Not only does it make great espresso and regular coffee, it is by far the easiest and quickest espresso maker I have ever used. It reads the barcodes on the pods specifically made for the machine to determine how much water and timing is needed for each type of coffe and pod. Including heating time, it only takes 30 seconds to deliver an espresso with the push of one button. I usually make doubles so it might take closer to a minute for me. What’s great is there is no mess and it even ejects the used pods into a removable container built into the right side of the machine. The machine comes with 8 samples of coffee pods and 4 samples of espresso pods if you want to try the blends before buying a large number of them. I have found that the strongest coffee and espresso pods are the best.. The pods are rather pricey, but I think they are well worth it given the quality of output and convenience. There are costlier models of the same machine that include milk frothers and/cups etc.. However, I have found that a small battery power whisk type frother is better and is much easier to clean.