More money = more caffeine?

I was in Fidelity yesterday, getting some documents notarized, and they have a very expensive, high tech, coffee machine in their lobby. For patron use while waiting for an associate. 

What is it and why is it expensive? 

The coffee machine is called "Flavia Creation 600 Brewer". 

Per Amazon, the price is listed as $1,690. 

It is a "[S]ingle-serve multi-purpose beverage system that delivers both hot and cold café-style drinks. This versatile machine crafts everything from drip coffee to tea, cold brew, and lattes. Its smart technology and compact design make it ideal for mid to large workplaces.

• VARIETY: From coffee to tea, lattes to cappuccinos, the C600 offers a variety of quality beverages and brands to satisfy any employee preferences
• SMART INTERFACE: Intuitive digital touchscreen makes crafting perfectly balanced beverages simple
• VERSATILE BREWING: Create hot or cold beverages with multiple drink options
• IQ TECHNOLOGY: Built-in smart system helps manage ordering and sends maintenance alerts"

I know I'm in the picture, but there was no way for me to get out of the way and still get the front of the machine. I wasn't about to try to blur myself out; you only see my hands, really. 

The whole process to make a brew is wild. It's a touch screen in front, but I don't know if it has any pre loaded coffees inside of it. I didn't try to cycle through the options, as there were containers next to the machine with pouches you put into that silver part of the front. 

Once you "touch screen to begin", the main silver part does open up. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of what that looks like, but it is a small opening that pops out, like a drawer. It opens forward, where it just tilts enough that you put your chosen pouch in and push the drawer back so it's flush against the front. 

It's hard to describe without a picture or video. I'm sorry. 

But the pouch slides in, bottom first, so that the cover of the pouch is what holds the whole thing in place. The barcode on the pouch tells the machine what kind of coffee or tea it is, and it's brewed accordingly. 

As I chose the Lavazza Vanilla Latte coffee, my mother chose Bright Earl Grey tea. 

The tea, according to my mother, was wonderful. She really enjoyed it. I did not get a picture of that, sadly enough.

The Lavazza on the other hand, was okay. I think because the brand is known as an espresso coffee, it did taste slightly bitter. Even though there are 8g of sugar in it and milk derivatives, there was a slight burnt aftertaste. Also, towards the end of the drink, there was still a small lump of powder in my cup, so I had to mix that with the rest of the liquid. 

Yes, this had powder in it. I'm sure the tea was actual tea of sorts and the coffee has coffee beans. But it's so finely ground, something might be bound to slip through. 

The pouch reminds me of the kids applesauce or fruit (juice) pouches they can open and dink out of. There's some twist cap that opens the bag and acts almost like a straw. These coffee pouches are smaller than that - more condensed. 

Once the brew is made, the empty pouch gets dropped into a waste basket in the back of the machine, so you don't see it or need to touch it. Only time you would do anything with it, would be when you're emptying the basket. 

The types of things this can brew are teas, coffees, hot chocolates and refresher type drinks. The prices range from $25 to over $75, due to how many are in each box / case and what the brand is (Dove hot chocolate vs Alterra coffee, or 1 count of 20 vs 1 count of 100, for example). 

Is this worth it in the end? 

For a single person or household of 2-4 people, I honestly don't know.

It's fun to look at and see where technology is going for the future of our java consumption, however, the initial expense may not be worth it. 

I was showing my mother the cost of some of the coffees, and she said that it's a crap shoot - a 38 count of decaf coffee "is one cup a day" and it's over $50. 

My mom has a (long time) friend who could very well go through 2 pots of decaf every day, if not more, so this isn't worth the investment for that person. True, the woman is constantly making a pot of drip coffee, but if she were to purchase this Flavia machine, she'd be paying several hundred dollars more a month for her drinking habits. Whereas, if she stayed with what she's doing, she very well would be paying ... maybe ... fifty dollars a month, or less, depending on what brand she is buying / what's on sale. 

I guess, it really just depends on you: Do you buy the new gizmos and gadgets and upgrade when you can? Do you want to know that you can pop in a pouch and the machine automatically adjusts temperatures and speed, knowing you're about to drink a cold brew, rather than a hot tea? Do you need an app on your phone to tell you the machine needs fixing? People doom scroll on their smart devices; now they're doom scrolling on their smart machines. Prices are going up for everything right now as it is, paying so much for a specialized contraption for coffee shouldn't be on that list, even though these pouches are only good for the Flavia line of machines. It's like buying the Nespresso bullet pods or when Tassimo was an early competitor to Keurig and it had a specific design to their circular pod. You can't buy just any brand of coffee and stick it in your machine. True, you can buy off brand / designs for Keurig now, but the more specific machine makers are not allowing that to happen because they're creating different style discs for your brewing pleasure. Which is why getting a pouch for Flavia will be hard to continue using if something were to happen to the machine and you don't like it anymore. You've created something you can't reuse or reshape into the next big thing to buy. 

It's totally something to think about. What are you doing now? What do you think you'll do next week? There's nothing like instant coffee during an emergency, when the power goes out and you're using your grill to cook everything. We learned that during Ian. I'd drink instant even without being "off the grid". I just won't drink powdered creamer. That's a definite deal breaker for me. I like regular drip coffee, so I miss my Mr. Coffee maker. We have a Keurig in my house and my mom swears by those pods. We've had the Tassimo in the early 2000s. I've seen the Nespresso in the stores. It's all basically the same Arabica coffee, just being packaged differently. 

You do you and spend your greenbacks the way you want. Again, it's fun to see the new technology come out and try it once in a while, but what is the overall "worth it" value to you? Will you use this until it's deader than a zombie apocalypse in the height of winter, or will you trade up in six months before something happens? Everyone's different. 

Just watch what you're doing and don't get too involved and invested. You may overdo it and end up in the hospital due to rapid heart rate..

Cheers;