# My Nespresso adventures...



## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Recently got a Nespresso machine, an entry-level Inissia which was just under £50 - obviously Nespresso as a concept is not for most of us on this forum and I've been on here long enough/appreciate good coffee enough to fully understand why that is (I didn't drink coffee for 20 odd years because I thought it was terrible, then I discovered speciality and the rest is history)

Having said that, I think these machines do serve a purpose, and given the vast range of pods you can buy nowadays, the convenience, the price, all things considered, many of us are likely to come across one either at the office, or at a friend's house, or at an airport... Or even just to have at home to serve to guests you don't particularly like. Whatever.

I wanted to document my "adventures" - which will basically be my experiences with the machine, and as part of this I thought I'd just go through the pods I use and give my thoughts. If this serves no other purpose than as a diary to myself, that's fine!

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Nespresso own brand:

(1) Kazaar: this is apparently the strongest, most intense pod in the Nespresso range. I even read I think on this forum a few people stating that this pod in particular was much better than the rest of the range. With this in mind, Kazaar was the first pod I tried but to be honest I wasn't too pleased. It's very dark! You can taste it, but also I cut open the used pod after and the coffee was pitch black. I suppose it fits the description of "exceptionally intense and syrupy" but for me, this didn't taste good at all.

(2) Rosabaya: with the above Kazaar experience in mind, I wanted to try something more "high quality" - this one is 100% Arabica, a blend of Colombians apparently. Time for some honesty... This really surprised me! You can taste that it's arabica, it's drinkable, not too dark, no usual bad quality bitterness, at least not as much. I even picked up some red fruit notes and then saw on the website that this apparently tastes of "red fruit, reminiscient of wine" - fair enough, this was very impressive by my initially low expectations - very nice acidity. I've had two of these now and really enjoyed them.

(3) Dulsao: another 100% arabica, this time from a blend of Brazilians, and apparently slightly lighter than the Colombian. It tastes pretty much as it sounds, and again I have to say this is very drinkable... Again I am surprised, this doesn't taste terrible at all. Along with the Rosabaya these made very drinkable shots.

(4) Indriya: continuing on from the single origin range, beans from India - I think this is described as spicy, and darker than the Brazilian and Colombian offerings - can taste the spice, this is pretty decent as well, especially if this sort of spicy coffee is to your liking. I must say, this whole single origin range is quite impressive, relatively speaking.

(5) Ristretto: as the name suggests, this is intended as a ristretto, however my machine doesn't have a pre-set ristretto setting and I wasn't going to faff about with stopping the pour early. Had it as a regular espresso (or rather, what is regular by Nespresso standards) and it was quite syrupy? I'm clutching at straws here... It was alright, will give this another go and elaborate but nothing unusual about this one.

(6) Selection Vintage 2014: yes, they've released what they claim is a vintage coffee. Green beans have been "aged" since 2014 apparently... I must admit, this was tasty. Relative, yes, but this I enjoyed. Difficult to pinpoint flavours but it was very easy to drink, can tell this is a slightly better quality than the other pods.

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SUPERMARKET BRANDS:

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Taylors of Harrogate:

(1) Brazil: I don't know why I bought these, was in Waitrose on the way back from getting the machine and wanted at least one non-Nespresso pod to compare... They're fine. 100% Arabica, a bit bland but not offensive - as seems a common complaint, third party pods don't always work as well as Nespresso ones, and these are no different. I notice the shot is slightly more watery, and I don't know if that's the machine struggling because of the pods being slightly different in size etc. Not bad but very average.

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Cafe Pod:

(1) Ethiopia: never even heard of Cafe Pod before, the packet says "good strong coffee" - also these are for Lungo but I've only had them for espresso (or rather, what a Nespresso machine thinks an espresso is) and they're again, very average... You can sort of tell they're an Ethiopian, a bit fruity but that's it really. As with the Taylors, I felt the machine struggled a bit with these.

