Flavia-FLAV!

For Christmas, my wonderful husband got me a Flavia Fusion Drinks Station. So far, it kicks butt. Basically, it's a one-cup coffeemaker, only it's a lot cooler than most others on the market. It makes cappuccino, espresso, tea, hot chocolate, mocha, coffee, and other assorted hot drinks. It's also cool cuz there is no clean-up involved. The drink packet/pod is the filter and the coffee, so you just pop it in and throw it away when it's brewed.

One drawback so far though is that the coffee packets are only available online, and they're pretty pricey. For example...

.43 per packet of specialty coffee or tea (like chai or vanilla)
.32 per packet of chocolate
.20 per packet of whipped topping (for cappuccinos, lattes & other frothy drinks) and
.41 per packet of espresso

The other thing is the size - each packet only makes about 8 oz. of coffee, not counting the frothy stuff. So to get a regular 16-18 oz. Starbucks sized drink, you're looking at about a buck. Which is still better than Starbucks, but not as cheap as a regular coffeemaker or making tea the old fashined way. Of course, you can't make a Milky Way Cappuccino in your old coffee maker.

The time-saving factor is nice too. It makes each packet in about 20 seconds. That's much better than the 5-20 minute wait at Starbucks in the morning. Nevermind the fact that there's no Starbucks (or any other coffee shop) within a 5-mile radius of my job.

I just spent $150 on an online order for coffee refills though.. which is kind of startling. I'm keeping the box and the receipt for the machine, just in case I find anything better in the next few weeks. So far though, it looks like the husband picked a good one. Any pod-coffee-maker users out there have experience with other comparable machines? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts..

Also, if you are interested in buying one, let me know and I'll email you this promotional thingy they want me to whore my friend's email addresses out for.