impact of the shipping.

I also bought a K-Cup carousel from Timothy’s to store/display the coffees- it’s a gimmick, but I thought it looked kind of neat. The silly thing is that I still haven’t bought the machine itself yet I’ll probably see about picking one up tomorrow.

Yes, the coffee has to be ordered for the most part, but it has been working out to about 50 cents a cup. Timothy’s has been our supplier, ( I actually ordered the machines from them as well,) but there is also http://www.vanhoutte.com/ in Canada

You might also try Sears, we’ve found k cups there.

I bought both of them the filter so you can use regular coffee, but it doesn’t produce as good a product. The grind isn’t as fine as the stuff in a premade K cup.

Consensus from the coffee drinkers is that it is good coffee, and while more expensive, they don’t make 12 cups just to drink 3 and have half a tin of coffee go stale. The ability to have a variety of flavours is also a plus.

You can also use the coffee maker as a hot water machine, run it without a k-cup for tea or hot chocolate. I have never tried the hot chocolate k cups, but they are not well reviewed. As for Tea …it isn’t steeped so it doesn’t really cut it. The Green tea is passable, and the lemon drink is not bad. Regular teas though, stick to Tetley and a kettle.

I think you’ll like it… but you may find you drink more coffee simply because it’s fresh, fast ( about 60 seconds if the machine is warmed up,) and the flavour you feel like at the moment.