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If you make espresso at home, you may find the process a little messy and/or time consuming. The measuring of your grounds, tamping and whatnot. Well, a solution is at hand!

They are called Easy Serving Espresso Pods, or E.S.E Pods, or just plain pods. A pod is a pre-measured and pre-tamped single serving of ground coffee, sealed within 2 pieces of filter paper. It looks like a round Tetley tea bag (kind of). You just pop one in the portafilter and you're on your way.

Pods may not be all that important or useful to those folks who make their own espresso at home, but at coffee shops where hundreds of shots are pulled every day, anything that makes it faster is welcome. Using pods gives more consistancy, less waste, and less mess.

Unfortunately, most pod manufacturers only sell pods in fairly large quantities (100-150 pods per box). This is great for the professional barista, or the espresso-addicted, but that may be a little much for someone experimenting with pods. If you look around, you can find them in smaller packages.

Not all machines will take pods. Some will require special filters for the portafilters, or adapters for the group diffuser. If you have to re-equip your machine to accept pods, you should still be able to use normal coffee grounds as well. Some coffee machine makers are putting out new models that are specifically designed for pods (and pods only). You'll have to check with the manufacturer of your machine to find out if you can use pods. There are too many makes for me to list every one.

Espresso pods are more expensive than plain unpodded grounds, but the savings in time and energy may well be worth it.