Great machine, but what's up with the pods?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great espresso, thick crema, beautiful to look at. Best machine I have ever owned.

Cons: Confusing instruction manual, useless "pod" holder for people who don't know how to scoop coffee.

The Bottom Line: 
This machine is easily worth spending a few extra dollars over the cheaper pump espresso machines.

Author's Review
This is my third DeLonghi espresso machine over a period of about ten years. I work at home, so my espresso machines get a workout. I've had this one for about a week now, and have been totally satisfied thus far.

This makes the best espresso and lattés of any machine I have owned. It also looks great on the counter, though its footprint is a bit large if you only plan to use the machine occasionally.

The machine has an emulsion chamber within the filter basket that helps produce an incredibly thick "crema" on every espresso shot. It's amazing, and definitely adds to the "wow" factor if you're serving espresso to guests.

I read some reviews that complained about the water reservoir developing a leak. This doesn't have to be a problem; it's much easier anyway to simply leave the reservoir in place all of the time and use a jug to refill it.

The instruction manual is a bit anal retentive (and not very well translated). The oddest warning it contains is to let the machine preheat for at least 30 minutes(!) before brewing (this is NOT an option when I'm making my first coffee in the morning). True, the water becomes marginally hotter after the machine has warmed up for a while, but the machine brews a perfectly respectable espresso as soon as the "ready" light goes on (about 3-4 minutes).

The machine also makes a great "café Americano." Just use one scoop of espresso, and run about 8 oz of water through instead of just filling a demitasse.

One last note: what's up with the "pods"? Have we become so helpless and/or lazy that we're willing to pay three times as much for coffee in order not to have to scoop ground coffee into a filter basket? I mean, how hard is that? The "pod holder" that came with my unit (and added a few bucks to the price, no doubt) went straight into the back of a drawer, never to be seen again.