I had a friend ask me about the difference between a coffee pod and a k-cup so I thought a post would help explain this to both her and my other readers. A coffee pod is basically ground coffee packaged between two layers of coffee filters. They look like this:


There are a multitude of companies who are now making these coffee pods to be used in different types of single serve coffee brewers. The pods are usually less expensive than the K-cups that only fit the Keurig brewing machines and the T-disks for the Tassimo coffee systems. Basically, many people interchange the word coffee pod, k-cups, and T-disks but they are birds of a different feather.

Not all coffee pods as shown above are even of the same flock. There are 3 different sizes so it is important to make sure when you are purchasing them that they will truly fit the single serve coffee system that you own.

There is a small coffee pod (44mm) that fits the Melitta single serve brewing system. The medium sized pod (55mm) is for the Juan Valdez brewer and the largest size of coffee pod (62mm) which fits the Senseo, Mr. Coffee, Krups, Bunn, and other single serve coffee brewing systems. To insure that you get the best cup of coffee from your machine, be sure to read the label to make sure the coffee pod is meant to be used with what you have.