Anyone have a Nespresso machine?

[Elan]

Wondering if anyone has one of the Nespresso espresso machines, and if so, how you like it?

The Nespressos are a capsule based machine, similar to the Keurig and Senseo pod style coffee makers. My wife likes lattes, and I think she'd like the simplicity of this type of machine vs a traditional espresso machine. The Nespresso units get great reviews on Amazon.

 

[abbekit]

Wondering if anyone has one of the Nespresso espresso machines, and if so, how you like it?

The Nespressos are a capsule based machine, similar to the Keurig and Senseo pod style coffee makers. My wife likes lattes, and I think she'd like the simplicity of this type of machine vs a traditional espresso machine. The Nespresso units get great reviews on Amazon.

Yes! In fact I'm drinking a cup of Nespresso coffee right now

We've had ours for going on two years. Love it. Don't use it every day (coffee pods aren't cheap and as of now you can only buy them from Nespresso). But it makes a really good cup of coffee, especially when you are in a hurry. We use ours once or twice a week in the morning. Also love it when we have dinner guests. Everyone can choose their own type of coffee pod which makes it feel special for after dinner coffee.

I also recommend the companion milk frother. It often comes in a package deal (bought ours at Williams Sonoma when they had them on sale, buy the Nespresso, get the frother free). It really makes great thick frothed milk to put on a cappuccino. Have used it to make hot chocolate too.

 

[Elan]

Yes! In fact I'm drinking a cup of Nespresso coffee right now

We've had ours for going on two years. Love it. Don't use it every day (coffee pods aren't cheap and as of now you can only buy them from Nespresso). But it makes a really good cup of coffee, especially when you are in a hurry. We use ours once or twice a week in the morning. Also love it when we have dinner guests. Everyone can choose their own type of coffee pod which makes it feel special for after dinner coffee.

I also recommend the companion milk frother. It often comes in a package deal (bought ours at Williams Sonoma when they had them on sale, buy the Nespresso, get the frother free). It really makes great thick frothed milk to put on a cappuccino. Have used it to make hot chocolate too.

Thank you so much for the input. I was indeed looking at a combo deal with the included frother:

http://www.amazon.com/Nespresso-C10...=UTF8&qid=1286637547&sr=8-4#productPromotions

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind:

Is it really as simple to use and clean as the advertising verbiage indicates?

I read that the capsules were about $0.60 each on average. Is that about right?

Thanks again!

 

[abbekit]

Thank you so much for the input. I was indeed looking at a combo deal with the included frother:

http://www.amazon.com/Nespresso-C10...=UTF8&qid=1286637547&sr=8-4#productPromotions

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind:

Is it really as simple to use and clean as the advertising verbiage indicates?

I read that the capsules were about $0.60 each on average. Is that about right?

Thanks again!

Very simple to use. Fill up the water reservoir, drop in a pod and press a button. Same for cleaning. They make pods just for descaling so you drop in one of those pods and press a button to clean (don't remember how often to do that, hubby does that job ). We just bought some pods a few weeks ago. 200 pods for $110 (plus $6.95 shipping). Just under 60 cents per pod.

 

[Debbie118]

Nespresso!

We have had our Nespresso machine for almost ten years. We love the convenience of making one cup at a time, and we love the Nespresso coffee. it is a little expensive, but the ease of use and the lack of fuss make up for it. Also, with the Nespresso machine, you only make what you drink, so you never have to throw away the half pot that no one drank!

Ordering online from the Nespresso site is so simple. We highly recommend getting one!

 

[Floridaski]

Try a Tassimo

You may also want to consider the Tassimo, makes Cappicino, Espresso, Lattes, regular coffees and is a little cheaper the Nespreso - worth looking at both.

 

[Elan]

You may also want to consider the Tassimo, makes Cappicino, Espresso, Lattes, regular coffees and is a little cheaper the Nespreso - worth looking at both.

Thanks for mentioning the Tassimo. I finally had a chance to go look at one last night. Seems like a pretty nice machine, and the price is definitely attractive. One question: When you make Lattes, etc do you use the milk capsules, or do you froth your own milk? I'm a little leery of the quality of the
drinks produced using milk capsules, and might consider a separate frother.

 

[Floridaski]

It is real milk not a powder

With the Tassimo, there are actually 2 milk disks. They are both real milk, no powders, the taste is wonderful. It is shelf stable and they have both Latte milk and Cappacino milk. The machine reads the bar code and will make the drink or milk according to the bar code on the disk. So, to answer your question, you would use a Latte disk and then an espresso disk to make a Latte. There are about 80 different drinks you can make with the Tassimo. The Tassimo also makes a wonderful cup of Hot Chocolate or Teas. It produces the same drink every time, with a seperate frother you have different results each time. Plus it is to burn yourself - speaking from personal experience!


We love our Tassimo machine, my husband can make espresso anytime, I brew Tea over ice and we of course make coffee in the morning. It works better then my friends $3000.00 dollar built in espresso/coffee machine in her $50,000 dollar kitchen!

 

[Chrisky]

Thanks for mentioning the Tassimo. I finally had a chance to go look at one last night. Seems like a pretty nice machine, and the price is definitely attractive. One question: When you make Lattes, etc do you use the milk capsules, or do you froth your own milk? I'm a little leery of the quality of the
drinks produced using milk capsules, and might consider a separate frother.

We've had the Tassimo for some time now and quite enjoy the different coffees available. To make the lattes or cappucino you can just buy the espresso discs and have your own frother if you like. I've also made the Cafe Crema which is a larger cup of black coffee that has a slight coffee froth on top. Sometimes, if I've run out of the cappucino, I'll just put some heated milk in the cup and then make the Cafe Crema, my own version of a latte!

 

[Janis]

Love my Nespresso, and all of the different coffees you can taste. It's easy and it's very quick.

