The original use
of pod machines in Italy was to relieve designated office personnel from
the tedium of continuous espresso brewing for office staff. In later
years pod brewers were developed for the home market, and for
restaurants and other food service businesses where espresso was not a
specialty. The use of a pod brewer eliminated most of the training
required to operate conventional espresso machines.
The E.S.E.
design was created by illy in 1989 as a marketing effort to sell
convenience in home espresso preparation[1]. The Easy Serving Espresso
system is a brand protected by the Italian ESE Consortium for
Development[2], and is standardized within the industry to assist
manufacturers with a quality standard and widen accessibility to the
market. Many espresso machines support both pods and ground coffee,
including brands other than illy. The E.S.E. specification was intended
to be an open design to encourage wide adoption.
Pod brewers have much food and drink servers, a standardized quality of espresso to provide repeatable results. Most coffee lovers consider the taste too strong traditional inferior espresso with freshly ground beans produced, but the quality of an espresso is very subjective, and freshly brewed espresso depends on the skill of the barista and the maintenance and calibration of the equipment and other factors. Thus, a consumer can often get an inferior cup of espresso from an expensive traditional machines and fresh coffee when the coffee is really not the preparer.
