 Best value for the money - Awesome coffee |
| Review Date: May 15, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Joe Corbett, Minneapolis,MN |
| I was initially reluctant to buy this based on the fact that they use proprietary pods. Had that reluctance stuck with me, I probably would've spent a few hundred more on a high-quality manual espresso machine, or over a thousand on an automatic machine. $.52 a cup is reasonable when you consider that grinding your own works out to about $.30 a cup, but yields a greater mess and requires more soap and water for cleanup each time. With two little kids at home - who has time to clean? I was absolutely giddy the first time I used both the machine and the frother. Separately and together, both machines match or rival what all too many of us pay $3-5 for from the local coffee shop. I'm convinced that our friends will like us more if we decide to share some of this with them. I bought this at Williams-Sonoma based on loyalty as I had sampled it 3 times over a two week period and finally couldn't take it anymore. I had to have one! Consumer reports also ranks this machine highest in its class. The only machine that offered comparable taste was larger, cost about a grand, and requires more cleaning. |
Living in Italy: ALL ITALIANS have this machine
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| Review Date: October 4, 2008 |
| Reviewer: K. R. Warmkessel, Genova, Italy |
| I live in Italy and I have to say that after being in Italy for 7 years, I finally discovered how to make the perfect cappuccino at home. This makes a cappuccino exactly how I would get it at my neighborhood coffee bar. The machine makes a dense rich espresso with a nice cream on top and the aeroccino makes a perfect thick foam. The aeroccino also heats the milk to the perfect temperature and clean up is super quick. The machine is little in size which is a plus in a tiny Italian kitchen. At first I wasn't so convinced on being committed to buying only Nespresso capsules, first for the price and second for the quality of coffee. Then I recalculated that I spend 1.10 euro at the bar every morning compared to .34 euro to make it at home....hence a definite savings. Plus the quality of coffees they offer (12 varieties in total) happens to be excellent! I've noticed that all of the Italians here also have this espresso machine in house. So if the Italians say it's good, and they're passionate about their food and drink, it's got to be good. I've owned several machines over the years and this one is truly THE BEST!! |
Best Purchase of the year!
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| Review Date: May 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. Hunter, Salem, OR |
I spent quite awhile researching Espresso makers from $300 to $1500 and for some reason never felt comfortable spending the money. Over the years I find I dislike all the clean-up and noise. The high end Super Automatics were looking OK on that front but the costs were more than I really wanted to pay. Then I ran into the Nespresso. People seemed to have two perspectives - either they dismissed it and stated the taste of the espresso was far inferior to any hand pulled shot and the coffee too cool or they raved about the quality of the espresso and were almost evangelists.
In the month since purchasing the C100 I now fall into the latter group. From the minute I tasted the first shot from the machine I was hooked. My wife loves the cappuccinos you can make though she has never been a fan of any espresso drink. The variety of coffee pods available should offer something for every one and every mood.
Personally, there are some of the coffee line at the low intensity level that I would describe as watery and weak and if they were my only experience with Nespresso I would have never purchased the machine. I find the coffee pods at the higher intensity level as good as anything I have gotten at a specialty coffee shop and Nespresso is only a pull of a level and the push of a button away. As to the temperature of the espresso, just make sure you run the Nespresso maker one time without a pod to heat up the unit and the cup, makes all the difference in the heat level.
Clean up is as simple as pulling out the base holding the discarded pods, dumping them and rinsing. Nespresso coffees are only available at their Nespresso Bars (large cities only) or online from the Nespresso Store which some see as a negative but is not an issue I worry about.
The Aeroccino Milk Frother is a great unit for me. Quick and easy heating and frothing for Lattes and Cappuccinos. It is quiet and quick. It can create hot milk with a little froth or a heavy froth for those who enjoy it. I stick with the heated milk and light froth. Easy to clean.
All in all, Nestle has made great product that brings me smiles everyday. |
Excellent taste and easy to make and clean-up - worth the cost!
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| Review Date: December 31, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Isis, Maryland |
After a lot of research and knowing how tasty the Nespresso espressos are (free sample at a store a year ago that I fondly remembered), I bought the Nespresso C100 on Amazon in September 2009 for an anniversary present to ourselves. In four months, we have made about 180 cups of cappuccino or expresso for my husband and I and an occasional guest. We make about 2-3 cups during the weekday and more on the weekends.
- Very fast and easy to make, with no mess. Fill up the water dispenser, turn the machine on, pop a colored pod in the maker and close lever. Wait for buttons to stop blinking to show it is heated, then push the button. Enjoy the smell! Very easy to clean - run water through by pressing the button and dump out/wash the tray where the overflow grill is and the basket that catches the many pods.
