There was a brouhaha here a couple of weeks ago about bad journalism and coffee. I'm not trying to revive that thread, but only to provide a little perspective. The reporter in the following story talked to only one source and came away with the news that, yes, indeed, espresso

is also a type of roast

Even more regrettably the reporter works for a service (GateHouse) that provides content to multiple outlets.
http://www.oakridger.com/food/x796076266/Food-for-Thought-Make-your-own-espresso

Depressing.
p.s.
a little better journalism that I came across today on twitter: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/apr/05/consider-coffee
Nicely told history of coffee only to ride into calling coffeegeek.com snobs and acclaim nespresso capsules excellence:

The coffee snobs may not like it, but I've been a fan of Nespresso for some time: the machines make excellent coffee for all but the most obsessive drinkers, and there's no clean-up.

I find the comment about no cleanup being needed for the Nespresso most distressing.

There's a new-ish Nespresso machine at work as we now have a kitchen without a sink or a drain. I read the instructions, but could find only that the machine will tell you when you need to descale, nothing about cleaning. It was already starting to look grungy and I was sure that the flavor would start to be affected, so I picked up a Pallo coffee tool brush and a wash bottle to clean the head of this machine, even though I rely on my own Twist for espresso at work.

Most people who use the machine are making coffee (lungos) on it and they seem to like it. It's definitely an improvement from the old coffee pots, but I avoided those as well.

I thought the Guardian article was pretty good, though I suspect the writer was channeling Mark Pendergrast's "Uncommon Grounds." (as I do, when I give a lecture )

Compared to a grinder and espresso machine, it's fair to call Nespresso a "no cleanup" machine. Indeed, it's one of its major selling points.

But, I'm disappointed he repeated the "second most-traded commodity" myth.

I suppose maybe I am obsessive. As I was waiting for my oatmeal to finish in the microwave this morning, I flushed the Nespresso into a cup and went at it a little bit with the brush and wash bottle. I suppose you may not notice if all you make is coffee, but if you ever try and drink the water that comes through the group afterward, I think you'd notice.

Mind you, this is on a new machine that I regularly try to keep clean.



I'm still surprised that there's no mention of a cleaning regimen in the instructions and with their bed of nails system that pierces the foil capsule it's actually rather hard to clean without a brush (not included).