My husband has been wanting to get a Home Cafe machine since he saw the Tassimo on the Apprentice Martha Stewart.
While we couldn't afford that one just yet, we decided to check out some of the other machines that had similar features for a better price.

While at Walmart we saw the Black and Decker Home Cafe Single Serve Coffee Brewing system on sale for 20.00. It came with coffee to start us off so we thought, why not give it a try.

The best thing that we liked about this coffee maker is that it will brew a travel mug size of coffee. The only downside is you need to use 2 pods to get better flavor for that kind of mug.

We are regular Starbucks customers and wanted to try this product to give us that feel of the coffee cafe at home.

Ease of use

To use the product you have to fill the lanky water reservoir in the back of the machine. While most of us will place this unit on our counter, it becomes a pain to pull it out all the time to fill the water tank. They really need to come up with a better design for this.

Okay to use the machine you choose which size of coffee you are going to have. In our house I usually have the standard 7 oz cup of cappucino. So I put in the cappucino pod adapter and then place in the pod. The biggest thing I hate about this machine is the handle that you have to pull at the side to close the machine. Not the best design. I'm glad to see in the newer machines they have got rid of this feature. Once you have put you pod in and moved the lever over to the cup position you can now begin brewing. Push the button in the front for your cup size, mine being 7 oz I will push the 7 oz button. And in a minute and a half you have coffee.

Now if you happen to be me and accidentally push the wrong button you don't have to worry about clean up because you just take the metal grate off the bottom of the machine and take a dishcloth and clean up the excess coffee. I have done this several times. It will teach me not to talk on the phone and make coffee while also listening to a 3 year old ask for his own cup. LOL.

Design

The design of the machine is nice but I really think they could have rethought this. It's plastic and really doesn't seem to be durable. So far it has held up but with the use it gets in our house it will be put to the test.

You can use other pods in this machine which we have done. The one thing about this machine is that you can find the pods in the grocery store. I really wish this machine made tea because I really like a cup of hot tea sometimes rather than my coffee. Just depends on the mood I'm in. That's why we were looking at the other in the first place.

While I do love this machine, I will be upgrading to the Tassimo we wanted.
I do recommend this machine though if you are looking for a first single server coffee machine as you just can't beat the price.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 20.00