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Cafedirect:

(1) Peruvian Spirit: surprisingly pleasant, quite light but zingy with a nice acidity/citrus note coming through. The usual non-Nespresso issue of being a bit thinner and choking the machine slightly but the end product tastes decent, this might be one I purchase again. This is the lightest in the Cafedirect range, with the other three reviewed below.

(2) Americano: this is the second lightest in the range following on from the Peruvian. I had it as an espresso rather than a Lungo, despite the name, quite good. A very drinkable shot, still getting some nice acidity but at the same time it is noticeably darker than the Peruvian. Again I'm surprised, these Cafedirect pods are decent compared to the other supermarket offerings I've tried.

(3) Espresso Vivo: the second darkest in the range, it's fine - again, slightly surprised at the drinkability, i.e. that it isn't awfully revolting. Very standard, but still, in line with the above two, cafedirect seem to be better than some of the other supermarket offerings.

(4) Espresso El Reto: Darkest in the Cafedirect range, but wasn't as dark as some of the dark Nespresso pods. Like the others in this range, this made a decent shot.

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Waitrose:

(1) House Blend: pretty good actually, these pods appear to have a unique design in that they have a foil layer on the back as well as on the front of the pod (the one on the back is small, not sure what it does) and this seems to contribute to a better flow. A drinkable coffee.

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SPECIALITY PODS

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Department of Coffee and Social Affairs:

(1) Cameroon "Queen of the Hill": yeah, straight away you can tell this pod is made from good coffee. My shot was way too watery to decipher the exact flavours but I'll try again with a shorter shot and expand. The important thing is the taste is pleasant. Update: tried a shorter shot, it tastes good, not much acidity, very smooth and biscuity almost. I think that with these speciality pods, they're always going to taste higher quality than Nespresso pods but the consistency is never as good, not as thick as the Nespresso pods.

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Colonna Coffee:

(1) I got a pack of four - their range consists of: foundation, discovery, rare and decaf. Without going into the individual flavours too much (not much point, they'll change by the time you've read this anyway) the overall impression I get is positive. Of course you need to recalibrate your expectations to Nespresso standards but with Colonna's capsules you'll get the fruity, acidic, exotic flavours of high quality coffee that you won't get from Nespresso.

One thing I would criticise: some of the pods don't work - a couple of them just didn't puncture and I just got water instead. This has happened with some of my other non-nespresso pods as well which I can only put down to the fact that the capsule size is not exactly identical to the presumably patented Nespresso pods.


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

Nespresso seems to be the best of these sort of machines and I'm always happy when I see them in hotel rooms. They're not something I would have at home and I do sometimes feel guilty knowing how difficult they are to recycle and as such very rarely are but I suppose they serve a purpose. I'd be a lot happier if the the filterless pods that are easier to recycle were more common though.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

cold war kid said:


> Nespresso seems to be the best of these sort of machines and I'm always happy when I see them in hotel rooms. They're not something I would have at home and I do sometimes feel guilty knowing how difficult they are to recycle and as such very rarely are but I suppose they serve a purpose. I'd be a lot happier if the the filterless pods that are easier to recycle were more common though.


"Filterless pod"? Aren't these most common?


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

I think it's filterless but I may be mistaken. There's something inside the standard pods that make them impossible to recycle by the usual methods and have to be sent back to the manufacturer for recycling ( if they support it, not all do ).

The guy who was originally behind one of the major pod type systems came over all eco a few years ago and developed a system that was easier to recycle but it hasn't taken off.


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

According to this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35605927

it's a combination of paper filter, plastic, aluminium and spent coffee dregs that make them hard to recycle. The alternatives are fully compostable and are actually really useful to gardeners but don't seem to have taken off in a big way as none of the big players are throwing their weight behind them.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

I didn't see any paper in the Nespresso pods I looked at. The pod itself weighed 1.1g not 3g. Nespresso do recycle, but the onus is on the users to make this happen...which likely means it largely doesn't?

The Hamburg scenario also banned bottled water & various other packaging, coffee capsules were only part of it.


