An Analysis of Nespresso

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, UK) prices. But like everything, it depends.

On the other hand, coffee brewed in your $10 stovetop espresso machine will run you $2.50 for a bag that lasts 2 weeks, and will add roughly four minutes to your morning coffee ritual.

I'm curious about these machines, but the thing that keeps me on the fence is that it would suddenly make coffee drinking expensive.

That said, grinding takes time and requires frequent cleaning of the grinder (in my experience). So it's a question of modest/moderate flavor improvement vs inconvenience.

I am a big fan of Nespresso. It saves me a lot of time, a little money, and consistently provides (for my tastebuds) better coffee than I can get within a 3 mile radius of where I live. (somewhere in los angeles).

I buy capsules 50 at a time, for .70c a capsule + 7 dollars shipping, no tax. So that comes to about 42 dollars total, or $0.84 per cup of coffee.

That enables me to consume 2 capsules per day for $1.68 per day, or $11.76 per week, and usually I drink less on weekends.

Coffee sold locally in the stores of high quality here tends to be a minimum of 10 dollars per pound, and normally to really "select" one I prefer, would cost around $13.00. I like to brew my coffee strong, and still would drink 2 cups of coffee per day, so this tends to run out for me about 6 days of my 7 day week.

So while its slightly cheaper for me to drink nespresso, its almost the same price.

But, with nespresso, I go from rolling out of bed to the kitchen, and within 30 seconds I have really good tasting coffee, no mess, and I can easily select the type of pour I want, capsule I want, etc. It is truly extremely convenient.

Furthermore they are an example of outstanding customer service. My machine had a malfunction once. Called them on first day, they over-nighted me a replacement machine while I sent my in for free repair. Got the original back a few days later. Hardly any downtime w/o a machine. Total cost: $0.00, and the machine wasn't even under warranty. Obviously they want to keep selling me coffee. I have no issue with that.

Finally, they offer recycling programs which work good, so I don't feel like I'm being a bad citizen of the earth by supporting them.

I see it as sort of a Spotify of coffee. You pay repeatedly one company for good service, and if it meets your needs, it is going to save you time and money if its something you do a lot. For those that are into coffee on a deeper level, is sort of those who are into music on a deeper level.

For me with regards to music, I am a bit of a control freak, I like to know what bit rate file I am playing, I like to back them up carefully and managing my music collection I invest time and have lots of pride about - so Spotify (While I generally like their service), is not for me.

The same can be said of Nespresso. If you love the entire process of making espresso, getting into the gear, and the execution of how its made and putting that kind of time into it and getting a specific kind of joy out of it, Nespresso would probably not be the right choice.

I guess I have enough hobbies, but I still really like well made espresso at home. Nespresso is right there in that intersection.

Nestle doesn't have the best record when it comes to corporate profit vs care for humanity.