pre-ground coffee

With the prevailing technology, machines dispense freeze-dried or pre-ground coffee into cups.

In an interview before the company's annual shareholders' meeting, executives said the company will also quit using flavor-locked bags of pre-ground coffee next month.

She also began assisting her stepfather in the coffee mill where he was a manager, stacking bags of pre-ground coffee.

"If similar beans and similar roast was used, a fresh home-ground bean will always taste better than a capsule or, indeed, a bag of pre-ground coffee."

The machine has a pre-ground coffee option for faster drinks and an aroma system that pre-wets your coffee for improved extraction.

Illy coffee is packaged as whole beans, pre-ground coffee, Easy Serving Espresso (E.S.E.) pods, and iperEspresso capsules.

The company has also promised to start grinding all its brewed coffee in stores, which will bring back the pungent aroma many customers have missed since the company started using flavor-locked bags of pre-ground coffee years ago.

For instance, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is considered a specialty-coffee company, even though it roasts tens of millions of pounds of coffee a year, and people are most familiar with its automated Keurig K-cup machines that utilize pre-ground coffee.