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Interesting! Please author, pull through all the types of pods, and give us a tasting-analysis and subjective rating! You did not like the one you tried, but each type do taste quite differently.
I had a higher end Nespresso. The killer was how little espresso it makes. I don't consider myself a heavy coffee drinker because I only drink one cup in the morning. However it took 4 Nespresso pods (black ones) to get a decent amount of caffeine and not get headaches. And I usually order single shots when I go out.
"Speciality coffee doesn’t offer anything to the consumer who wants to drink great espresso at home, but doesn’t want a new hobby." This is an amazing take away, and I think many coffee roasters, gin distillers and beer Brewers ought remember it.
I'm still happy grinding my own beans and slow brewing them in a vacuum press. Seems though that the all-in-one roast to cup would be tastier for a cup of coffee (not an espresso).
I drank Nespresso for a few years at work. Always went for the dark/espresso roast but it never compared to a decent cup of coffee or espresso. I could tolerate it, but it was barely a step up from a gas station, vending machine joe.
What is wrong with just using these: https://imgur.com/kXtDUnV
Here's what's wrong: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9586941
I don't think the pods are expensive. At 70-80 cents each, that's under a fourth the cost of having an espresso of comparable quality made for you outside of your home.
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,…
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 coffee becomes one less thing to worry about. It's going to be perfect. Every time.
Nespresso doesn't try to hide the fact that they're ridiculously expensive; their stores look like jewelry shops and are tended by weirdly handsome individuals with perfectly manicured hands, and one or two guards at the front will open the door for you.
Or if you prefer, you can have capsules delivered at home, in a 2-hour window, by a special messenger on a scooter... for free!! (nobody else does this, not Amazon, not anyone).
They can afford all this and more, and people pay for it, and can't get enough of it. It's like iPhones.
What is wrong with just using these: https://imgur.com/kXtDUnV
Here's what's wrong: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9586941
The comment above suggests using a stovetop or Moka pot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot
Two very different things.
The site is unavailable so I don't know what's in the article, but from the comments I gather it's looking at the benefits of owning a Nespresso machine at home? Here in France everyone has a Nespresso machine or two (I have three); you can buy Nespresso capsules from Nespresso shops, or alternative capsules in any supermarket, anywhere. What Nespresso sells is simplicity and consistency, and an above-average taste.…
> Here in France everyone has a Nespresso machine or two (I have three). I'm French, I live in France, and I have no such machine, and none of my friends has one. YMMV. According to a 2014 report of the "Autorité de la Concurrence", 25% of French families have this kind of machine, with 85% of those being real Nestlé products. Among my friends, some reject hard capsules for their cost. The cost of Nespresso coffee is…
Okay, that's certainly possible.
> and none of my friends has one
I would very much question that.
(Edit: it's always unpleasant to be downvoted, but (at the risk of being downvoted more) I maintain that it's very unlikely that in a random group of French people of a reasonable size you would find zero owner of a Nespresso machine. Now, if the group is in fact not random and if the parent selects his friends on the criteria that they never buy products from big food conglomerates, then maybe. Still, hard to believe).
And in many companies (all of my clients for instance) vending machines are replaced with Nespresso machines placed in a corner of the office, with everyone contributing to the buying of capsules.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could say the same thing with Gillette blades. Sure, one blade is a fraction of the cost of getting your beard shaved at a barber's shop. But it is still much more expensive than the alternatives. If you compare Nespresso pods to raw coffee you pay a lot of money for 500g of coffee.
With regard to the Gillette blades, get a RazorPit. It has saved me a ton of money. The blades stay almost like new for months. I am not affiliated with the product in any way.
I bought a "real" coffee machine for me and my colleagues (Jura impressa F50 -- https://us.jura.com/en/homeproducts/machines/IMPRESSA-F50-Cl... ) and, despite being a bit more complicated than a nespresso one, it cost less (despite buying pretty good coffee beans, freshly roasted, and despite the high cost of the machine), and the taste is IMHO better (but this is only a personal opinion). The only cons: cleaning a b…
I have the classic Quick Mill 820 (around $600) and buy quality beans from a local coffee roaster: $30-35 for a pound of their best kinds. Using 7 gr. for a standard espresso yields 70 cups, thus 50 cents per cup.
Nespresso capsules are at least 75 cents. The flavor might be the same, the comfort might be higher... but it's more expensive, and you'll never learn how to make a cup of coffee yourself.
Bonus track of buying beans and grinding them yourself: you can make a pour-over filter coffee, a cold brew, a cafetiere, Moka pot coffee with the same ingredients: water and freshly-ground coffee, and enjoy the variety of flavors because of the differences in making the drink. Try that with Nespresso...