- Aeroccino froth maker is soooo much easier than trying to use the steam nozzles that most cappuccino maker's have (no splattering and nice, consistent froth. My friends are impressed how easy it is!). Just pour the milk in (regular, 2%, or soy) up to the bottom line, put on the plastic lid, and press the button. It makes enough for two cappuccinos. I make the expresso on the lungo or larger setting (7 oz), so the frothed milk is fine for me; however, my husband likes the cappuccino hotter since the milk is warm but not hot, and he puts his cappuccino in microwave to make it hotter. If you pour the milk into the expresso, made on the expresso setting (5 oz), since it is a smaller amount of coffee, the milk tends to make it too cold. If you pour the milk a little above the lower line in the Aeroccino, it can froth over the container. The container is easy to clean up, although it seems best to clean up after each iteration; otherwise, the milk can be stuck on the bottom in brown stains and harder to get off if you heat it up the 2nd time. After cleaning the Aeroccino, make sure you dry it and put the wire whisk back on its magnetic base. A few times, I have just put it inside and later tried to froth my coffee. When it doesn't froth, it means, the wire whisk wasn't put on the magnetic base. You can push the button again to stop the machine and put the whisk in place.
- I bought two Nespresso Lungo (5 oz) glass cups when I bought my machine for about $20. When I received the machine, there was a one time special card offering two Lungo (5 oz) and two Expresso (2 oz) cups and the associated black, plastic saucers for $20 instead of $29. It worth to have at least two Lungo cups. We only use them to make the expresso, then pour the coffee into bigger coffee mugs to have room to add the milk froth. Since I am not a coffee purist and I like to get the most for my money, I push the Lungo button to get a Lungo size cup, pour it in a coffee mug, then press the expresso button to get a smaller amount and also pour that in the coffee mug, so I can get more coffee for the price.
After making all your expressos, Nespresso recommends running hot water through by pushing to button to flush out any expresso grounds, so it nice to have an extra cup to hold that water.
- When you get the machine, they very nicely give you a one of each of the Nespresso expresso flavors (12 or 14). Before I got my machine, I had ordered additional flavors from the Nespresso website based on other Amazon reviewer favorites (thanks for your thoughts!), and they arrived before my machine did. Instead of .55 each, they cost about .64 each when shipped to Maryland. They normally have 2 business day shipping, so they arrived pretty fast.
- I use a large round empty fish bowl to store my colorful Nespresso pods. It looks nice on the counter.
- I made myself a spreadsheet, copying and pasting the information from the Nespresso website to show:
Name: such as Apreggio
Type: Expresso or Lungo. I found I could use either expresso or lungo to make a lungo size cup, since I don't like my cappuccino too strong.
Intensity: 1-10
Description: From website
Pod Color: This is subjective and helpful when you want to buy more or even find which pod you want more quickly. Looking for a teal or blue? Copper or gold?
My and my husband's ratings (1-3 stars) with comments so I knew which ones to re-order.
I added in the specialty flavors which are not listed in the Nespresso book.
Here are our favorites that we re-ordered. Note that the colors are my subjective view of what the pods looked like to me:
Apreggio Expresso; intensity 9; purple - we probably have had 70 pods of this!
Fortissio Lungo; intensity 7; teal
Indriya from India Pure Origin; intensity 10; olive-grey (.62 instead of .55)
Livanto Expresso; intensity 6; copper
Ristretto Expresso; intensity 10; black
Vivalo Lungo; intensity 4; blue - mild flavor
Cosi Expresso, intensity 3; cocoa - nice, light
Decaffeinato Expresso; intensity 3; red - best decaffeinated coffee for us
Singatoba special club; intensity 8; bright blue
Volluto expresso; intensity 4; bronze gold - light
Holiday special: Variation Pain D' Espices (gingerbread) - nice spice flavor
Holiday special: Variation Creme de Marron (chestnut cream) - creamy flavor with different levels of complexity
Didn't like as much:
Finezzo Lungo; intensity 3; bright gold - not much flavor; could barely taste it
Dulsao do Brasil; intensity 5; dark gold - dry tasting
Decaffeinato Lungo; intensity 3; brick red - bitter tasting; needs sweetner
Decaffeinato Intenso expresso;intensity 7; maroon - strong, bitter; needs sweetner
Capriccio Expresso; intensity 5; green
Roma Expresso; intensity 8; dark grey - thought it was okay
Rosabaya de Columbia pure origin; intensity 8; pink - bitter; needs lots of sweetner
We really like our C100 expresso machine. It is easier to use than a normal cappuccino maker with the mess of espresso grounds and the hassle of the steam nozzle. The coffee is very worth the price and inconvenience of having to buy at the Nespresso website or at a Nespresso boutique. I would have liked to get the higher-end Nespresso machine that integrates the milk frother in the same unit but at $800, it was too much. The $300 C100 with the Aeroccino milk frother is a good value for the money and well worth it.
I hope this review was helpful to you and that you enjoy your espresso with Nespresso! |
Best coffee machine and coffee
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| Review Date: November 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer: bastafidli, Dallas, TX United States |
| We own these machines for 1.5. year. This is the best coffee machine and frother I have seen and used. It is very easy to operate, it is extremely easy to clean, the coffee is much better than anything we buy in coffee shops. The coffee capsules arrive in 2 days since the order is placed and the selection of coffees is great. When you compare the price of the machines and capsules with the "fancy coffee you buy in the *bucks" you will find out that after about 200 cups you start making money. |
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