I, too, bought the milk frother and it works very well. I even whip up skim milk in it and it puffs up just like whipped cream ( though, sadly, it doesn't taste like whipped cream)

 

[Elan]

With the Tassimo, there are actually 2 milk disks. They are both real milk, no powders, the taste is wonderful. It is shelf stable and they have both Latte milk and Cappacino milk. The machine reads the bar code and will make the drink or milk according to the bar code on the disk. So, to answer your question, you would use a Latte disk and then an espresso disk to make a Latte. There are about 80 different drinks you can make with the Tassimo. The Tassimo also makes a wonderful cup of Hot Chocolate or Teas. It produces the same drink every time, with a seperate frother you have different results each time. Plus it is to burn yourself - speaking from personal experience!


We love our Tassimo machine, my husband can make espresso anytime, I brew Tea over ice and we of course make coffee in the morning. It works better then my friends $3000.00 dollar built in espresso/coffee machine in her $50,000 dollar kitchen!

Thanks. I understand the method, I'm just wondering about the quality of the frothed milk and how you, personally, opted to make lattes, cap's, etc. As we all know, milk is not inherently shelf stable, so that's the first concern. Secondly, I'm fairly certain the frothing ability of the Tassimo isn't going to be up to par with a dedicated frother. However, neither of those are neccessarily show-stoppers.

I'm thinking I could start with the Tassimo. If I'm not happy with the frothing disks, buy the stand-alone Nespresso frother. Then, if I grow unhappy with the Tassimo for any reason, I can buy the stand-alone Nespresso machine and take the Tassimo to work or give it away.

The issue isn't $$, it's which one my wife is most likely to be happy with, which is going to be the solution that strikes the optimal balance between ease of use and quality of results.

 

[Floridaski]

It is shelf stable due to heat pasturization

The Tassimo milk disks have a one year shelf life, I looked this up on the Kraft Foods quality web site. The milk disks are pasturized using a heat method, similar to Parmalot milk. So, beleive it or not Milk can be made to be shelf stable. We have never had an issue and it tastes as good or better then many lattes that we have had at dinner - at $4.00 to $5.00 per cup!

The Tassimo machine puts each disk under pressure and then forces the water thru the disk. Each disk has it's own unique brewing formula - the Capp milk froths much more then the Latte. In fact, it is diffcult to get the same amount of foam on a regular basis with a frothing wand. I think they have a demostration at www.tassimo.com

 

[Elan]

Just to follow up:

I ended up buying a Tassimo machine. It's ok, not great. It will do both single serve coffee and espresso drinks, which was my primary reason for choosing it. In the 6 weeks or so that we've had it, I've concluded that it's ok at both functions, but not really great at either. It works fine as a single serve machine, but it doesn't make enough coffee out of one t-disc. If you use two discs, you're up near $1 for a decent sized cup. It also does a fine job with producing a small amount of espresso, but the milk t-disc are a lame attempt at producing any semblance of a latte. Not to mention they're very expensive. We scrapped the milk t-discs in favor of a dedicated heater/frother and are very satisfied with the results.

 

[GetawaysRus]

We're staying at Marriot Playa Andaluza this week. Our room has 2 coffee machines, a standard drip machine and a Nespresso machine. We bought a few capsules for the Nespresso machine at the resort's store. It makes very strong, very rich coffee. My wife has always liked potent coffee, so this Nespresso is blowing away the coffee we're getting from the drip machine.

So I'm curious if there are any further comments about this machine.

I did some searching on Amazon and found that same link mentioned above for the machine plus frother for $199. That looks like the same machine we've got in our room (except the one in the room says "Krups" on it). I'm not sure how to tell if this machine being sold on Amazon has a US style plug or a European electrical plug, however. How can I tell?

We already have a Keurig machine at home, which my wife enjoys. But the Nespresso might make a fun Christmas present for her, since she loves strong coffee.

 

[winnipiseogee]

We're staying at Marriot Playa Andaluza this week. Our room has 2 coffee machines, a standard drip machine and a Nespresso machine. We bought a few capsules for the Nespresso machine at the resort's store. It makes very strong, very rich coffee. My wife has always liked potent coffee, so this Nespresso is blowing away the coffee we're getting from the drip machine.

So I'm curious if there are any further comments about this machine.

I did some searching on Amazon and found that same link mentioned above for the machine plus frother for $199. That looks like the same machine we've got in our room (except the one in the room says "Krups" on it). I'm not sure how to tell if this machine being sold on Amazon has a US style plug or a European electrical plug, however. How can I tell?

We already have a Keurig machine at home, which my wife enjoys. But the Nespresso might make a fun Christmas present for her, since she loves strong coffee.

The machines being sold on Amazon always have US plugs (I've bought 5 from amazon... goes to show what I think of the machine!).

We LOVE our nespresso but it has its limitations. Namely, I love a huge cup of coffee first thing in the morning and the nespresso isn't great at producing american quantities. For espressos, cappuccinos, lattes etc though it is awesome! Better than starbucks and a fraction of the cost. It makes for a GREAT christmas gift.

You should buy it early though and register it with Nespresso before you wife opens it as a gift. Your first Nespresso lets you get the starter pack of pods at a really good price. That way you can all have cappuccinos on Christmas morning.

I screwed up the first time and after using the 10 pods they give you in the first hour we had to wait 2 weeks until we got more coffee!

 

[Conan]

An alternative to consider is the Capresso-Jura series of automatic machines. They make near-perfect espresso and cappuccino, and good full-cup coffees. The real benefit is they take coffee beans, not pods, so your cost is no more than five to ten cents/cup for the coffee of your choice.
http://www.amazon.com/Capresso-Kitc..._rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1259960982&pf_rd_i=capresso