Birthday next month and the wife wants to know what to get me so I've suggested a pod coffee machine but I've no idea what type to get. I'm after something nice and simple that makes milky coffees like latte/cappuccino. I currently use a caffetiere to make coffee or just use instant granules so I'm not wanting anything too grand, certainly no bean to cup type effort.
What are the benefits of Dolce Gusto v Nespresso v lavazza v anything else?
Also if I want a milk type latte, do I want to get something that uses milk pods (but that means 30 pods only make 15 cups) or do I just use an espresso pod followed by milk out of the fridge?
Don’t bother, awful tasting coffee and more importantly terrible for the environment.
Cafetière and some ground coffee is better in every way.
Save the environment!!!
I don’t know about any of the others but got a nespresso with milk fluffer package a couple of years back for the other half’s birthday. Not a coffee drinker really but it’s great. Something like this...
There’s just too much plastic waste. Stick with what you have
You can get biodegradable pods with decent coffee in them from places like Rave coffee - I've not tried the pods or checked out the environmental credentials though.
I have a Nespresso delonghi latissima touch machine that has worked flawlessly for the last 4 years.
It uses Nespresso coffee pods and has a removable milk jug that can be put in the fridge so you don't get milk wastage. Very simple to use and you can program it so it fills your cups instead of leaving them half full.
This is a link to one like mine
I have been looking for a bean to cup machine but sadly funds won't allow at the minute.
Don’t bother, awful tasting coffee and more importantly terrible for the environment.
Ach, nonsense.
Great. Different coffees, flavoured and also a cadbury drinking chocolate option.
Can prove to be a bit pricey if like me you go through 4 or 5 a day.
Vanilla latte milk, a 2nd creamer, the coffee and some rum. Done in seconds, not 10 minutes with the stove top pot.
I was a long term caffiter user , now im on my 2nd tasimo
Bear in mind that Nespresso is apparently aspirational brand. So only buy one if you can cope with that concept. There was one in a holiday cottage I stayed in, quite nice coffee I thought, but would never buy one.
Had a Tassimo at work, coffee was rank. By which I mean just plain unpleasant, not in comparison to a gaggiohighpressureartisanroasted bollocks. Just bad compared to a Cafetiere.
We have a Nespresso machine with a separate milk frother, it produces a nice latte coffee, I can use soya milk and as said above you can buy biodegradable pods, as the plastic waste is unacceptable. However we went down the route of stainless steel reusable pods, simply fill with your favourite coffee (after grinding the beans) use, wash, refil and no plastic waste.
Coffee taste is in the eye of the beholder, there are many recyclable options, Nespresso is likely the the best quality and the sub manufacturers eg delonghi have to manufacture to a certain standard.
I have the same machine as flying potatoes with so far 2 years of good service, I also enjoy grinding beans/French press/aeropress.
I don’t know what you mean about aspirational, it’s just a coffee machine at any price point you choose. Nespresso suits me as the only coffee drinker in the house so fresh coffee goes stale before it is all used. Combine it with an aerochino and it covers most bases with the variety of coffee blends available. Pods are recyclable for free, just bung them in a bag supplied by Nespresso and go collect-plus.
What unfitgeezer says - and biodegradable / compostable pods are greenwash
Reduce, reuse, recycle. the key thing is reduce.
I’d rather put the money into good quality freshly roasted beans and a decent burr grinder. YMMV.
Just don’t get the milk pod things. Absolutely minging. As others have said, save and get a proper bean to cup machine. Short term, get an Aeropress.
I actually read something interesting the other day that said that a lot of the environmental impact of coffee is growing the coffee in the first place and as pods use/waste less coffee to than other methods they're not actually that bad from an environmental point of view.
Nespresso original pods are aluminium and can be recycled. For some reason people still get upset about it but don't seem to be bothered about soda cans in the same way.
If I was looking for a coffee machine now, I might not buy one because my usage has changed. But when I bought it I was working away from home so only making 3 or 4 coffees a week.
biodegradable pods
Are these the things that are in theory biodegradable, but it needs an industrial, hot process to do so, and in the average bin it's barely better than plastic?
Nespresso original pods are aluminium and can be recycled. For some reason people still get upset about it but don’t seem to be bothered about soda cans in the same way
Dunno about you but I don't drink 3+ cans of pop a day. And I can't easily make pop by an alternative method.
Why does a pod use/waste less coffee?
Are these the things that are in theory biodegradable, but it needs an industrial, hot process to do so, and in the average bin it’s barely better than plastic?
