Cuppa Java *Updated*

Recently, I was contacted by Senseo and asked to review their product. I have to admit, I was really excited. A single-cup coffee maker? That sounds like a dream come true for me! Not to mention I received a FREE Senseo and 10 coffee pods. I love free stuff!

While I love coffee it isn’t something I drink regularly — maybe one cup every two or three weeks, if that. Usually, it is just because I’m not willing to haul the coffeepot out to make one cup since Mike doesn’t drink coffee. Occasionally, I’ll treat myself to Starbucks and I think it tastes even more wonderful because it is such a rarity for me (the closest Starbucks is about an hour from where we live).

Needless to say, the thought of being able to make myself a single “cuppa java” whenever the mood strikes with little mess and no-waste seemed like a great idea. But when the box came, Mike and I spent an entire nap time fighting with this invention. The phrases “what a POS!” “No wonder it was free,” “who in their right mind would pay $99 for this thing???!!!” were uttered numerous times during our nap time adventure with the Senseo.

The issue was that the top did not want to go down and latch to press the water through the coffee. We had water all over the kitchen. Mike battled the machine to and eventually won the latch war. After wasting about 4 coffee pods, I finally had my 4 oz. of coffee. I’m not a black coffee drinker so after I added a shot of vanilla syrup and skim milk, it was finally ready. And I have to admit, it was good, but I was frustrated.

Mike was ready to throw the machine in the trash but I protested. Yesterday morning, Mom offered to take Bo early to enable me a day to take a shower in peace and head to school early. I dropped Bo off while I was still in my pjs and headed home to shower. I’m one of those weirdos who refuses to immediately blow-dry my hair (which of course makes the whole process of showering and becoming presentable that much longer!) so while I was waiting for my hair to air dry a bit I figured I’d try the Senseo again.

This time, it worked perfectly. I was able to put the pod in and latch it without super-human strength. It produced a beautiful 4 oz and I was able to sit in my chair for an entire 10 minutes and enjoy the coffee and read a few pages in my current “fun” book (that I’ve been trying to find time to read for weeks) in absolute quiet. Ahh… the life.

Therefore, even though my initial impression of the Senseo was not favorable and I have no idea what the latch problem was, it seems to have fixed itself (or the user became smarter — who knows?) and it really does make the perfect amount of coffee for someone like me. I think we’ll be keeping it — at least until it won’t latch again. And Senseo will reap the rewards of offering me a free machine as I invest in their coffee pods…

*Updated to add*

A few comments and several emails asking me how I signed up to do product reviews. Well, I didn’t, really. Back in 2006 I signed up for Pay-Per-Post but I never did anything with it. I occassionally post about products that I like or have found useful. Companies must Google for blogs that do this. Randomly I will receive an email asking me if I would be interested in reviewing a product — strange, but a nice benefit to the blog. I did recently sign up for Mothertalk and I should completing my first book review for them soon. If you know of any way to “sign-up” to do reviews, let me know and if I find anything I’ll post about it here. I think it is fun!