Tempted by one of the above but have little to no knowledge of them.

What’s the difference between the main players and what’s the difference in product ranges. What does a £100 one do that a £50 doesn’t etc?

Also any recommendations for a strong but smooth pod to go with?

B n law got a 50 quid tassimo one for Christmas. I can see it being used for 6 months. Seems an expensive way of making drinks to me at 20/40p a go depending on what/how much you’re buying. Also I’d like a decent sized cup of coffee please.

Agree to an extent but we’ve cut down our coffee consumption considerably so for the sake of convenience I think I can live with the cost.

We’ve tried traditional machines but they’re a bit of a faff when I just want a quick decent coffee at 530am before I head of to work…

I have the most basic of the Nespresso machines – maybe about 80 GBP a year ago or so

Makes very acceptable coffee and I like it a lot

I dont consider 30p a brew to be expensive, compared to a couple of quid in the cafe

Only other thing I’d say is the first one out the pot on that machine wasn’t as hot as the second. Wouldn’t say it was much faster than the old kettle route. I just drank 3 or 4 Americanos out of it and they were OK so can’t comment further. Kids liked the hot chocolate but they are at the 40p end I believe.

I dont consider 30p a brew to be expensive, compared to a couple of quid in the cafe

Agreed, but as I’m a tight bastard spunking say 20/25 quid on a load of pods at once to get the best deal would make me whinge.

I have a Tassimo at home and also use one at work which is a more “basic” version. They both make identical drinks ultimately so I’d say just buy the most basic version.

Don’t expect shop quality drinks though but they are far better than instant. I think they’re a good compromise between convenience and quality.

I’ve never tried a Nespresso but I expect they’ll be the same.

Nespresso makes better coffee, Tassimo does a wider range of drinks types as does Dolce Gusto iirc.

Proper nespresso pods are only mail order or in their few shops.

From my experience official nespresso pods are worth the extra cost over cheaper compatible pods. There was an offer on recentky where you’d get £75/ £45 of credit towards pods which basically made the machine free. Colonna have just started doing pods which will be more expensive but should be very good.

They are an environmental disaster but at least nespresso will collect and recycle their pods to reduce the impact.

If you like espresso/latte/Cappuccino they are brilliant. If you like a big mug of coffee less so.

To get a “hot” cup I always run the machine empty into the mug while the aeroccino is warming the milk, when you run the podcast it’s hotter and the cup has been warmed by the first. It also helps keep it flushed through.

If you want to have a big mug of coffee ready to go at the push of a button, these are ok although the flask isn’t that insulating, it’s not a proper thermos but you can squeeze one under it.

Breville Coffee Express

Whilst I don’t really agree with pod based systems due to increased packaging waste, and do have a Gaggia Classic already but hardly use it due to it needing to heat up properly 1st, the Wife came home with an AEG machine that uses the Lavazza pods a year ago in the sales, for not much money.

It’s not the same pod as the others and can be a bit tricky to source at times (not all supermarkets stock them) but makes very drinkable espresso based drinks with a good crema on top. It has a milk frother as well, it’s easy to clean down too. It heats up very quickly so I often just use it in the morning to put a quick shot through when I’m running late.

Nespresso for me. We have a Dolce Gusto at work which makes awful coffee and there’s a Tassimo on someones desk which is about on a par (but they never clean it and mostly use it for coffee flavoured beverages rather than coffee).

The Lavazza machines are spendy as far as I recall but pretty good.

The couple who we live with at the moment (while our house is being done up) were bought one last Christmas. Lasted a few weeks before it was consigned to the corner of the utility room never to be used again.

I’m not a coffee snob and drink instant most of the time, occasionally going out for one. I though the pod machine was far too expensive to use and most importantly tasted awful, I preferred the instant!

Nespresso pods are a reasonable price if used with the vouchers you get with the machine, and occasionally on offer throughout the year anyway.

Doesn’t seem to be enormous environmental cost as pods are recyclable and they come in a cardboard box. Courier takes away the old pods for recycling when they deliver your new ones.