I just looked and it seems you put them into food waste collection for composting (if they do that in your location). Industrial composting is still just composting, no heat added other than that which comes from bacterial activity.
actually read something interesting the other day that said that a lot of the environmental impact of coffee is growing the coffee in the first place and as pods use/waste less coffee to than other methods they’re not actually that bad from an environmental point of view.
I'd love to see a source on that - I bet its a nestle press release
Nestle are a unethical company
Commercial mass coffee production (as in Nestle) has been described as a neo-colonial system, with working conditions not far removed from slavery. So even if you think it's ecologically ok, buy some pods from an ethical source.
I’d love to see a source on that – I bet its a nestle press release
It wasn’t
We bought a coffee pod machine for our holiday flat. The pure coffee was ok but the latte pods tasted like the coffee you used to get from swimming pool machines in the 80s.Mrs Stern bought me for my birthday a Miele coffee automatic coffee machine that grinds the beans and makes a whole host of different coffee combinations and it has worked flawlessly for the last three years. It wasn’t cheap but it gets almost industrial use with our family of seven.
Ta Drac- thats some pretty awful " research"
Re Drac's link: how is the coffee in a pod more concentrated? Is it not just ground coffee? Also not sure about the study if they think you use a hob to make espresso. I can see how only heating the exact amount of water is good but I think my basic delonghi espresso machine does that too.
It does also say that 3/4 of pods end up in landfill.
Definitely a bit questionable but it raises some good points one being coffee production itself is pretty environmentally unfriendly. If you’re concerned enough about such things as pods over beans then get shade grown beans.
I wonder if natural process coffee is more eco as it doesn't use as much water? It's another reason to go small/ethical/quality as lots of them are encouraging growers to be more environmentally friendly and paying a decent amount as an incentive.
Dunno about you but I don’t drink 3+ cans of pop a day
1 can of pop equals about 15 coffee pods, have you not noticed they're quite a bit smaller?
I've had a Nespresso for the past 15 years. I recycle the pods in the metal skip at work and the coffee is fine, I just stick to plain coffee pods and don't bother with the flavored ones as I don't like flavored coffee. I've had a lot worse coffee from proper coffee shops.
The Nespresso machines all operate at different hot water pressures, go for the one with the highest that you can find.
1 can of pop equals about 15 coffee pods, have you not noticed they’re quite a bit smaller?
I wouldn't have imagined they were 15 times smaller but I'm assuming you've done the maths. 3/4 of them ending up in landfill is still pretty terrible though, and I'm not using any aluminium at all every time I make a coffee.
I can sort of see the logic for one person but any more than that on a regular basis and it starts to get a bit daft imo.
I was under the impression the usual pods are tricky to recycle hence why so many end up in landfill. Cans are one of the easiest things to recycle IIRC
It's an expensive way of purchasing ground coffee. A burr grinder with your cafetière can give good results as you will be using freshly-ground coffee every time.
Guaranteed to get the coffee scone on a thread like this.
I used a Nespresso for years. They never break, coffee is good and there is loads of choice. They are super convenient. I used to buy pods from Amazon and that worked out about 5p per coffee. I went bean to cup only as I now wfh full time and drinking a lot more coffee. The environmentally friendly pods were more spendthrift and I felt bad about the waste from cheap plastic ones.
Nespeesso machine with milk frother thing plus compostable pods is ideal for your needs
It might be freshley ground but how long have your coffee beans been sitting around? The pods are sealed to keep the freshness in.
End of the day OP it's whether you just want to drop a pod in and press a button or go the whole hog a play barista and whether you like the taste of the pod coffee on offer.
The pods are sealed to keep the freshness in.
Um... bags of coffee beans (after roasting anyway) are sealed too. To keep the freshness in.
No shit sherlock
So how is a pod 'fresher' than freshly ground beans that were also in a sealed container?
Just retired my ancient lattisma, served well for must be around 10 years. I like nespresso machines, plenty of snobbery about them but they turn out coffee just as good as a costa, and they seem to survive.
There is a place for proper coffee - for me that is a sunday morning job, the other 6 working days a week i cant be bothered. If younjust want to put a pod in a machine and push a button nespreso is great.
I would say if you want good milk ignore the lattisma type machines and the milk pods, just replaced mine with a sage creatista and the proper steam wand is very good, much better than the lattisma carafe type. The adverts that show the nice stripy latte’s are very accurate - except thats really not at all what you want to be drinking unless you like white foam and coffee underneath.. stopped using mine.
Alternatively look at a cheaper nespresso machine and a standalone steam wand or aeroccino if you want to make a decent milky coffee. Small machine at work and aeroccino, much smaller footprint than the lattisma and does a better job.
