Vacations bring some odd coffee experiences; for me this one had me drinking Nespresso and Keurig pod coffees.

For both systems, I went through several different coffees, and came to the same conclusions. Aromatic coffees in light to medium roasts, when done in pods, lack the acidity, aroma and sweetness of fresh coffees; the pod versions are obviously stale. However, medium and darker roasts, especially of non-acidic or relatively unaromatic coffees are frequently better and almost always as good as the fresh ground and regularly made version. So what gives?

The pod systems do a technically correct extraction; as good or better than most people can do for themselves, and very close to best practice. So if the roast does not deteriorate in the packaging, the system will produce at a high standard. Apparently, this packaging technology is good enough to preserve the darker roast flavors and aromatics, but not the lighter roast ones. So the pod systems do a good job with darker roast arabicas and robustas, but not with light roasted arabicas.

Three conclusions: First, if you have to use pods, select darker roasts. Second, these technologies will hit Starbucks far harder than Dunkin Donuts, and dark roasting businesses more than light roasting ones. Third, because of this bias in the way pods stale, this technology may actually lead to improved specialty coffee.

FWIW, I just read that Green Mountain Coffee and Starbucks have struck a deal so you'll be seeing Starbucks coffee in Keurig cups before long..

We moved upstairs at work and as a result our half of the second floor has a kitchen without a sink or plumbed water. The solution to coffee has been an Nespresso ES-100 pro 6 g capsule machine, which is an improvement over the filthy coffee pots downstairs.

This is a fairly recent job for me, having hired on last year, so I came in not expecting much in coffee and brought with me a drawer full of coffee toys, now I mostly make an afternoon espresso with my Twist and home-roast. For me, the Twist wins as I detailed in my WordPress blog, but I have to admit that I have since tried two capsules and decided that it's not bad if you like chocolate and hazelnut flavors with very little fruit or acidity. Very much an Italian style espresso.

I plan to keep relying on my own coffee and equipment for the time being, but I did order and donate a Pallo Coffee Tool to try and maintain the cleanliness of this machine. I fear without anyone stepping up to maintain this machine that the result will be the gradual decrease in quality until it's as bad as the filthy pots down below.

another_jim wrote:However, medium and darker roasts, especially of non-acidic or relatively unaromatic coffees are frequently better and almost always as good as the fresh ground and regularly made version. So what gives?

The pod systems do a technically correct extraction; as good or better than most people can do for themselves, and very close to best practice. So if the roast does not deteriorate in the packaging, the system will produce at a high standard. Apparently, this packaging technology is good enough to preserve the darker roast flavors and aromatics, but not the lighter roast ones. So the pod systems do a good job with darker roast arabicas and robustas, but not with light roasted arabicas.

Three conclusions: First, if you have to use pods, select darker roasts. Second, these technologies will hit Starbucks far harder than Dunkin Donuts, and dark roasting businesses more than light roasting ones. Third, because of this bias in the way pods stale, this technology may actually lead to improved specialty coffee.

I am no expert and am still training my palate, but I have found that by trying a wide variety of pods I have been able to create consistent espresso and cappuccinos that I like a lot. It's much better than starbucks and restaurant-made. I tend to prefer darker roast and don't like lighter roasts. Your experience might help explain why I've found pods that work for me.

I found several pods I like by getting the "pod sampler" from an internet podmerchant.

Be aware Jim refers to capsule pod systems like Nespresso and Keurig, not the ESE pods you reported on in ESE Pods are NOT Evil. Neither impresses me, but from my limited experience, the capsule types produce a better tasting, more consistent espresso (i.e., a ESE pod would struggle to rate 1.0 while the capsule type could squeak by with a 2.0 based on the SCAA espresso scoring scale).

My apologies for the misnomer.

The old style ESE packs are very tricky. You need both a specialized shower head and basket to make them work right. Their popularity in Italy is because people use them on machines that do nothing else. The ESE pods I tried here were impossible to judge for coffee quality, since I never had a a shot that extracted correctly; some water always bypassed the pod, no matter what I tried. The Keurig and Nespresso systems are custom made, and cannot be screwed up by the user. This is true of the Illy Ipercapsules as well. The ESE pods may work just as well as these do on machines designed to force all the water through them; but I cannot say one way or another.

Well that sucks, I just dropped $2400 on a LaSpaz! I've also got $425 in on the Major, about $1700 in equipment waiting to (theoretically) be sold... Being an unabashed chocolate bomber, looks like I could've saved about $4375...

Just talked to a friend whom I recommended the nespresso to, he says he pays $.57 a capsule. Throwing out shipping, and assuming a 16 gram shot, you get roughly 28 shots @ $.42 a piece out of a bag of Redbird ($.60 a shot with shipping!)... Also consider the proportion of those shots that are actually drinkable considering grind adjustments, leveling, conditioning garbage shots. etc...

I've never tried the nespresso (I recommended it due to it's convenience, was for his wife, and he laughed in my face when I told him it was over $100..), but I did have a Kuerig before I got into this whole mess, and the coffee it produced significantly lacked body. More so, I would actually be surprised if any of the Kuerig models can reach 195 degrees...

I don't think you need to worry about capsules blowing away the espresso from your La Spaz.

At most, capsules are a viable option where a real espresso machine and grinder are not possible due to lack of space, money, or plumbing facilities, or where the potential buyer simply doesn't want to bother with the mess and expense of a machine and grinder, not to mention the learning curve of figuring out how to use them. I can see having a capsule machine in the office break room, for example. But I'd still want to keep my Gaggia in my office so I could have the real thing.