Aspects described herein relate to improvements in beverage machines and methods of brewing beverages therein. According to some embodiments, a beverage consumable includes one or more through-holes configured to encode information. A beverage machine may include a light source configured to pass light through the through-holes of the beverage consumable. The beverage machine may include a detector to detect a pattern of light that has passed through the through-holes of the beverage consumable. Information such as, but not limited to, beverage consumable type and brew parameters, may be encoded by the through-holes of the beverage consumable. In some embodiments, the beverage consumable may be in the form of a compacted beverage tablet that does not require packaging to retain its shape.

The present invention discloses industrial processes of compaction of roast and ground coffee to obtain compacted coffee tablets adapted for preparing coffee-based beverages by means of extraction by a pressurized flow with a flow pressure bigger than 5 bar, including beverages of the espresso type and similar, and presenting advantageous features in terms of extraction efficacy and form keeping of the compacted coffee tablet, as well as in terms of production efficiency and capacity.

The present invention further discloses compacted coffee tablets adapted for preparing coffee-based beverages and presenting advantageous features in terms of efficacy of coffee extraction by a pressurized extraction flow.