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An Analysis of Nespresso

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Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#201

Post by grkvlt »

carlob wrote: post #177
conradfr wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Nespresso at work and a French press at home (because someone gave it to me) with "supermarket" grounded coffee. Nespresso is marginally better and clearly more convenient (event though I drink tea and French press is mostly the same process so I don't care) but I can't shake the feeling it's too expensive, they make crazy margins and I hate the pompous stores (e.g the Opera one) with the snob employees (relax,…

> (still better than what you mostly drink in the U.S :)) You'd be surprised at how much better the average coffee is in a large American city wrt to the abomination you call espresso in Paris. :)

That's why in Paris I buy a thing called a Cafe Noisette (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caf%C3%A9_noisette) which is basically a large espresso with some warmed (not frothy, though) milk on the side.

Never seen it on sale outside of France, though, but any cafe there will know what you mean if you ask for one. It's one of my favourite coffees, and I now ask for a large espresso with milk on the side in cafes in the UK and elsewhere, to replicate the experience.

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#202

Post by keithpeter »

calpaterson wrote: post #56
keithpeter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take the OA's point, however most of us (I assume) will be using a cafetiere or a paper filter based coffee maker at home rather than doing the full artisan roast and grind. In my case, I'm using pre-ground coffee in foil bags from the local supermarket at around £3 to £4 per 227g standard pack. I make myself a large diluted coffee each morning using a 3-cup mokapot. The 5 minute prep time isn't onerous and the eco…

I have a rhino grinder ( http://coffeehit.co.uk/rhino-hand-grinder-1005 ) with my 3-cup in the morning. Freshly grinding it makes the coffee taste a little better but mainly it lets you keep coffee longer because beans keep longer than pre-ground coffee. When you get to the bottom of the bag the coffee is still as good as at the start.

Comments suggest so-so with expresso but OK with Moka pot. Will purchase on the grounds (sic) that it will be better than my food mixer grinder add-on.

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#203

Post by keithpeter »

mjlee wrote: post #55
keithpeter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take the OA's point, however most of us (I assume) will be using a cafetiere or a paper filter based coffee maker at home rather than doing the full artisan roast and grind. In my case, I'm using pre-ground coffee in foil bags from the local supermarket at around £3 to £4 per 227g standard pack. I make myself a large diluted coffee each morning using a 3-cup mokapot. The 5 minute prep time isn't onerous and the eco…

I have found that the biggest improvement in taste comes from using freshly roasted beans. Freshly grinding those beans comes a very close second. That is to say, freshly ground stale beans still taste stale. Pre-ground fresh beans still taste OK after a week (but won’t be suitable for an espresso machine.) The biggest difference in taste comes from selecting specific beans and roasting them carefully. You may or may…

I'd suggest buying a bag or two from a speciality roaster such as www.hasbean.co.uk Get it pre-ground and see if you prefer the difference. If you do then consider getting a grinder for another leap in quality

OK I ordered

   Nicaragua Finca La Escondida

   Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere Kore Natural
ground for expresso and will try both with friends/SO to see which we like.

('Funky' is good).

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#204

Post by dpark »

austinjp wrote: post #105
eps wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are compost only if you put them there. Nespresso has a pod recycling program in place as does pretty much every developed country (not for pods, of course, but the aluminum).

While this is true, it's worth noting that recycling is not the preferred step in eco consumerism. Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, compost. Nespresso pods cannot be reused, unless someone has hacked a kludge for that, and I doubt the recycling process composts the grounds (more info on that would be great). Extracting aluminium from its ore is hugely energy-consuming. So the most sensible thing to do is simply not us…

In the US, at least, Nespresso's recycling program extract the aluminum and composts the grounds. http://www.nespresso.com/ecolaboration/us/en/article/9/3068/...

Also, a Moka pot is definitely not the same. I like what comes out of a Moka pot if it's brewed well, but it isn't really espresso.

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#205

Post by gambiting »

xenu420 wrote: post #57

What is wrong with just using these: https://imgur.com/kXtDUnV

Nesspreso(and Tassimo) make coffee + proper froffed milk. As in - if I use pods for latte, it makes delicious, layered coffee with milk at the right temperature. For me it's cleaning - the caffetiere and whatever you used to froth milk are two things which I don't want to worry about cleaning before/after having my coffee. It's all about convinience, really.

