Coffee pods · 5 min readTassimo Kenco Colombian T Discs review
A good, mild, 100% Colombian arabica in a system that will never let anybody undercut it. Thirty pence a cup, and no route to less.
Buy this if you own a Tassimo, because on a Tassimo your options are Tassimo. The T Disc carries a printed barcode that the machine reads to set water volume, temperature and brew time, and nobody else prints one, so the third-party capsule market that halves the cost of running a Nespresso Original simply does not exist here. Within those walls, Kenco Colombian is one of the better things to drink: 100% Colombian arabica, Rainforest Alliance certified, mild and fruity. At 30p a cup it sits exactly on the pod median, and there is no lever to pull.
100% Colombian arabica T Discs at 30p a cup, in a closed system where no cheaper capsule exists to switch to.
- Tastes
- Smooth, fruity, bright Colombian arabica
- Strength
- Medium
- Best for
- Easy everyday mugs
- Valuecup price vs the format median
- 3/5
- Easy to likefrom the roast profile
- 4/5
- Good for beginnersblend, roast and pack size
- 5/5
Buy it ifYou own a Tassimo and want a single origin rather than a house blend.
Skip it ifYou do not own a Tassimo. A T Disc fits nothing else, and nothing else fits a Tassimo.
Live prices, sizes and retailers for this coffee sit on its product page. This review is the analysis alongside it. See prices →
Tassimo is closed, and the barcode is why
Every T Disc has a barcode printed on its label. Bosch call the reading system Intellibrew: drop the disc in, close the head, and an optical reader scans the code and sets the water volume, temperature and brew time for that specific drink. It is genuinely clever, and it is genuinely a lock. Tassimo state that T Discs are designed for the Tassimo system and are only compatible with Tassimo machines.
The consequence is blunt and it is the most important thing on this page. On a Nespresso Original machine you can cut your cup price by a third tomorrow by buying somebody else's capsule. On a Tassimo you cannot, because there is no third-party T Disc market to switch into. Whatever a Tassimo drink costs is what it costs.
| Detail | What is published |
|---|---|
| System | Tassimo (T Disc) only |
| Third-party discs available? | No; the machine reads a barcode |
| Beans | 100% arabica, sourced in Colombia |
| Certification | Rainforest Alliance, per Kenco |
| Strength | Described by Kenco as medium in strength and body |
| Pack | 80 T Discs, sold as five boxes of 16 |
| Recycling | Podback, which Tassimo co-founded |
| Cost | £0.30 per cup |
Eighty T Discs is eighty drinks, and that is not a given
For this product the count is honest: one disc, one cup, and Tassimo's own listing describes 16 T Discs making 16 generous cups. So an 80-disc pack is 80 drinks and 30p is a real per-cup figure.
It is not true across the Tassimo range, and this is where people get caught. Tassimo's milk drinks ship two discs per serving, one of coffee and one of milk, so a latte macchiato pack listed as 16 T Discs is 8 drinks. The pack usually says so in small type as servings, and the shelf edge usually does not. Before you compare any two Tassimo packs, find the servings figure.
The same trap exists on Dolce Gusto, where milk drinks also use two capsules. Between them these two systems account for most of the bad pod maths in the UK. Every Tassimo T Disc we track, priced per drink
What Kenco publish about the coffee
More than most capsule brands, as it happens. This is 100% arabica sourced in Colombia, from Rainforest Alliance certified farms, and Kenco attribute the character to high altitude growing: bright fruity notes, subtle aroma, a smooth mellow finish, and a well rounded coffee of medium strength and body.
A stated single country of origin on a supermarket capsule is genuinely uncommon, and it is the strongest thing this product has going for it. Our own catalogue carries it at the dark end of the roast scale, which sits oddly next to Kenco's own medium description, so treat Kenco's wording as the better guide here: this is not a dark, roasty capsule and it is not sold as one.
Thirty pence a cup, with no cheaper route
Thirty pence is the pod median, so this is a mid-priced drink in absolute terms. The problem is not the price, it is that the price has no floor under it. On the Nespresso Original system the same 30p buys you the branded capsule and 19p buys you a compatible one. Here, 30p buys you this or it buys you a different Tassimo drink at a similar number.
| Drink | System | Per drink | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tassimo Kenco Colombian | Tassimo, closed | £0.30 | £219 |
| Dolce Gusto Americano Intenso | Dolce Gusto, near-closed | £0.24 | £175 |
| by Amazon Colombian | Nespresso Original, open | £0.19 | £139 |
Eighty pounds a year is the standing cost of the closed system, and it is the honest thing to say to anybody choosing a machine rather than a capsule. If you already own the Tassimo, that money is spent and the sensible move is to buy the multipack and stop worrying: 80 discs at a time is meaningfully cheaper per cup than a 16-disc box from a supermarket.
What buyers consistently report
Positive and unfussy. Smooth is the word that recurs most, along with a good crema for a filter-style drink and satisfaction with the consistency, which is what the barcode is for. The people who like it describe it as an easy morning coffee rather than an exciting one.
The recurring criticism is strength. Buyers who wanted something bold report that this is not it, which matches Kenco's own medium description rather than contradicting it. There is no consistent pattern of discs failing to brew or jamming, which is the usual benefit of a system nobody else is allowed to manufacture for.
- Smooth is the word that recurs most, along with a surprising amount of foam for a long black drink.
- Consistency is rated highly, which is the barcode doing exactly what it was built to do.
- Too mild is the standard complaint, and it agrees with Kenco's own labelling.
- Brewing faults are rarely mentioned, which is the one genuine upside of a closed system.
Who should skip it
Everyone without a Tassimo machine, without qualification. Then anybody on a Tassimo who wants a strong dark cup, because Kenco have built and labelled this as a medium and the range has darker options in it. And anybody still choosing a pod machine: if running cost is anywhere near the top of your list, the closed systems are the wrong purchase, and this review is the clearest illustration of why.
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