Check out the nespresso machine for a quid packages, you can cancel after the first month and pay a termination charge, check each machine but some are very good value.
Never been impressed by the pod machines when ive tried coffees round at friends but I recently bought my bro a sage creatista plus as a pressie for buying his first house, it makes a very decent coffee whether that be an espresso or a milk based drink, cappuccino/latte.
I've got a Krupps Nespresso Vertuo Plus. I prefer a double espresso, or americano with milk, so not fussed about a frother. Seems to make a nicer coffee than the original pod Essenza Mini that I have in the caravan. Reads a barcode for the right amount of water, but you are restricted to getting the Nespresso pods, as no third party licence has been granted
Coffee seems alright to me, but I'm no coffee snob
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Peak STW thread, this is.
I’ve got a Dolce Gusto, it’s fine, heats up quick, the coffee is pretty good, the faff is minimal, no complaints.
I’d love a proper machine but don’t drink enough coffee for it not to go stale before I drink it.
So how is a pod ‘fresher’ than freshly ground beans that were also in a sealed container?
Can you point out where I actually said it was fresher. I just stated the pods are sealed as I just answering to sandwich post.
This thread comes up about every month and the same shit gets spouted over and over again (I include myself in this) It's that ****ing regular it should be a sticky at the top of the page.
Stove top pot for first thing in the orning, but with WFH and dashing in from the shed for a brew between meetings, then the Dolce Gusto is fine. We also have re-useable pods. I tend to buy the pods from a local shop who sell 'near sell by date' products. Five boxes for £10.
Lavazza seem to have nailed their bio-degradable pods. 6 months to breakdown.
The selection on coffees is quite limited though, compared to Nespresso.
One of the Lavazza machines would be my choice if I didnt already own a proper system.
The process of producing coffee isn't great for the environment, but neither is most agriculture. It's getting more difficult to grow coffee too, the increase in global temperature means the beans(coffee cherries) need to be grown at higher elevations.
Note about the Dolce Gusto coffee pods.
They dont contain ground coffee like tasimo and i think nespresso, rather its more like an instant coffee, as the pods are completely empty after use. I opened one up after noticing it was so much lighter that a used tassimo pod,and indeed it was completely empty.
As has been said earlier, beans a good conical burr grinder and a cafetière or Moka pot.
The Standard Dolce Gusto pods do contain real ground coffee. It's the fancy rubbish that doesn't - where you get 16 pods but 8 drinks. The americano, grande etc all contain real coffee. Obvious from the occasional one that bursts with coffee grinds every where, 1
I’ve got a basic nespresso that has been faultless. Aluminium capsules are better than the plastic Aldi ones.
What is an alternative non pod machine, has to be simple I don’t want to be cleaning like I am with a cafetière. Those gaggai always seem to break, might be fixable but I don’t want to keep doing that.
Nespresso machines + nespresso capsules are the way to go. Capsules are 100% recyclable and they are great value at approx 30 - 34p per cup. 3rd party capsules are not pressure tested. Nespresso machines operate 19/20 bar. Someone bought us a case of 3rd party capsules and about half of the non alu capsules failed, which defeats the objective of saving a few pence vs. Nespresso capsules.
Capsules are 100% recyclable
Just because technically they are recyclable if they don't go in with regular recycling it's virtually pointless. Maybe you do it but clearly most don't bother. No wonder so many end up in landfill.
https://www.nespresso.com/uk/en/recycling
Nespresso will send you recycling bags FOC and the delivery driver will take the used capsules back when they deliver. Most people do recycle. Any nespresso shop or recycling centre will take the caps to recycle. Landfill probs are on the back of the 3rd party companies trying to make a few £ on the back of the Nespresso end to end ecosystem
I think those pods are the devils work. Get an Aeropress and some nice coffee,I recommend small roaster Context Coffee for that.
If you need it they even have an ace tasting decaf.
We have a Nespresso, it's perfect for me as I only have maybe one or two cups of espresso each week.
Even though I can get staff discount, I rarely go in to the store to buy capsules, it's all a bit pretentious with lots of people just going in for a free coffee.
Good thing about Nespresso is the amount of aftermarket pods you can get, some, Starbucks branded ones for example. Are made by Nespresso, so you can recycle them in the Nespressso recycling bag.
I have been using a Lavazza Desea for about 6 months. Pleased with it so far. I mainly use it for espresso, but it can do a good job of making a latte style drink without much fuss. It also makes a good hot chocolate or frothed milk, so my kids use it fairly often too. I use combination of genuine Lavazza capsules and aftermarket ones from Amazon. I bought the machine on a £1 offer from Lavazza, but do need to buy a large number of capsules from Lavazza at RRP as part of the offer, but financially seems to make sense.
