How good a coffee does a Nespresso machine make with non-Nespresso pods made by a decent coffee roaster? There are a few options for such pods, most are compostable too.

Asking for a friend.

Oh god here we go :p The only remotely correct answer is try it and see, if you like it great, if you don’t then wait for the next coffee machine thread and slag off Nespresso.

We use Moving Bean compostable pods, they’re not the best tasting ones (a little weak) but perfectly acceptable and we signed up to a cheap subscription. Of the other compostables Eden are very good but a bit pricey, Percol were watery and failed to pierce half the time.
Of the non-compostable Aldi are actually very good and cheap, L’Or are also good and have a recycling scheme if you live near one of the drop off points.

Crukafe are great.

Price is a bit more as you’d expect.

I have tried some posh pods when I was on work trips abroad from the likes of colonna and alchemy, while they were better than the vile clooney cyst nespresso pods they were not anywhere close to a proper espresso.

In the end I just took a travel grinder and V60.

Is this coffee made from artisans? Because artisanal is the adjective.

A local roaster with “artisan” in their name has started doing pods, hence the title.

The only remotely correct answer is try it and see

I suppose I could look for a cheap machine on eBay and buy some pods. But are all Nespresso machines created equal (in terms of coffee production, not so bothered about milk frothing)

That’s a good question – they all seem to state the same pressure but I’ve seen reviews (professional/magazine type not home user) where they imply different models produce different standards of coffee (with the same pods) so bit confused myself. I ended up with a £300 thing that does the milk stuff as well (I never use it now as rarely drink coffee outside of work, it tasted fine/good to me – better than the results I got with a Delonghi bean-to-cup machine or aeropress anyway, there might be user incompetence to factor in to those though).

A local roaster with “artisan” in their name has started doing pods, hence the title.

I apologise. I do get a bit pissed off with the use of artisan as an adjective on just about every foodie pub menu or hipster crap beer guide.
Feel free to pass my comments on to him. 🙂

Give it a whirl. Had a few various makes. I had one batch that split the seal, and hissed water all over the kitchen top. Other than that, OK

Just bought a re-useable pod for my Dolce Gusto (one at home and a shared one at work) – means I can use my box of Whittard coffees from around the world. You just don’t get the creme with the re-useable as the ‘pressure’ isn’t quite the same.

A colleague has just brought in some Weasel ‘pooed’ coffee beans from Vietnam – apparently quite expensive – just given it a whirl in the Dolce Gusto re-useable pod – not bad at all. I was the only one to ‘try’ it so far.

Different people like different things. Try it and let us know whether to like it.

YMMV applies here.

A local roaster with “artisan” in their name has started doing pods, hence the title.

that is meaningless, the key word is ‘speciality’ as defined by the SCA that is coffee graded to above a score of 95. speciality coffee is a far superior product to beans purchased by bulk roasters like Nestle.

anyone can call a product ‘artisan’.

I keep meaning to try the Moving Bean ones. They claim to be completely compostable; I’m just not sure what that means…if I stick them in a normal bin will they just disintegrate in landfill, or would they need the heat/moisture/bacteria of a proper compost heap to degrade?

We currently use L’Or ones as there is a recycling point (Terracycle) nr my route home. We saved almost a years worth of L’Or pods in a box in the garage & I dropped them off in one go not long before Christmas time.

A Nespresso shop has popped up in Peterborough now, so my Wife has treated herself to a few boxes from there – the supply a recycling bag, so easy enough to just drop it off with them when we fill it up & go into town for some shopping.

I stick them in a normal bin will they just disintegrate in landfill, or would they need the heat/moisture/bacteria of a proper compost heap to degrade?

Normal food waste doesn’t biodegrade properly in landfill due to lack of oxygen/bacteria, so I doubt coffee pods would.

You’re supposed to put the biodegradable pods in your compost bin (either home or council one). We empty ours into a pot which when full gets put in the food waste bine, after a week there are sign of decomposing. The moving beans site has photos of the stages of decomposing.

fossy – Which reusable Dolce Gusto ones are you using? I’ve seen a few advertised but always been a bit dubious as the machine needs to pierce the lid for the standard pods. Is it just a case of making sure it’s lined up right each time?

My son has used Amazon France, a lot cheaper apparently.

I get my artesian coffee from a local geezer

Colonna Coffee Nespresso compatible pods are the ones to get. The owner, Maxwell, is a 3x World Barista Championship finalist and knows his stuff. Other pods are patchy to say the least. The compostable ones really do work as well.

Specialty Coffee is defined as that scoring 80+ not 95. If it were 95 there’d be virtually no coffee that would meet that definition; I’ve only tasted a few coffees scoring 95 and over (and I’ve tasted thousands of specialty coffees over the years) and they’ve all been exceptionally rare and expensive. You’re correct in saying that ‘artisan’ is a meaningless moniker, though.

JP

I blame my iPad and this lovely forum software.
I didn’t think the colonna ones I tried were anything special but I often buy their coffee (when I pass the cafe that sells it, annoyingly they only do subscriptions not by the bag mail order)

Bookmarked

I blame my iPad and this lovely forum software.
I didn’t think the colonna ones I tried were anything special but I often buy their coffee (when I pass the cafe that sells it, annoyingly they only do subscriptions not by the bag mail order)

We can sell you Colonna beans by the bag.

JP

I’ve bought a small Nespresso machine off eBay to give the pods a go. Will sell it on if I don’t like the coffee. It’s an Magimix Nespresso Essenza Mini, but it seems Krups make a version of this too. Perhaps there’s a standardised design of the internals with a different exterior for different brands?

