Designed for use with the FLAVIA family of home brewers, Fresh Packs come in a variety of flavors and brands, giving you a truly customized single serving of coffee. Fresh Packs feature FLAVIA’s Fresh Release technology, using hot water to release the flavors and freshness of the Fresh Pack, delivering amazing flavor every time.
After brewing, simply toss the used Fresh Pack, making for a convenient and neat clean up option. Compatible only with the FLAVIA brewer, Fresh Packs come in many delicious coffee, tea and hot chocolate flavors from the FLAVIA brand that you love. Choose from flavors that include Italian Roast, DOVE Hot Chocolate, Sumatra Blend and Earl Grey Tea. Fresh Packs give you the coffee you love without having to wait for an entire pot to brew.
If you're used to the little hard plastic containers or "pods" used in most other single-serve coffee makers like the Tassimo or Keurig, the Flavia will seem a little different. They use a flat packet instead, something like a large ketchup pack to hold a single serving of coffee grounds (or tea leaves) along with a filter paper.
There are more than 30 different types of drinks available for the Flavia, including many varieties of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and even some unique drinks like the Milky Way or Mars swirls.
There are several Flavia models, with the Fusion being the main one intended for typical home use. The larger machines are better for the office, unless you have a really busy kitchen filled with coffee-lovers at home. It holds about 1 and a half quarts of water and the controls let you choose whether you are brewing for coffee and tea, hot chocolate or specialty drinks that take extra milk packets (like a foamy cappuccino).
Each pack is opened up by the machine for brewing, and then removed when you're done. There are no loose wet grounds to get dumped out or filers to replace. Once the machine is on and ready to brew, you just have to open the front and insert your desired coffee packet.
Use the controls to choose a brewing cycle, and you can also control how much water is used when making one of the coffee packets. That gets you decide how strong (or weak) you cup will be. Hot air and water expand the little bag until it pops the seam at the bottom and brewing begins.
When you cup is finished, you open up the front and take out the used packet. At the end of the cycle, the machine gives it a final blow of hot air so it's not wet and dripping to be disposed of. A very nice feature.
That is all you need to know in order to brew with a Flavia. Insert the packet, select the brew cycle, and wait a few seconds to have a cup of coffee. If you are using one of the other models, you'll find the operating process to be about the same. The main procedure is to simply put in the packet, and let the machine do the work.
More sophisticated models like the Flavia Creation 200 or 400 offer a few more control options for brewing volume and a larger water tank, but basically operate in exactly the same way as the smaller Fusion.
There is also an automatic cleaning cycle that you should run periodically (check the manual for suggested frequency) to help keep the machine clean inside and to remove any excess water scale or residue. It's not usually a major problem since the water tank has a built-in filter unit to keep the water that goes through the machine extra clean and free from impurities.
