more on single serve coffee makers: anyone familiar with Nespresso?

[passatdoc]

My sister recently sent me a rather lavish birthday gift: a Nespresso Pixie. Our current coffee maker at the office is a Philips Senseo which works ok, but the Nespresso seems (still in the box) much simpler to use.

Anyone have experience with it? What if you prefer plain old filter coffee rather than espresso per se? I know they have capsules available for "coffee" (vs. espresso), but what is the taste like, and how much can you make at once. Before sending the Senseo home with an employee, I want to be sure that the Nespresso can fill our needs. I'm not that wild about the Senseo, it's temperamental.

 

[mixfinder]

Cute as a Pixie

I have a Nespresso and it is quick, simple and dependable. The coffee of course is Nestle's Nescafe and there are no options other than ordering on line and having the Pods mailed. Most coffees are about 52 cents a cup. Ristoretto is my favorite but there are roasts less vibrant. You'll love it, just don't run out of Pods and expect to pick some up at Kohl's.

 

[passatdoc]

@mixfinder

Can you prepare standard coffee with it, or only espresso?
Most of the people in my office are coffee fans but not espresso fans.
Does Kohls sell the pods too? There is a Kohls near me, plus of course there is always mail order.

PS I read reviews of the Pixie vs the Citriz and reviewers seem to favor the latter, as the Pixie seems to have some issues with leakage from the tank. I would have no issues with taking it to the local Williams-Sonoma store (my sister purchased it at a W-S near her and had it shipped to me as a surprise) and upgrading it to a Citriz. The Citriz is only $30 additional, and right now W-S is offering a Citriz package with the milk frother for $70 additional. I'd gladly pay the extra $70 since the frother alone sells for about $70-80.

 

 

[this post was last edited: 2/29/2012-18:29]

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[ronhic]

A very good friend of ours has one of these and I've been drinking the coffee out of one of it since he bought it over 7 years ago.

Frankly, it's FAB. The coffees that you can get are very good and there is a huge variety with limited releases through the year too.

However, you CAN NOT use anything other than Nespresso pods with them and you CAN NOT make anything other than long or short coffee's (and derivatives)....if you want filter coffee, then boil the kettle and top up the short coffee that comes out of one of these....

I'd have one over my parents Senseo any day of the week.

 

[passatdoc]

update

Yesterday I had time to run over to the local Williams-Sonoma store. They were selling the Citiz (next larger model), bundled at a discount with the electric frother, for $70 more than the cost of the Pixie, and the frother alone sells for $100 normally. So I forked over $70 and walked out of W-S last night with a Citiz and a frother, plus they gave me as a bonus three packages of coffee capsules.

Re: how to make Americano style coffee in an office environment where more people drink coffee than espresso. As ronhic suggested above, the salesperson (who owns two Nespresso machines, one in her kitchen and one in her upstairs bathroom) recommended selecting a short coffee, then hitting the water button one more time to top off with hot water.

The other option in our office is that we have a reverse osmosis system with a dispenser that dispenses chilled, room temperature, or hot water. There is even a "reboil" feature that brings the hot water vessel up to boiling for tea* (or use it "hot" without reboiling for hot chocolate, instant ramen, broth, etc.). The hot water tap would be nice if someone wished to customise how much water was added, and the temperature could be varied by using either "as is" hot water or "reboiled" hot water.

We have very hard, not very tasty water here, so the R.O. system is amazing, it produces delicious water. Of course, we will fill the Nespresso tank with water from the R.O. system. At home, I don't have R.O. and rely on my refrigerator's filter, which produces reasonably good water, but nothing like R.O.

*no, we can't buy Bushell's here, at least not in a normal supermarket. There are British Goods stores here that cater to Pom expats, but few of them ever stock goods from Oz. No Bushell's, no Lamingtons, and rarely any Vegemite. However, if you are seeking a tea cozy with the Royal Family or Tower Bridge on it, yes you can buy it here, as well as "things for tea" (biscuits, clotted cream, etc.). Few stores here sell lemon curd because we can make it ourselves from fresh lemons from the garden and it tastes better than what you buy in the UK, anyway.