Bosch Tassimo Vivy 2 coffee pod machine review

• Easy to leave fingerprints on the machine
• Only compatible with Tassimo pods which are not the cheapest

Star rating: 4/5

Read our round-up of the best coffee pod machines, as well as our overall review of the best coffee machines.

The Bosch Tassimo Vivy 2 pod coffee machine is a clever beast. Using an in-built barcode reader, it scans compatible pods and adjusts its settings to suit each drink it makes. This makes for a supremely easy coffee-making process, with next-to-no-chance of the drink coming out horribly wrong.

On a more negative note, this does remove the small degree of personal input from the user which other pod coffee machines still allow, e.g. changing the length of the drink or foaming hot milk to the extent you prefer. Nonetheless, if ease-of-use is what you’re after, you couldn’t do better than the Vivy 2.

The instructions are marvellously easy to follow. All its components click perfectly into place, and most of the time taken to set it up is spent running water through the machine thrice, to ensure it’s in proper shape to prepare your drinks before first use.

The separate cleaning instructions, which are housed in a small niche near the base of the machine, are a little more involved, but still very well illustrated.

The tank capacity is enough for three or four coffees. Fortunately, the tank is easy to refill. It slots in and out of the side of the machine effortlessly, yet securely.

The Vivy 2 is easy to store, with a small, shallow footprint and a relatively short power cable. Since the machine is smart-looking and made with quality materials, you may prefer to leave it on show.

One minor criticism from a maintenance perspective is that it’s hard to avoid leaving fingermarks on the top of the machine after loading or unloading the pods. Other than that, the machine is easy to clean.

Another potential pitfall is the price of the pods. Tassimo machines only accept official Tassimo ‘T-Discs’, which locks the user into paying the brand’s prices. These tend to be particularly high relative to others on the market. This begs the question: do their pods offer a premium experience?

For users who like flavoured coffees, hot chocolates and so on, we’d be inclined to say yes. Their branded collaborations, such as the Costa caramel latte, absolutely match up to their costlier high street equivalents, effectively giving the user an expensive drink at a moderately expensive price.

However, users who want a machine to make simpler coffee drinks, such as an Americano, will likely find an alternative, such as a machine compatible with Nespresso pods, more cost-effective.

Photo: Alice Ostapjuk

The pods are recycled in the UK by a company called TerraCycle, which specialises in turning difficult-to-recycle materials into hard plastics. If you wish to recycle your pods, as well as the silvery wrappers from pod packaging, you'll need to take them to one of around 130 drop-off points around the country.

Unfortunately, these centres are unevenly distributed throughout the UK, with plenty of options in London, the south and the east of England, but only two locations north of Leeds, just one in north Wales and none in Cornwall. Check this map of TerraCycle collection points to see if there's one near you.

An instruction leaflet packaged with the Vivy 2 should be updated to reflect the option to recycle T-pods. At the moment, it simply depicts a user throwing a used pod into a litter bin.

We were pleased to discover the machine itself also comes in predominantly recyclable packaging, and is packaged space-efficiently.

Star ratings
Functionality: 4/5
Results: 4/5
Ease of cleaning: 5/5
Value for money: 3.5/5
Overall rating: 4/5

Specifications
Supported pods: T-Discs (Tassimo)
Tank capacity: 0.7l
Milk frother: no
Power: 1300W

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This review was last updated in May 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.