Or you could bike them in to a Nespresso store to be truly carbon neutral. 🙂

Edit: what is probably terrible for the environment is buying slightly cheaper, non-recyclable pods from Lidl and binning them after use.

We have a Tassimo and I mostly use the Costa Americano pods. Easy to use, no mess, great if you just want a single cup. Pods are available in supermarkets or online. Can’t fault it really. There is a pod recycling scheme through Terracycle.

We have a Tassimo, which is used regularly. It does work out about 40p per cup, but the coffee is far better than Instant and less faff than other ways. The only hassle seems to be to remember to buy the pods!

Lovely way to produce uncessary waste to pretend you’re in a coffee shop.

Another tassimo user. I got mine for about £35 I think with an offer through Costa. Got a load of pods, a cup and extra points on my costa card as well. Could be worth looking for similar offers. No point paying more for an expensive version, they make the same drink, one at a time.

If you want a big mug of coffee, don’t bother. Pre-heating the cup helps. I like making espressos or other strong, short coffees with a small amount of heated, frothy milk. It’s dead easy and a nicer drink to have than a mug of instant. A lot of the bigger drinks like Kenco grande are quite tasteless, but Costa americano is good.

You have to buy in bulk to make it reasonable, I usually order with a friend at work to make sure we get free delivery. Groupon sometimes has offers

If you buy online you can get Tassimo Costa Americano for less than 30p per cup. Free delivery from Amazon Prime too.

The Lavazza machines are spendy as far as I recall but pretty good.

I picked one up from eSpares for 30 quid, does me when away from home. Nothing like as good as an espresso from my Gaggia but much the same as espresso from any other pod machine. Pods available at our local Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury.

If I had to have just a pod machine I’d probably get an nespresso one now that anyone can make the pods. Some decent roasters are now making their pods.

Lovely way to produce uncessary waste to pretend you’re in a coffee shop.

😆

We’ve just bought a Nespresso Inisia, with the milk frother. At £69.95 at John Lewis it comes with a £75 of coffee pods ( though you still have to pay postage). It makes lovely espresso, we’re going through the sample pack now, and will then decide what to order from Nespresso. Mrs Jones has carefully calculated that to make the best of the £75 you shouldn’t order their welcome packs, but single ‘strips’…!

The longer versions (lungo) are a bit weak, but we possibly haven’t mastered the technique yet. Running an espresso through before the first cup definatley makes for a hotter first cup.

We’ve also tried the Lidl version, much cheaper, not quite as nice but fine for my weekday coffee – I work at home and consume a fair amount. I’ll be mixing espresso with longer caffitiere mugs. And the odd free one from Waitrose after the gym 😉

like the idea of teaming up to by in bulk, will need to find a friend

Dolce coffee is ok but the milk pods are woeful. You also have to set the amount of added water yourself so you can’t just walk off with the cheaper machines, they need little looking after.

Tassimo are a better coffee and the milk pods are better but muck up the machines more, especially with hard water. They have a pre-set water amount and adding more water is slow.

Nespresso stuff is good, limited range and the proper milk thing needs the most looking after but is great when set up. 3 water settings gives a decent strength range but can be really slow to make a big mug of stuff.

Source: own a dolce (want a tassimo), look after the coffee machines at work (tassimo and nespresso).

A while ago I bought a “Handpresso” machine for camping use. It uses Illy ESE pods and I was so impressed by the taste and convenience that I bought a machine that uses the same pods for home use. The pods are a bit hard to find in shops but coffeeroyale.co.uk have a good selection.

Just to throw a spanner in the works and promote what I have…

I use a Senseo machine with coffee bags, so add your own milk, makes a nice cup/mug of coffee IMHO. Sure plenty of coffee snobs will say it’s rubbish, but I find the medium roast bags work well (dependant on preferred taste.

Added bonus is the bags are £3 for 18 bags in my local tesco so sub 17p each.

We’ve got a Nespresso machine (a magimix pixie), it was on offer at £54 with a free aerochino if you bought 150 pods.
I was never a big coffee drinker but this thing makes the most amazing latte’s I love it. Also the range and quality of the coffee on offer is brilliant! I also like the fact that the pods can be recycled.
My parents were bought a nescafe Dolce gusto and I tried a latte from that, I won’t bother again, yuk!

