Skip the $5 latte and make one at home
Single-serving drink maker uses flavor packs to make 30 different hot or cold beverages
I remember the first time I saw the pod coffee machines, I thought they were ridiculous. I've worked in loose tea shops where tea bags are generally seen as over-processed cheap imitations of the real deal, and so the similarly-shaped coffee "pods" touted by the first single-cup pod coffeemakers instantly made it to the top of my "not worth it" gadget list. I'm a religious coffee drinker, and something about those tea bag-like coffee pods was very off-putting.
Fast-forward to several months later during a visit to my sister's house. After waking up on the first morning and asking about a coffee pot, I was horrified to follow her gaze to (gasp) a coffee machine with a bag of French vanilla pods. But who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth? I fished out a pod and gave the one-shot pot a fair chance.
Lo and behold, the cup of vanilla joe was surprisingly tasty, and even a bit frothy. Not only that, but the single serving also eliminated my normal leftover coffee that either ends up getting cold on the counter or getting consumed and turning me into a rambling, twitching fool. I now knew that these pod-lovers were on to something.
Flavia has combined the premise of the pod with our innate desire for variety by giving us the Fusion Drink Station, a single-cup drink machine that can make about 30 varieties of thirst-quenchers, including hot chocolate, coffee, real leaf tea, and espresso using prepackaged drink mix pouches.
The coffeemaker uses an active charcoal filter to purify your water, and is designed in a way to ensure that your drink travels directly from the drink pouch to your cup, so you don't need to worry about your cup of afternoon tea picking up the flavor of your morning coffee.
The standard model retails for $99.95, but if you want to splurge and spend $169.95 for the Fusion Deluxe Drink Station, you can enjoy its extra features such as blue LED drink selection lights, visible water level, and a hot water button. The drink filter packs range from about $5 to $10 for each pack of 18 or 20, depending on the type. One of your options is what Flavia calls "indulgences," which include Mars and Milky Way swirl. I don't know about you, but I'm sold.