Went for the Lavazza over the Nespresso options due to the slightly bigger pods which can produce a longer shot, and the fact that the used Lavazza pods go in our food waste bin. Limitation is that not many aftermarket pods are available, however I have found the standard Lavazza ones to be pretty good.
Personally I think all the pod machines struggle to make a good long coffee. The pods are too small to give enough flavour for a long drink. I would probably go for one of the pour over options if I was regularly making long drinks.
I've had a Nespresso for about 5 years and it's been faultless.
The recycling system makes me feel better about it but I have about 4 coffees a day so its pretty spendy.
That's why I bought a delonghi bean to cup machine (off here) about 3 years ago. It, too, has been faultless and way, way cheaper to run using 1kg bags of lavazza from Costco @ £7/bag.
It wasn’t
He's not a prof, and has never published in the area.
https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/alfred-hill/publications/
probably asked his opinion.
Joining this a bit late. We've always had the original Nespresso pod machines at work. They are OK. Deliver an 'espresso' sized shot. I prefer a longer coffee so add hot water and milk. The water is very hard in this region and I don't think the machines are really any good for continual use the machines break quite regularly. Work were supplying 'OEM' coffee pods from a local supplier. The coffee is OK I guess.
Last time the machine broke work bought a Nespresso Vertuo system. This has different sized pods that can deliver espresso sized to massive 410 ml mugs of coffee. Smells nice but I find the coffee isn't massively hot. The Vertuo pods are SPENDY I haven't found anywhere on line for less than 2 quid a shot. I don't think you can get Vertuo made by other makers yet?
The Vertuo pods are SPENDY I haven’t found anywhere on line for less than 2 quid a shot.
They are a bit dearer than the originals, but nowhere near £2
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My bad. Best I'd found was £1 online. Didn't occur to me to go direct to Nespresso!!!
We have a tassimo, which MrsYeti likes, it does fancy milk varieties which neither of us like really, but she likes the costa americanos. These pods go in the bin. 🙁 we also have a nespresso machine with a stainless pod and use finely ground coffee in it. A little weak for a long coffee, but fine for shorter ones. We also recycle the pods at work, which go back to Nespresso. Great variety available all over the place, tassimo less so.
The Nespresso machines all operate at different hot water pressures, go for the one with the highest that you can find.
This ^ is not correct.
The pressure is regulated by the capsule, not the pump in the machine (which are probably all the same anyway). The machine pierces the capsule in the pointy end, and pumps water in, until sufficient pressure is reached that the flat side of the capsule expands enough to be ruptured against some spikes, and the coffee comes out. My having a more powerful pump, you'd just be reducing the time that the process takes, which is probably not what you want anyway.
If you drink milk drinks, the quality of the milk steaming is what you want to look for in a machine. I would say that the only thing to choose is whether you want to steam the milk yourself (sage) or buy one where you just press a button and have milk come out as per the recipe. Something like this:
I don't really object to them, if all you want to do is press a button and have acceptable coffee come out once or twice a day, they are a cheaper alternative to the bean-to-cup machines. However, what you are getting with those more expensive "superautomatic" machines are a much wider range of coffees to choose from.
Whatever you get - consider getting it second hand. The real environmental cost of these machines is the sheer volume in which they are being produced, purchased and then thrown away (if you look on ebay - you will see they are worth nothing second hand, just more plastic tut going into landfill).
If you order from Nespresso, they come and collect the used metal pods for recycling.
They do use less coffee than a Gaggia. Typical double espresso weight from a Gaggia is about 20g of coffee used, but for Nespresso it's about 6g. I have both - the Gaggia makes better coffee, but the Nespresso is more convenient. We only use aluminium caps and have them collected for recycling.
A cafetiere is worse than both.
Lavazza seem to have nailed their bio-degradable pods. 6 months to breakdown.
I bought some of those when they first came out (~18 months ago?) and they tasted OK but around 1 in 5 failed to work, making the overall cost substantially higher. Have they improved this?
NECRO TIME!
The missus won a Dolce Gusto machine in a raffle and has decided she likes it. However, she wants to do the responsible thing so we're looking for a decent reusable pod system, any recommendations? @fossy ?
We go through about 2.5kg of beans in a month, would be about 360 Nespresso 7g pods on a weight for weight basis versus a couple of coffee bags and V60 papers.
Which is an awful lot of pods per year at around 4,300 for one household…
Watch the James Hoffmann video, his taste reactions are priceless 😂