I've been having the same issues with the alto pods. In my experience the boxes wrapped in plastic are good, the boxes with the white tape tab are mostly bad. The ceramic vuse golden tobacco pods different in color kinda pissed off because they are supposed to be both light in color. this has happened to me with 3 4 other packages and the News How to fix a burnt alto pod Reusable coffee pods with high failure rate Why Does My Cart Taste Burnt on the First Hit? (Fix It in 10 Seconds)