Do you know what this is? It's one of those fancy schmancy home coffee makers: a Nescafe Dolce Gusto. With the little capsules that make perfect coffee every cup. Well, this is the "Piccolo" version, so maybe it's mini-fancy schmancy. I know these are available in the US, and while they are off-the-scale popular around here, I'm not sure how far up the innovation curve they have climbed in North American.
Jeff has a coffee capsule machine in his US office and has mentioned more than a few times what a nice cup of coffee it brews. As opposed to his wife, who frankly, is about as good as brewing coffee as I am at cooking. Which is to say, pretty bad.
The Trouble, with a capital T, in our house is that I get up with the sun. Not so bad in December, but it is light around 4:30 these days and, dang, that's early! But I get up, brew a pot of coffee, drink half of it, and it sits, and sits, and sits, and sits until Jeff gets up at a more reasonable hour.
Now, my brewing skills are haphazard at best, so the odds of getting a great cup of coffee if you happen to be standing there when I brew it is probably about 1 in 50. The odds drop to "never" if the coffee has been sitting around for four hours before you get to drink it.
Now, Jeff doesn't have as much contact with the outside world as I do, so he doesn't know that many of my friends have capsule coffee brewers at home, that they are quite popular across Europe at that the capsules are a standard stock item in virtually all grocery shops. So, we discussed the idea of getting one, but with Father's Day looming, I actively discouraged him from looking at them until we moved to Austria. "Because," I reasoned, "we'll need to be sure we can buy supplies in Austria." He he. Subterfuge.
I did the research. I went to friend's houses and drank coffee. I went to the shops and priced various models. I checked internet reviews carefully. And decided to go for it.
Cost, of course, was a big consideration. The tiny machine that I bought, the Piccolo, costs around $100US.The red one, was about $20US more, so I went with white. Given that there are just two of us and that the whole thing is a bit of an experiment, it made sense to go with the smaller machine. It easily makes two cups of coffee at a time, so no worries.
A box of the capsules costs $6-7US and makes either 16 or 8 cups of coffee, depending if you are going with a milk beverage (like a latte or cappuccino) or just coffee (like a lungo or espresso). Around here, every grocery shops sells these; in the US, you might have to order from Amazon, so costs vary.
Cup to cup, this thing costs more than buying coffee and brewing it at home. But. The coffee tastes better. Way better. It's like drinking an expensive coffee house coffee in your pajamas every single morning.
And easy?? Good grief, couldn't be faster or simpler. You add water to the water holder. You turn it on. You wait the 15 seconds it takes to heat up. Insert capsule, turn switch and hot water moves through the capsule at 15 bars of pressure (1). It is up to you, oh, coffee consumer, to decide when there is enough coffee in your cup (there are directions on the box: 50ml for espresso, etc). It took a cup or two of fiddling to get it right, but I use these clear cups, which hold 240ml of liquid, so it's actually pretty easy to estimate.
Jeff was away for the week prior to Father's Day, so I had plenty of time to experiement with different coffee types and work out any kinks. Ha! I would venture to say that it is idiot proof, so smooth sailing.
Awesome coffee every time. I did check the calorie counts, just out of curiosity, and for a Latte Macchiato, you are looking at something like 80 calories, cappuccino, 90. And given that I drink my regularly brewed coffee half milk, the calorie counts are pretty equivalent for me.
Sigh. Life styles of the rich and famous. I love this thing. Happy Father's Day *Jeff!*
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(1) Here's what the Nescafe people have to say about "bars of pressure" if you have the slightest interest. "15 bars of pressure refers to the barometric pressure that builds up inside every smart capsule. 15 bars is like being 500 ft underwater! This pressure is comparable to professional coffee house machines and much greater than most single serve coffee machines on the market.
What does it mean to you? Fifteen bars of pressure means a frothy, coffee house experience on demand, in your home kitchen. It maximizes the flavor and aroma from the coffee. It's how you create the highest-quality coffee drinks for you and all your guests, in less than a minute."
Lucky Jeff! Happy Father's Day!
Posted by: Monica | June 19, 2011 at 06:53 AM
Nom! Lucky Jeff! Happy father's day, Jeff!
I have the Kuerig. Kuerig seems to be more popular over here, but all the "pod" brewers are super popular. If you drink a lot of coffee and feel like shopping around, you can get the cost per cup down to about $0.55 US. I do not drink very much coffee at home, do not feel like shopping around, and so I spend about $0.75-0.85 US per cup. Oh, the horrors. (a cup of regular joe in a basic no-frills coffee shop is a minimum of $1.10 around where I live)
Hope you like your new toy! Um, er, uh...I meant, *JEFF'S* new toy... :D
Posted by: Gwynna | June 20, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Jeff mentioned the Kuerig's, as that is what he has in his office. I haven't seen them around here, and since the Nescafe is so readily available in the grocery shops, that's what we went with. I am so, so loving it! It's only "more expensive" for us because we really don't ever drink coffee out (well, sometimes I'll meet my friends for coffee, but, really we make it and drink it in the house more often than not).
But, we're worth it. ;-)
Posted by: Ellen | June 20, 2011 at 05:52 AM