The Tassimo Hot Beverage System is a consumer single-serve coffee system that prepares one-cup servings of

espresso Espresso (, ) is a coffee-brewing method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water (about ) is forced under of pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans a ...

, regular

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

, tea,

hot chocolate Hot chocolate, also known as hot cocoa or drinking chocolate, is a heated drink consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and usually a sweetener like whipped cream or marshmallows. Hot chocolate ...

and various other coffee drinks, notably those including milk such as

latte Caffè latte (), often shortened to just latte () in English, is a coffee beverage of Italian origin made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include the chocolate-flavored mocha or replacing the coffee with another beverage base such as m ...

cappuccino A cappuccino (; ; Italian plural: ''cappuccini'') is an espresso-based coffee drink that originated in Austria and was later popularized in Italy and is prepared with steamed milk foam ( microfoam). Variations of the drink involve the use of ...

. The brand is owned by

JDE Peet's JDE Peet's is a Dutch company that owns beverage brands, mostly of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. It was formed in 2015 following the merger of the coffee division of Mondelez International with Douwe Egberts as Jacobs Douwe Egberts. The stock of ...

in most of the world and

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Heinz co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and bevera ...

in North America.

History

First introduced in France in 2004, Tassimo is now also available in Andorra, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia and the United Kingdom. The machines were originally developed by

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

. The original machines were manufactured by Saeco and distributed by

Braun Braun is a common surname, originating from the German word for the color brown. The name is the 22nd most common family name in Germany. Many German emigrants to the United States also changed their name to ''Brown'' (''see Brown (surname)''). ...

. In early 2008,

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

, the parent company of Braun, began phasing out sales of Braun kitchen appliances in North America. In August 2008, it was announced the new generation of Tassimo machines would be manufactured by Bosch. At the same time, Kraft announced double-digit growth for the second quarter in a row for its Tassimo coffee T-Disc sales.

T-Discs

The Tassimo system utilizes proprietary non-reusable plastic beverage pods, called T-Discs, which are produced and distributed by JDE Peet's. A

bar code A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or on ...

on top of each T-Disc instructs the machine to use the proper brewing settings. It will then change the water temperature, the amount of water, and the brew time and strength. This allows the Tassimo pod maker to brew a variety of hot drinks: filtered style coffee, cappuccino, short espresso, tea, and hot chocolate. The brewing process takes between 30–60 seconds. Discs containing

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

use

UHT Ultra-high temperature processing (UHT), ultra-heat treatment, or ultra-pasteurization is a food processing technology that sterilizes liquid food by heating it above – the temperature required to kill bacterial endospores – for 2 t ...

milk, not

powdered milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

, but are no longer available in the United States. Tassimo T-Discs are currently offered under brands owned by JDE Peet's or

, including

Gevalia Gevalia ( , , ) is the largest coffee roastery in Scandinavia. In North America, the company sells coffee directly to consumers via home delivery and through big box stores such as Wal-Mart. Gevalia discontinued sales of tea in 2015. Customers ...

Maxwell House Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the M ...

, Mastro Lorenzo, Nabob, Carte Noire, Jacobs, and Suchard. Not all brands are available in all markets (for example, Kraft-owned Nabob T-Discs are only available in Canada, while JDE-owned

Kenco Kenco is a British brand of instant, roast and ground coffee sold by JDE Peet's in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Originally known as the Kenya Coffee Company, they started distributing coffee to Britain in 1923. Shortly after, they opened a c ...

T-Discs are available in the British Isles). In some markets, Tassimo has entered into partnerships with third parties to market T-Discs from non-Kraft and non-JDE brands. In the United Kingdom, T-Discs with the

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. I ...

brand have been sold since September 2012. In Canada, T-Discs are sold under the coffee shop brands

Second Cup Second Cup Café, is a Canadian restaurant chain, coffee retailer, and roaster which operates more than 190 cafes nationwide. Its headquarters are in Pierrefonds, Québec. Its stores sell hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks, pre-packaged foo ...

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service res ...

McCafé McCafé is a coffee-house-style food and beverage chain, owned by McDonald's. Conceptualised and launched in Melbourne, Australia, in 1993, and introduced to the public with help from McDonald's CEO Charlie Bell and then-chairman and future ...

as well as

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

supermarket brands like Irresistibles, Our Finest and

President's Choice President's Choice (French: Le choix du Président) or PC are a line of grocery products or services offered by a Canada based company, Loblaw Companies Ltd. The various products are available at the companies retail locations. History Pre ...

Current machines

Tassimo offers five models of single-cup coffee maker compatible with the "home-use" T-discs. However the T46 and T65 are no longer offered for sale in the US. These models are the T20, T46, T47, T55 and T65. While varying in price, colour, availability of filter/display they are functionally equivalent in that each maker will produce the same beverage from the same t-disc. Tassimo machines T12, T47+ and T55+ are sold in Canada. There is also a Tassimo Professional model designed for office and trade use. T DISCs designed for use in this model cannot be used in domestic Tassimo machines.

Recall

On 9 February 2012 about 900,000 in Canada and 835,000 coffee makers the United States were recalled after reports of the brewers spraying hot liquid, coffee grounds or tea leaves onto people. Reports from the US

Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing “unreasonable risks” of inj ...

say that there have been 140 reports on the maker, 37 of those cases involve second degree burns. The Commission has also recalled 4 million T-Discs over reports that they can burst while brewing. Customers who participated in the coffee maker recall were shipped a replacement component which will help prevent the contents of a defective T-Disc from spraying if the T-Disc bursts. The component was shipped free of charge, including instructions to allow customers to insert the new component themselves.

References

External links