I mistakenly thought the Delonghi Distinta was a pod coffee machine. It does take coffee bags which you can purchase from Harvey Norman but they don't have various strengths or varieties of coffee to choose from. It is a ground coffee machine which is good if you like to grind coffee beans or buy ground coffee. This machine looks good and works well but be aware it doesn't use pods.

We have had this machine since Christmas and we are in love with it! No more making press-the-button robot coffee with Lavazza or Map capsules! Using the ESE pods you use a "puck" of vacuum sealed real ground coffee - you can smell it's real coffee when you open the pack, and with at least 1/10 of the waste going into landfill, much more environmentally friendly. We have the option to use ground coffee as well, but don't see the need when the ESE pods are just as good as ground in smell and taste, and so easy. With this machine, you control how your coffee is made, we've now learnt about restretto, espresso and blonding, and what makes a good coffee! The milk steamer is great too, much faster than our previous machine, which was a Lavazza with a steamer, and which served us well but which sadly died after 3 years. IMHO milk steamers win hands-down over milk frothers. Delonghi is a well regarded Italian coffee machine maker and they haven't let us down with this model. It's easy to use, and an introduction for us on making coffee like a barista. And as an added bonus it's a quality product and well made, and it looks great on our kitchen bench next to our matching our Distinta Bronze toaster and kettle! :) Very happy indeed!