We can sell you Colonna beans by the bag.

JP

link?

EDIT: actually you can now buy a single bag of beans from Collona without subscribing.

link?

EDIT: actually you can now buy a single bag of beans from Collona without subscribing.

I can do you a deal though – specialtycoffeehome.com.

@Mr_p, the pods were off amazon, about £8.99/£9.99 for 3. I went for the highest rated one – they are brown if that helps, not many on the market (one make TBH)

PS they work quite well. Fill 2/3rds, pop top on carefully. Align the ‘hole’ on the pod, with the bit on the coffee machine (it’s at the front BTW), if the top won’t close, don’t force it, check hole alignment.

Press go.

They drip more, and you don’t get the creme, but it saves plastic, and coffee as you don’t need as much to brew a single cup.

Happy with mine. It’s OK for a quick coffee. Still prefer the mokka pot, but thats when I have time.

Tried a few. Some have been dreadful. Not artisan but Starbucks have been good. Taylor’s too.

Pretty sure the OP is Edinburgh based and therefore referring to these ones https://www.artisanroast.co.uk/capsules/

Artisan Roast have been on the go for well over a decade and were one of (if not the) first of the new wave of speciality roasters north of the border, definitely specialty as per SCA guidelines.

Often wonder if they somewhat regret the name, they were “artisan roast” well before everyone started plastering the artisan label over everything.

It was Artisan Roast that sparked my interest but had also seen the Colonna pods mentioned on here.

The eBay Nespresso machine arrived on Friday and I bought 20 pods, 10 of each type from Artisan Roast. (These ones https://www.artisanroast.co.uk/capsules). I also bought a box of 10 “Espresso” pods from Aldi for £1.69. These were just to check the machine actually worked.

Tried the Aldi pods first…. horrible but showed it was working. I used the default “extraction” time which apparently means it outputs 40ml. The coffee tasted like the Nespressos I’d had before, thin and bitter with loads of crema. These have been in hotels or holiday cottages where they have a machine and Nespresso brand capsules.

I then tried the Artisan Roast compostable pods and, using a set of kitchen scales, adjusted the output to 25ml. This is what AR recommend for espresso. It’s bit tricky to get it to stop exactly on 25ml/25g. The coffee in this case was actually pretty good and very drinkable. It didn’t taste like a typical Nespresso at all. It was much closer to an espresso from a proper machine.
The only real criticisms are the large amount of crema (which I think the machine fakes) and that the coffee temperature was very slightly on the cool side. The crema is quite thin and can be bitter, scooping most of it out solves that though. The pods are 50p each but these are packs of 10. I’d hope that larger packs would see the unit cost reduce.

So, for now I’m keeping the machine and am going to find some more pods to try.

I bought the Sage Creatista Plus machine in the black friday sale for £270 and it is pretty good – stopped me going to the coffee shop as the coffee is just as good and my mate, who fixates on these thngs, thought the coffee I served him the other day was pretty good.

However I’m not very inventive – it’s always an Expresso shot, of standard volume, followed by a cappuchino which uses/exhausts the same pod.

I can’t see how to get it to just eat some milk though.

Have finished the Artisan Roast pods now, so picked a random online seller of pods and landed on https://roargill.com/. A selection of 40 will be arriving this week. Think I will try Colonna after these.

A pod that produces a good Lungo would be good, any suggestions?

Tried the remainder Aldi pods again and these have been failing to pierce properly and produce anything other than a dribble of coffee.

Roar Gill pods have arrived and I’ve just had one of the “Fine” ones… I think these might be going back. They’re nowhere near as good as the Artisan Roast ones. Very thin coffee, not really like an espresso at all.

Have now tried the Roar Gill “Rare” and “Exotic”. They are equally as poor and I’ve asked for my money back (as per the guarantee on their website). I think either the coffee is not ground fine enough or it’s gone stale.

Will be trying Colonna next.

I have the Colonna pods finally. Slight issue as the box of 40 isn’t letterbox friendly so I had to collect from the sorting office. I’ve got the Las Laderas compostable ones.

So, had high hopes for these. But initially impressions are that they’re a bit average. The tastes claimed on the box are there, but the coffee is a bit too thin.

Initially I thought my machine had lost the setting for the extraction amount, as 40g came out. This is the factory setting. Ignored this cup, as the Colonna recommend 30g. Next cup, I adjusted to 28ish g (its hard to hit the exact amounts recommended!). As I said the tastes are there but coffee is a bit thin.

I then switched to an Artisan Roast San Agustin. Mindful that I had adjusted the extraction, I weighed out 25g (AR’s recommendation). It became quite obvious that the Artisan Roast capsules extract far slower than the Colonna ones. The Artisan Roast was as good as before.

Therefore, I don’t think my machine had reset, it’s just that the Colonna pods extract faster and hence the result is ‘thinner’, even at the correct 30g extraction amount. On the same setting for Artisan Roast’s 25g you get 40g of Colonna

😯 These are pods that supposed to make decent coffee easier?
I may just stick with my artisinal Aero.

Another thing, both Colonna and Artisan roast pods come in sealed (compostable) bags of 5. The Roar Gill ones were just in unsealed cardboard boxes of 10, I think that may have been why they seemed stale

These are pods that supposed to make decent coffee easier?

Making the coffee is easy and so is adjusting how long it extracts for. Just press and hold the button, then release when the required amount has been dispensed. The machine will remember that amount for next time. Just a single short press and release needed next time.

Ah that sounds more reasonable. I only have awareness of the simple machines my mates have.