As a Tassimo owner I’d recommend a cafetiere 🙂 Tastes better, is cheaper and has less packaging than pod coffee.

If you just want decent tasting coffee, get a cafetiere.

If you want latte/cappucino nonsense, get a milk wizzer thing.

If you want espresso, get an aeropress.

You could get all three for your £50 budget, and not have the environmental appallingness that is a pod coffee machine.

If you want espresso, get an aeropress.

May make espresso strength filter coffee, but I didn’t think an aeropress generated anywhere near enough pressure to make a proper espresso.

Had a Tassimo – after a while it would piss water all over the worktop if it was required to make more than one coffee in a row!

Opened it up and was amazed to find this is a “design feature” – it actually has a hose designed to let water out under the drip tray. Genius. 😕

Switched to a Dolce Gusto, which is more manual than a Tassimo, but still going strong after a couple of years. Pods are huge though.

If I was buying again I’d get a Nespresso. Smaller pods, decent coffee.

We had a Dolce Gusto and it was pants so we replaced it with a Nespresso machine two or three years ago.

We also have 2 x Bialetti and cafetiere.

Bialetti now only gets used in the beach hut (no electricity) and the cafetiere only comes out when there’s more than 3 or 4 cups needed at the same time. Otherwise the Nespresso is the go to machine for me and MrsSB – we always recycle the pods though.

Had a Tassimo – after a while it would piss water all over the worktop if it was required to make more than one coffee in a row!

Never had that issue. Could be a different model of course, the drip tray on mine is a separate and height variable thing (not that it seems to be needing emptied)

Never had that issue with the Tassimo either. And ours doesn’t half get some hammer. It’s rendered the kettle and my other coffee making devices redundant. Just having a post-ride Americano now.

If you use it a lot, get a subscription with Tassimo, where they send you so many each month. Just put your order in online. Miles cheaper, with free delivery.

Thanks for the heads up on the pod recycling . That’s the only thing I can fault it on. Just looked and we’ve a drop off point down the road

Remember to cycle there. Don’t want to trash the environment or owt.

There is actually a rather good route, all off road. Result! 🙂

My local Aldi was selling there own brand Nespresso compatible machines for £25 the other day, might be worth a punt at that price (also doing there own Nutribullet style blenders for £15).
Personally just using a cafetiere,bit more faff but pretty good results and can use pretty much any ground coffee.

Can you not walk. Using bike tyre rubber to go to the shops is bad for the environment and a way to pretend you’re on a good ride.

Nespresso. We have basic machine, rrp around £100 altough we paid £50 on offer. As above 30p cup is ok. Our favourite decaff was discontinued which was annoying. IME non Nespresso caps are inferior.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lavazza-coffee-machine-now-reduced-19-99-b-m-2591082

My Tassimo looked like this:

Basically designed to leak, but hide it underneath the drip tray. 😕

Shame, I liked the idea of the barcodes on the pods telling the machine the appropriate heat, pressure and volume to use – but the physical design was crap.

Maybe they have updated it since?

Started with a tassimo which was ( is ) ok , like the barcodes on the pods which tell the machine what to do.

BUT

Now mainly use a Nespresso after being converted by my brothers machine.
Lattes etc are just so much easier and you can programme the amount of water and milk on the model I got.

Another plus point for Nespresso is the waste argument is no longer valid since Percol introduced their compostable pods,with less packaging.
They claim capsule to compost in 12 weeks, not that I’ve checked

Graham – that’s the machine I have. I see what you’re referring to as the drip tray now. Mine has never leaked in the way you describe. I guess it would do that if there was some sort of blockage where the hot water emerges. I assume you’ve checked for that already though.

@dannybgoode – I’ve got a Nespresso that I’m about to put up for sale if you’d be interested. It’s one of these from few years back; used but in good nick. Unsure of price (not very much I think) but drop me an email (address in profile) if you might be interested.