LavazzaGran Espresso Single-Serve Coffee Pods, Dark Espresso Roast, Pack of 150

No problems at all. Was received in a short amount of time.

I've ordered this Lavazza Gran Intenso 150 ese pods 18 times now over the last several years and found it constantly delicious. Rich and bold. I've never had a torn or damaged pod or a noticeable flavor variation. I use a Mr Coffee Cafe Barista machine which accepts the ese pods. I always make lattees, either 2% milk or oat milk. No added syrups or flavors. When I first got my machine, I tried half a dozen different brands and several blend/roast variations, and this is hands down my favorite. Ese pods in a machine designed to use them is the greatest improvement to my long love affair with coffee. Price has varied from 35 to 45 cents per pod; less than Keurig Kcups and I drive right past Starbucks because my favorite latte is waiting when I get home.

We are a large Italian family that is very picky about our coffee. We love this brand and these pods. After inheriting the machine from our uncle we wanted to use it right away. We started with other imported Italian pods that we found somewhat pricy. We ordered the Lavazza in an effort to save some money and are not disappointed. We really like the taste of the coffee just as much if not better. When we host our large family it is a must to serve cappuccinos and espressos after dinner. Everyone raves about the taste! I wish I could also find a decaf version since even the younger kids in our family like coffee too.

I recently switched to the Lavazza pods after trying the Starbucks pods for a month. The difference is like night and day: the Lavazza pods are disgusting! Compared to the espresso I can get from a Starbucks pod, and also compared to the espresso I can get in any coffee shop in town, the shots produced by the Lavazza pods are watery and tasteless. They're not simply 'marginally' worse than the Starbucks pods. The espresso produced by the Lavazza pods has a hideously bland taste, to the extent that it pains both me and my wife to drink them (which is surprising, because neither she nor I have particularly demanding taste buds).The first problem with the Lavazza pods is that they include a LOT of excess filter material around the pod, which prevents the espresso machine from making a good, water-tight seal and results in water dripping out of the brewing chamber. We experimented at great length with trimming away the excess material on these pods to try to get a better espresso. With some finesse (by trimming excess filter and carefully positioning the ESE pod in just-the-right spot), it is possible to get a good seal. Once my wife and I accomplished this, the quality of our Lavazza espressos improved dramatically...but was still light-years behind what we expected. No matter how hard we've tried, we can't get a good shot of espresso from these pods (and we've tried manually tamping them, trimming excess filter material, making sacrifices to various caffeine-related deities, and even performing special brewing dances to appease the coffee gods).Our advice: AVOID LAVAZZA ESE PODS AT ALL COSTS!!!!!! You can find incredibly better alternatives at a 10-20% higher price point!

EDIT:I was doing it wrong, which led to watered down espresso. I read the manual for my machine and fixed my error. Not a bad product at all. The flavor will leave something to be desired for coffee snobs, but it's a solid 4 stars.ORIGINAL:I already had an ESE-compatible machine, and i was hoping this would make espresso a quick and easy option for my mornings. Compared to nespresso or other capsule coffee systems, the price of these was reasonable. The result, however, has been very disappointing. I get an extremely weak pull out of these. I think it is the filter preventing water from making enough contact with the grounds. Most of the water just runs around the sides of the pod. I have tried using 2 or 3 of these to make a single shot and it works ok. But that negates the convenience factor that i was looking for.

The media could not be loaded. I got this machine brand new at a garage sale for 15 bucks because I wanted to practice on this older model before spending 1000 on a machine I was to inexperienced to use and would end up breaking. I work in fine dining so I’ve made plenty of espresso beverages before but not with an at home type of machine . Anywho I figured out that there’s Pods for this thing and apparently that E.S.E. Sticker on the front means easy serving espresso or PODS . Yes these Gran Espressos are incredible, yes they’re easier to use in a hurry, and yes you can be as happy with them as I am. My model (EC155) did not require any special baskets or anything to use these however you do need to use the single serving basket to ensure a tight fit. Hope this helps someone. Cheers!

So far so good

Flavor is great! Been ordering this for years but this last box is different. Half the time, the coffee packet tears when I try to remove it after brewing.