coffee/hot chocolate machines

Anne_Marie_2

Any espresso machine with a milk frother should be able to make both coffee and hot chocolate drinks with frothy milk, if that is what is desired, without having to use, or being tied to expensive pods, unless you know that it is a pod machine that they would like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq7qXPekkh0 (skip along to 00:43 to see the hot chocolate being made). Plenty more videos on YouTube of the same ilk.

Shazzadouglas

I have a tassimo and the Suchards hot chocolate is lovely. Don't buy the milk pods....expensive way of adding a splash of milk x

Mr_Singleton

Jura A9. Hot Chocolate? Nah.

JIL

I have had the senseo and the tassimo. We are now onto the nespresso. Which is my favourite to date. It was £25 from the Argos clearance. I like the fact you can buy the pods from all over the place, we got 20 pods today from home bargains for £1.99.
There was a thread on here a few days ago started by marthada, there was a really good looking coffee machine on there that did both pods and ground coffee. May be worth a look?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5528792

arbrighton

Fosterdog wrote: »

I do love my Tassimo but as said the pods are not cheap, well not compared to home brewed coffee, a lot cheaper than buying out every day. I also hate the waste from them, my local council don't recycle them and I really don't like using things that go to landfill so I save up the empties and once a week or fortnight spend time peeling all the foil off so the plastic pods can be recycled.

I buy mine either when they are on offer in a shop or through Amazon subscribe and save.

I really wasn't fussed on the Cadbury hot chocolate nor the Milka one so I gave the remaining pods away, I do really like the Oreo one though, it makes a smaller cup but is so much nicer if you prefer a richer and slightly more bitter chocolate than a sweet sickly milky one. A tip with the hot chocolate is to warm the chocolate pod first, the syrup inside is so thick just the Tassimo especially on a cold day isn't enough to get it all out and you get a weaker flavour. I usually boil the kettle for OHs cup of tea and put the chocolate pod on top to heat the syrup a bit first and then it makes a lovely cup.

There are recycling schemes out there for them through a company called terracycle.

They have local (ish) drop off points where you can take them- we collect a big box full and go 3 or 4 times a year (well based on the first batch I took, we will)