T-Disc coffee – single servings for the Tassimo Hot Beverage System.

What on earth is a T-Disc? It can get really confusing as more and more companies enter the single-serve coffee market.

K-Cups, Coffee Pods...and now T-Discs.

T-Discs are designed for use with the Tassimo single-serve coffee makers.

That’s a pretty fancy name for a single-cup coffee maker. But they call it a hot beverage system because it is designed to make not only coffee, but also hot chocolate, cappuccino, espresso and tea.

Each T-Disc contains coffee, chocolate or tea. You simply insert the disc into the machine, add water to the reservoir and press a button.

The machine then reads a bar code printed on the top of the disc and delivers the right amount of water at exactly the right temperature.

Sixty seconds later your beverage is ready.

It all depends on what you are looking for. If you want a machine that makes all kind of different hot beverages, one serving at a time, you may want to get a Tassimo, with its T-Discs.

But keep in mind, T-Discs work only with the Tassimo. You can’t use them in any other machine.

For a wider variety of coffees, and a cheaper machine to get started with, try one of the coffee pod makers, like the Melitta Single Serve Pod Coffee maker. Most coffee pods can be used across a variety of different coffee pod brewers, made by different manufacturers.

But perhaps the most widely sought-after system right now is the Keurig system with its K-Cups. Take a look at the Keurig K-Cup brewers.

Concluding thoughts...

If you are a real fan of fresh brewed coffee and love to try beans from different origins, you would probably find the Tassimo quite frustrating...simply because the choice of coffees available in the T-Disc format is quite limited.

But if you are less concerned about different types of coffee, and want a machine that will give you single servings of cappuccino, espresso, chocolate and tea, the Tassimo may be just what you are looking for.

About the author: Nick Usborne, aka Coffee Detective, is a writer and long-time coffee enthusiast. Read more…