I received mine today. I must say - I am very pleased with this product!!
The instructions are very clear and easy to understand. When I received mine, I first washed the parts with warm water and a tiny bit of dish soap. Then I flushed it per the instructions, washed again, and flushed again. It doesn't say to do all of this (just flush it), but I figured it'd be a good way to prep it for the first use.
I decided to go ahead and brew a cup. I used the supplied Dark Roast coffee pods. I filled up the water reservoir and turned it on. The biggest downside of this machine is that it takes 90 seconds to heat up. Once the light steadied, I inserted two coffee pods, locked the lid and hit the button for an 8oz cup and off it went. Brew time is relatively quick.
First impressions (dark roast):
Aroma: average. While Folgers is far from my ideal cup of coffee, to me it smells the best. The supplied Dark Roast smelled like any other coffee.
Appearance: excellent. I used a Bodum double walled glass. The coffee poured creamy looking, and settled very very black with a nice creamy top. Reminds me of the espressos I had in Italy.
First taste (black): slightly below average. A little more bitter than I like. Temperature seems to be great: much hotter than my 12-cup coffee pot.
Second taste (with 2 measured TEAspoons of sugar): Sugar hides the bitterness, quite enjoyable now.
Third taste (same ^ but with 1.5oz skim milk): Wow, still very dark! My Starbucks coffee turns a shade lighter with milk.. this stuff doesn't! Coffee is now how I usually prepare mine and is very delicious.
At this point I wondered how much coffee I could get out of two pods. Surely it couldn't just be 8 ounces! So I put another mug in, and hit the 8oz button again. The second 8 ounces came quicker as the water had already been heated. I did the same taste testing as above, and it seemed equal. So, two pods are good for 16oz so far. Let's go for 24oz! I filled the reservoir with a little bit more water, let it heat and hit the 8oz brew button again. This time, the coffee started coming out watery. I halted the cycle by hitting the power button. No need to let it continue.
I opened up the top lid, and noticed that the pods were quite full with water. For a split second I thought to try and squeeze some water out and try brewing again, but I figured I made enough coffee for now so I dumped them out. Overall clean up is a breeze.
Will this replace my 12 cup coffee maker? Maybe. I think I will keep using it for myself, but I will still hold onto my 12-cup for when I have guests. I look forward to trying other coffee flavors.