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#206

Post by jarek »

stinos wrote: post #165
jarek wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I love the gold-plated set, but: "Your suspicion is likely wrong though - I have no science to back this up but am 100% sure in blind tests people with normally developed ears would pick the gold cables from the copper one. The difference in sound is just too big to ignore (or at least the difference between the gold vs copper I have here at home is). Unlike the improvements you compare them to, which can us…

Either you measure it and do a double-blind or it's just another subjective perception. See those tests that suggest people can't tell expensive wine from cheap wine without context. I'm not sure if that is entirely comparable to what I meant. I am not claiming freshly grounds tastes better or has some other pretty subjective property. My claim is rather that I believe when doing an experiment where you'd for instanc…

> Again, I believe solely for the reason that the freshly ground I drink has a completely different taste from all other pre-ground ones I drank in the last years.

Well, you say "completely different", but if two kinds of coffee are completely different, how would you describe the difference between coffee and lime juice? There must be some degrees.

For better or worse some of the people who buy expensive cables and AC filters believe the sound is substantially different. I don't know if they'd say "completely different" but "completely changes the way the album sounds" seems likely...

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#207

Post by amelius »

josteink wrote: post #178
xsace wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I was speaking about the water itself. Do you filter or use bottle one?

Tap works for me and I'm picky, but I recognize that not everyone in the world lives somewhere where the tap-water is usually better than the bottled water bought in stores.

Mineral content in tap-water can vary, even between places where tap-water is very well potable. Minerals can affect taste, according to [1] (I didn't check myself).

[1] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/06/06/the-sec...

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#208

Post by ska »

bambax wrote: post #76
jasonkester wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real espresso pulled by a professional will run you €0.90 in Europe (unless you live in a the center of Paris, in which case you might get to spend as much as €1.50). There's usually one of those professionals within 50 yards of your home, possibly even on your walking route to work. So it's not always even saving you money. Certainly compared to driving out of your way to a Starbucks and paying US (or god forbid,…

> unless you live in a the center of Paris, in which case you might get to spend as much as €1.50 Or €2. Or €2.50... But I don't really get why people are comparing Nespresso to having coffee outside the house. I need an expresso the moment I wake up, before I wash, before I dress. It's really not about the money; it's about convenience, reliability. Peace of mind. Nespresso makes uncertainty go away. Your morning co…

Why not compare it to better coffee at home, for less TCO, from an automatic espresso machine? That's pretty easy to achieve.

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#209

Post by [deleted] »

bambax wrote: post #76
jasonkester wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real espresso pulled by a professional will run you €0.90 in Europe (unless you live in a the center of Paris, in which case you might get to spend as much as €1.50). There's usually one of those professionals within 50 yards of your home, possibly even on your walking route to work. So it's not always even saving you money. Certainly compared to driving out of your way to a Starbucks and paying US (or god forbid,…

> unless you live in a the center of Paris, in which case you might get to spend as much as €1.50 Or €2. Or €2.50... But I don't really get why people are comparing Nespresso to having coffee outside the house. I need an expresso the moment I wake up, before I wash, before I dress. It's really not about the money; it's about convenience, reliability. Peace of mind. Nespresso makes uncertainty go away. Your morning co…

[deleted]

Re: An Analysis of Nespresso

#210

Post by IneffablePigeon »

theCodeStig wrote: post #167
kazinator wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't. Freshly roasted is. The aroma and flavor of coffee degrades rapidly after roasting, whether you grind it or not. Grinding it accelerates the process, but you can easily get coffee in unground form, and the difference between ground and unground is visually obviously: a vendor can't sneak you ground coffee if you want unground. How long ago beans were roasted isn't visually obvious.

No, again ;-). Its freshly roasted, freshly ground, AND freshly brewed (at the right parameters). That's the gist of it, but of course the quality of the greens before roasting, the roast quality, and grind consistency all come into play. Also don't forget to use good water. In short: quality in, quality out. Any discrepancy of the above will lead to a sub-par result.

Sub-optimal perhaps. I think sub-par is optimistic about the average cup of coffee.
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