ESE coffee pods for espresso machines

What an ESE serving is

ESE stands for Easy Serving Espresso. It is a disc of filter paper 44 mm across with a single pressed dose of ground coffee sealed inside, around seven grams of it, tamped before it ever leaves the roastery. The paper is the filter: water is pushed through it and the coffee stays where it is. Because the dose and the tamp are fixed in the factory, every shot starts from the same place, and that is the whole point of the format.

ESE is an open standard. It was drawn up by illy in Italy and roasters across the trade have used it ever since, which is why it still matters: a pod is a pod, so a serving made by one roaster fits a machine built by another. You are not tied to a single brand for as long as you own the machine.

Which machines take an ESE serving

You need an espresso machine that can hold a pod, which means either a dedicated ESE basket that drops into the portafilter or a pod adapter supplied with the machine. Plenty of domestic espresso machines come with both baskets in the box, one for ground coffee and one for pods, so it is worth going through the drawer before you decide you do not have one.

What an ESE serving is not is a pad for a Senseo machine. A soft coffee pad is wider, holds more coffee and is brewed at low pressure; an ESE pod is smaller, harder and made for the high pressure of an espresso machine. They do not swap in either direction. Nor is it a capsule: a capsule is a sealed plastic or aluminium container that fits only its own system, while an ESE pod is paper and fits any machine built to the standard.

Pulling a shot with a pod

Swap the ground-coffee basket in your portafilter for the pod basket. Unwrap the serving, lay it in flat and fold any paper edge down inside the basket, so that nothing sits between the metal and the group head. Do not tamp it, because it has been tamped already and pressing it only makes the shot run slow. Lock the handle in, start the pump and stop when you have the volume you want in the cup. Afterwards, knock the pod out, rinse the basket and leave it to dry.

If the shot runs through far too quickly, the pod is usually sitting off centre or the basket is not the one meant for pods. If it crawls, check that no paper has folded over the rim.

Why people choose ESE

• One fixed dose, so no grinder, no scale and no guessing at the tamp.
• Next to nothing to clean up: the grounds leave with the paper.
• Each serving is wrapped on its own, so an open box keeps far better than an open bag of ground coffee.
• Paper and coffee, rather than plastic or aluminium.
• Room for several blends side by side without a bag of each going stale in the cupboard.

The trade-off is control. With loose ground coffee you can change the dose and the grind to suit the bean and the day; with a pod you take what the roaster decided. For a straight espresso, most people never miss the difference.

Keeping them fresh

A wrapped pod is protected from air, which is most of what ruins ground coffee, but it is not immortal. Keep the box somewhere cool, dry and dark, away from the cooker and out of the sun, and work through it rather than hoard it. There is a best before date on the box; a pod that has spent a year in a warm cupboard will still brew, it simply will not taste of much.

ESE servings at Café du Jour

Use the filters on the left to narrow the range down by strength and by flavour, from mild to strong and from chocolate and nuts through to fruit and flowers. The format is kept alive largely by Italian roasters: illy drew up the standard, and names such as Kimbo and Lavazza make servings to it. If it turns out that your machine takes something else after all, our coffee pods page covers the other systems, and our customer service can tell you which of the two your machine is asking for.