No electronics in this video. It's an odd tangent: Let's take a look inside. Dolce Gusto Coffee cartridges. So these are the pods you put into the coffee machines and when you activate them at basically a spike was down through this outer plastic film and it injects water in and then the coffee comes out the bottom here.

But what's inside them is quite complex. So let's Zoom down a bit so we can get a closer look at this and I shall open one. I should get a little tub to put the coffee in. It's worth mentioning, this holds roughly five grams of coffee.

Incidentally, this also holds roughly five grams of coffee. That seems the standardized quantity for uh, these coffee capsules. So if I open it like this inside, we can see a plastic film above the coffee. and if I then cut that plastic film away and tip the coffee out.

There is a layer of metal foil down there, and Watch What Happens is that when the unit is used and the water is injected in, the pressure builds up. It pushes that foil down and underneath that file is a series of spakes. Let's see if I can get this out. I might have to push it out from the back.

I shall push it out from the back, destroying it in the process most likely. But that's all right, it's fine. its name name of science. oh that is not coming out very easily.

Let me just try and cut it to encourage it to liberate. There it is. Interestingly, it has the Black version of the disc. It's very different.

Okay, so I'll show you a different version of this. This one you can see it's got lots of little uh, pyramids sticking up and what actually happens is when the pressure pushes the file down that it punctures the foil and then the coffee effectively flows through holes in this. This is different to the other cartridge I looked at that is interesting and then it once it goes through, there's a sort of Matrix of holes here. Let me show you the other one that I took a picture of.

hold on I should just grab that coffee everywhere. Here it is I shall zoom out a little bit I shall Focus down onto there. So another cardio took apart. There was this little plastic disc and on that disc there were these spikes sticking up and uh I thought unlike uh, this one which has little holes through it, it's only got about eight, nine, ten.

it's got 12 holes through it. Um, but this one doesn't have the holes through it and when the foil is pushed down, it sits in these flat surfaces and the liquid actually spreads sideways, goes over the edge here and then goes underneath and when it goes underneath, it then has to go through a matrix like this to find its way out. I should actually put that up the other way. it would make more sense.

so it comes over the edge and then Finds Its Way through this sort of Matrix and then it drops out through the unit, out the little spout and I think the reason for that is basically to ensure all the things are mixed because these aren't just used for coffee, these are also used for uh, pre-creamed drinks and drinking chocolate and stuff like that. I Shall put that out the way. now you have seen what it looks like I shall bring in a focus Aid just so the camera knows where to look because otherwise it will be Focus your Fark uh as Eve often says. but let's take a look in these other cartridges then because that was a coffee.

So in summary, for the coffee one with the ground coffee, it has that sort of plastic film perforated plastic film. The water is injected through by a spike that goes through the outer plastic layer, go through that film, go through the coffee and then finds once it's pierced the foil which breaks the seal. it then Finds Its way through this and drips out of the bottom of the unit. Let's take a look at our Cafe Olay cartridge.

This is nothing with milk covered milk and when you open these ones inside, you see it's actually just filled with basically dried milk, creamer and a ground coffee and not ground coffee. It's basically instant coffee. Uh, I don't think there's sweetener in that. Hold on.

Wait Can I Taste it? Um, yeah, no, No speed. No. So that is basically just, uh, the contents of one of these packets. Basically these little sashes you get of, uh, the drink.

and this time when the the water's pushed through it, once again, you can see the file at the bottom. It presses down that and it pierces the foil and there. Once again, it's got that, uh, little plastic disc in it. Let me see if I can push this one out more successfully than last time.

They don't come out easily, do they? Here is the file. There's a disk let's push out and it is just basically sitting into a little air up there that forces that. And I'm guessing that this is where the advantage of this convoluted route comes. That you know by going through all those different channels, it means that by the time it finally comes out, you're not going to have lumps or anything like that is, even if there's a sticky lump bit that with the water flowing plastic trying to get out, it will probably, uh, dissolve those.

Okay, so I'm guessing flat white is more or less the same. Let's just open them all. Flight weight is more or less the same. What about chocolate? Chino Which is a two cartridge system extra? Super expensive.

This one is probably the drinking chocolate. Oh no, let me taste this sugar and cocoa. so that's the same, right? And what about the creamer for this one Which puts out the creamy white milkiness? Is that just creamer or is it sweetener as well? Slightly sweet, but it's mainly just tastes like the standard you know coffee creamer so that's what's in these. Uh I'll let you decide yourself if they're good value.

they're really a it's a very expensive way of making drinks, but I guess you get the pleasure of the machine actually making it for you. and also because it's putting the liquid in Under Pressure It does ERA aerate the drink and makes it kind of frothy, which is quite good, but then again, so does this. This is a frothing agent in it, but this is done purely by the pressure of the machine pushing the steam through and these ones that the easiest to refill appear to be these little Nespresso type cartridges. All that's in the Nespresso cartridge is it's basically the file and it's the coffee.

and then there's a file at the back that the spikes when they come down just Pierce through and they inject the the water through the hat. and you do get the refillable pods for those that can be as simple as uh, this one which is a little plastic one with a lid with the gauze in it and you just basically put coffee and tap it down, level it off and then you just close it and that's your cartridge. but they're interesting things. They do work just uh I guess they're just a sort of luxury item.

It's just the niceness of something making you a drink automatically as opposed to actually preparing yourself. But that is it. That is what's inside these cartridges. Well, it isn't.

Now, it's not inside the cartridges anymore. But now you know basically what's in these cartridges. It's that strange system of, uh, this convoluted path with the foil seal being punctured and then the uh, the Water being forced past the powder until it's all mixed up. I've only had one exploding the machine that just went everywhere for some inexplicable reason.

Um, I wouldn't don't recommend trying to refill these. Uh, that doesn't work that well. It's because everywhere I've tried it, it wasn't a success. These ones, though, were a perfect success.

So there we go. That's the coffee pod exploration.