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

I hate the way that (often) driving to the post office to have your spent pods collected, then driven 100's of miles across country, or even worse on mainland Europe, across potentially multiple national barriers, to have them "environmentally" recycled is seen as a good thing. It's a sign something is very wrong when a properly green, compostable alternative is already developed and ready to go.

Anyway, I'm at risk of derailing an interesting thread before it's even got off the ground so I'll shut up now and look forward to Yerbamate's next post.

Even if, for whatever reason, most of us are unlikely to ever own a pod machine , I'm sure it will still be informative and will help many lurkers that do.


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## Snowley (Dec 27, 2016)

I have to say that I think the Rosabaya is the best of the bunch so will be interesting to see if you find any others that you prefer....


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

I had the Ethiopian, pulled short (45g), that was pretty tasty.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

cold war kid said:


> Anyway, I'm at risk of derailing an interesting thread before it's even got off the ground so I'll shut up now and look forward to Yerbamate's next post.
> 
> Even if, for whatever reason, most of us are unlikely to ever own a pod machine , I'm sure it will still be informative and will help many lurkers that do.


Oh no feel free, the more discussion the better! I'll just edit my first post as I try more things anyway. I'm sort of enjoying this


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## filthynines (May 2, 2016)

Would be interested to hear a review on Pact's own pods, if you get round to getting some!


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## cold war kid (Mar 12, 2010)

MWJB said:


> I had the Ethiopian, pulled short (45g), that was pretty tasty.


I stay in Malmaisson and Hilton/Doubletree hotels quite regularly and they all seem to have the same caffeine inclusive and caffeine free nespresso pods and I've never really paid much attention to the particular selection, I just know the caffeine version is ok and the caffeine free one is terrible. I'll have to look out for that and the other suggestions.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Bit of a funny update: so the machine I got was leaking as I mentioned, but I didn't think this was impacting the actual coffee. I needed to go to the shops so figured I may as well get it replaced anyway, so I did that and came home today to set up the new machine...

Turns out the leak was having an impact on the first machine's shots, as the new one produces a much longer espresso! Which, ironically, now produces a worse coffee because it's so diluted. So yes, now I fully understand why people think the shots are watery!

At least the first broken machine has taught me that you can get semi-decent shots by just stopping the water earlier, that's what I'll be doing!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

But don't you set the output?


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

MWJB said:


> But don't you set the output?


Maybe... I've just been using the default so far, I assumed my model being the most basic that it wouldn't be programmable... I will read the instructions!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

The packets the pods come in have little icons showing as to how long you should pull the shots: Ristretto 25ml, Espresso 40ml, Lungo 110ml (though this seems a bit long for any of them).


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## PeteHr (Nov 18, 2015)

You should be able to set the output - (you can on my son's which is one of the cheapies - it has two buttons, one for normal espresso and the other for lungo, if I remember correctly.) Also, we used to have a Nespresso machine at work as we couldn't stomach the stuff which was sold there. I found the best ones for my palatte were:

Purple (Appregio)

Green (Fortissio Lungo) - but I used to have it as an espresso not lungo or it was too weak for my taste

Black (Ristretto)

We always stuck to Nespresso pods and didn't try others.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Right, programming was easy - just hold down the button, release to set at the desired weight. The default espresso appears to have been around 40g at least for my machine's default. I've set it to 30g now, will test further.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Sounds like I'm in for a treat when I try the Indriya: http://teaforums.co.uk/showthread.php?7564-Nespresso-Indriya-Toxicity&p=52159

UPDATE: still alive


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

Anecdote: that urban legend/tabloid rumour/true story about Robbie Williams drinking 20-30 espressos a day... It's much more believable if he's drinking Nespresso's. I've had three today and can barely feel it.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

YerbaMate170 said:


> ... It's much more believable if he's drinking Nespresso's. I've had three today and can barely feel it.


Would that be because it's only/still/always ~6g per shot?  You can't make more caffeine that is in the dose to start with.

Visited my brother in law the other day, they had recalibrated the machine, Rosabaya was coming out a little thicker & tangy-er, reset to 45g output and the sweet finish was back.


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