Easy Serving Espresso Pod

The original patent for filter pod technology was registered by K. Cyrus Melikian of Automatic Brewers And Coffee Devices, Inc.(ABCD) in Pennsylvania, US, in 1959.

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.

design was created by illy in 1989 as a marketing effort to sell convenience in home espresso preparation.

specification was intended to be an open design to encourage wide adoption in order to give customers the "freedom of choice and guarantee of quality".

[1] Pod brewers allow many food and beverage servers to provide a standardized quality of espresso with repeatable results every time.

Advantages of pods include convenience and speed of preparation and easy cleaning, consistency of taste, and less waste of coffee grounds.

Disadvantages include significantly higher cost per serving, a weaker coffee than one would get from freshly ground coffee in a larger holder, and a limited selection of suppliers, as well as some paper waste when the pods are discarded, and mylar film waste from the pouches in which the pods are packed.