Towards the end of our April trip to Britain we stayed at a B&B "Gastropub", The Malt House in Fulham, http://www.malthousefulham.co.uk . Apart from being a fabulous place to stay, fantastic food and ales, close to the Tube and in the middle of a vibrant community with heaps of little coffee shops and restaurants, they are a "Nespresso House". The rooms all have Nespresso machines and capsules and the bar has a 4 group fully commercial Nespresso machine, using the foil pods (to the left of the picture.)

The machine itself has a "proper" boiler and a rotary pump as well as a built in milk fridge, and automatically adds steamed milk to selected drinks. I was unable to find out who makes it, but couldn't help the feeling that I was looking at the future of low to medium end espresso. All the bar person needs to know is which cup to select and which button to press.

Alan

"O Brave New World that has such people in it."

Alan, how was the coffee from it? I'm not totally down on the regular capsules for home use in milk, though I don't like what I've tried from the newer Vertuoline line at Williams-Sonoma. However, I haven't heard much good feedback at all about the commercial capsules.

I've had the foil caps frequently enough to say that the result is pretty much the same as the home version, if you're used to good espresso made from fresh roasted beans ground per serving you should not have too high expectations, compare it with the first shots after opening a can of Illy...it' s OK but staleish'

jbviau wrote:Alan, how was the coffee from it? I'm not totally down on the regular capsules for home use in milk, though I don't like what I've tried from the newer Vertuoline line at Williams-Sonoma. However, I haven't heard much good feedback at all about the commercial capsules.

Better than any espresso I've ever had at LAX, for instance, but not a patch on what I get from a beginner machine/grinder setup and my own fresh beans. Smooth, malty, slightly sweet, decent crema but not much body or aftertaste. Not stale at all, but they pound through a heap of pods daily so I'd expect fairly recent roasts. I only tried it at breakfast, after that I stuck to ale.

Alan

Hello:

jbviau wrote:Alan, how was the coffee from it? I'm not totally down on the regular capsules ...

A guy I know who is in the commercial coffee roasting biz told me I should try this and give him an opinion:

1. Have a Nespresso, the best cup you can make/get either at home/a coffee shop serving Nespresso.
2. Drink and evaluate it.
3. Make/ask for yet a second one, rinsing your palate with soda water in the meantime.
4. When you get the second cup, stop and first 'shave' all the crema from the top, discarding it.
5. Drink the cup of Nespresso and evaluate it.

I do not have a Nespresso so I have not done it but I have passed it on both to a couple of Nespresso machine owners and a bartender where Nespresso is served.

The reports have been unanimous: "Agggghhhhh ... it's awful."

I don't know what the exact implications of this would be but the first thing that comes to mind is the possibility that all the taste is in the 'crema' part of the shot and that the rest is just a hot dark liquid 'without' the taste. ie: it has some sort of chemical flavouring.

Try it.

Cheers,

CIV

Not sure about any chemical flavoring, those would have to show on the packaged cups...
What I do know is that the roast is invariably quite old and often very dark considering the taste profiles (or a lack of taste other than roast flavors)

But one has to keep in mind that the typical home user will be used to stale grounds of a typically low quality to begin with (probably made up from mainly robusta too), in that light Nespresso holds up.

Alan Frew wrote: The machine itself has a "proper" boiler and a rotary pump as well as a built in milk fridge, and automatically adds steamed milk to selected drinks. I was unable to find out who makes it, but couldn't help the feeling that I was looking at the future of low to medium end espresso. All the bar person needs to know is which cup to select and which button to press.

Alan

Very interesting. Thanks for this report Alan.

Here's the big question: Which is the most appealing choice for the most people, superauto Starbucks latte, or Commercial Nespresso latte?
Nespresso is the best of the pods AFAIK, and I'm not sure about the answer.

That seems like a bit silly question...especially if you know how coffee can taste.
Personally I'd get by on either one if there would be no other options but neither one would be a stayer on the long run.

https://www.nespresso.com/pro/us/en//pr ... 201-VQ16-t

No prices are listed but here you will find the complete range of Nespresso's commercial services.

I found the espressos and coffees served up from these foil sachets to be far less interesting than the smaller capsules made for their home range of original and Vertuo machines.