Nespresso Machine - worth it??

[Leedssdeel]

Just that , really! I am on a tight budget so this is a treat , I absolutely cannot go for the cafe style machines, as much as I would love to , so I am thinking of a Nespresso . I had a dolce gusto and a tassimo before , years back , and I was really disappointed with both , but I have heard good things about Nespresso .

Most importantly - which one ? I have heard you can only use Vertuo pods in the Vertuo and you have to order them online ?? That’s no good for me, I drink a LOT of coffee so I need to be able to pop to Tesco for my pods.

Looking online , they do so many in Tesco ( Lor ones , oh wow ❤️ ) but the description just says ’ nespresso machines ‘ - how do I know which one ?

We’ve got the Nespresso CitiZ with milk thing. Love it, have a few a day. You can buy pods from Tesco / Sainsbury’s/ Waitrose / online anywhere really.

https://www.johnlewis.com/citiz-coffee-pod-machine-with-aeroccino-milk-frother-by-delonghi/p113161601

I have had three Vertuo machines, one is still going strong after 6ish years, I gave it away when we left the US. Then I got one here which packed up completely after about a year, Nespresso replaced it and it’s fine, my daughters have it in their flat, I have the third, it’s been working fine for over 2 years. I only drink one cup a day so it isn’t too expensive. I really like the coffee and the Vertuo makes a whole mug, we used to have the original pod machine and I always used two pods. If I was a big coffee drinker I wouldn’t go for Nespresso.

I can recycle the pods in Morrisons or John Lewis or get the postman to pick them up, not too much of a problem. The pods are mostly aluminium which is much more recyclable than plastic.

I have a L'or machine and use the pods from Lidl/Aldi (£1.50 for 10 ish) and sometimes Sainsbury's if on offer. The Nespresso pods themselves are good but pricey. Never had an issue with the machine itself and had Nespresso ones in the past.
I also recently started recycling my pods through pod back, it's free and saves them going to landfill.

At work I have the aldi coffee pod machine which is compatible with nespresso pods (although I tend to order pods online). It produces an espresso with a decent crema and is much cheaper although not always available.

At home I have a delonghi dedica arte machine which is an old fashioned espresso maker but also compatible with ese pods. These are compostible so more environmentally friendly but a bit harder to get a hold of and the crema is not quite so good

I couldn’t live without ours. I was just saying to DH this morning how it’s the device we use most in the house!

We get Wonky pods on subscription.

I forgot @Leedssdeel of course you can use various branded pods on the Nespresso. Lor, Starbucks own, loads of brands fit the machine. I try different ones all the time.

Our original Nespresso (not the virtuo) made great coffee -far better than our built in bean to cup machine.

https://www.lorespresso.com/en_gb/coffee-machine

I adore my L'or. Takes all the Nespresso pods and off brand/Starbucks etc too. I also use wonky coffee subscription.

Can currently get machine and 70 pods for £75

You can apparently buy a pod converter that means you can use the expensive pods in a regular machine. I haven’t used one so no idea if they work/are reliable/how much they cost, I just know they exist!

I’ve had a nespresso pixie and a separate milk frother for several years and I’ve also got an Essenz mini in my office upstairs for occasional use. I couldn’t be more pleased with them. I bought a Vertuo machine a couple of years ago when it was on special offer but returned it, partly because it wasn’t heating the coffee enough but also because I realised that you’re pretty much tied to Nespresso for coffee pods. There is a huge range of compatible pods available for the original machines but I’ve never seen any compatible pods for the Vertuo.

The Vertuo pods are still protected by a patent. There won’t be any off brand pods until it expires.

I think you would do much better to get a bean to cup machine (look out for sales, we got ours cheap) as you then only pay for beans, I get massive bags from Lidl really cheaply. It will save you a fortune in the medium/long run

You can buy the old style Nespresso machines on Ebay/Gumtree etc. Do not buy the Vertuo machine if you are on a tight budget - the capsules are incredibly expensive.

With the old style Nespresso machines, you can buy a really big range of brands including supermarket brands. Aldi and Lidl do a range which are cheaper.

The capsules are easily recyclable as well. Just look online about how to do this.

I have a Nespresso vertuo machine and love it. Never had any trouble with it (or a previous original line machine). A bean to cup type machine wouldn’t work for us because DH and I like different coffee and also have decaf later in the day. You can get a bigger cup of coffee with the bigger vertuo pods.

The online delivery works very well.

If you want to use supermarket pods you need an original line machine but I did try some in my old machine and they simply weren’t the quality of the Nespresso brand - plus they were usually plastic so couldn’t be recycled like the Nespresso pods.

It takes the normal shaped capsules that you can get from the supermarket. You don't have to use l'or branded it takes Nespresso ones or Starbucks or aldi etc. the capsules from wonky coffee are just a selection of ones from all different companies that they sell as a lucky dip rather than them being binned. This is the machine I have https://www.lorespresso.com/en_gb/p/uk-sublime-piano-noir-costa70caps
It makes either two espressos or put a mug under and it does one larger coffee per capsule.

We upgraded from Nespresso to a De’Longhi bean to cup machine (La Rivelia) and despite the extra it’s well worth it.

We use Kingdom Coffee who are local ish to us but are online and based in Reading. They sell beans to customers at essentially wholesale prices. The quality is incredible and used by many local coffee shops in Berkshire/Surrey.

When combining the cost of the bags of beans which are cheaper per shot than Nespresso you can start to get a return on your ‘investment’ quite quickly.

We rarely get a coffee out nowadays either so you save there too, further helping pay off the machine.

Thank you everyone !
I think I’m leaning more towards the L’OR machine x

I love mine. Tastes as good as a chain coffee shop

I had one but didn’t love it. Pods expensive and small cup sizes (can be altered but still not a mug size on one pod) Much prefer cafetière coffee and just as quick.

I donated my vertuo to work as the pods were getting ridiculous, so now anyone who has pods can use the machine. I down graded to the L’Or and it’s great. Just top up a shot with hot water and it’s an americano. I sometimes get the XL pods for a bigger cup. They originally had XXXL pods which made a full mug, but discontinued them.

Thank you everyone for your advice!

My L’or machine has just been delivered ! 🎉

Now I need advice - so many capsules … I’m lost 🤣

What are the best ? What do they all mean - so many different names!

How do I make a Cappucino ?

A latte?

The best way to just make a nice coffee ( with milk )

I just made a latte … I used an XXL pod , between 2 and then frothed the milk in the frother , I did 1 serving of milk for each …. Quite small and not very strong. Should I have used one pod each ? A stronger one ? I used the XXL double ristretto 11.

I drink Americano. I find that if I choose a strong pod (some of them go up to strength 14) I can run the large size twice through the pod and get a good coffee. I’ll check the name next time I’m in the kitchen.

Keep the XL pod- dry it out and store it somewhere. Occasionally the press stops piercing the capsule and you need to press an XL to reset it.

I can’t advise on cappuccino! I use the frother for hot chocolate.

My sage nespresso machine is really reliable. The crap ones in hotels aren’t in my experience. Krups?

We were given one. I hated the thought of the capsules ending up in landfill so ended up getting the refillable ones which were a faff. I went back to using my bialetti but the nespresso came with a free milk frother so that was good for making latte (and hot chocolate for winter breakfasts). I don’t like flavoured coffee, and the capsules can be quite expensive unless you get a subscription.

Here’s what I got- bargain from a food waste club as they are past sell by date.

They are reasonable in Likd and Aldi- own brand ones.
You can get them off discount dragon as well, and there’s a coffee pod website that’s reasonable too. With the subscription, recycling the pods is free.