Should You Buy a Nespresso Machine?

The coffee pod revolution might seem like a recent phenomenon. In 2005, a mere 1% of US homes had a single-cup coffee machine; by 2020, four out of every 10 homes had a single-cup brewer. Most were pod brewers, those easy-to-use coffee machines that seem to work like magic. Insert a small, sealed cup of ground coffee, fill the tank with water, and press a button.: Just like that, coffee appears. 

Nespresso Vertuo Plus Coffee and Espresso Maker by De'Longhi

$169 at Amazon $164 $159 at Walmart $200 at Target

But Nespresso (an operating branch of the larger Nestlé corporation that deals with all things coffee) has been in the pod coffee brewing game for a long time—since 1976, to be precise. And even with the proliferation of competitors, they continue to be the leader in this market. The word “Nespresso” feels like it’s becoming synonymous with single-cup pod brewers, much as brands products from like Band-Aid and Kleenex have entered the generic lexicon. 

How Do Nespresso Machines Work?

Nestlé, a Swiss company that is one of the largest food purveyors in the world, has been working on pod-based brewers since 1976. It’s kind of a wild story: “In 1975, a young engineer named Eric Favre took a trip to Rome that would change the history of coffee,” writes Ed Cumming for The Guardian. Favre, who worked for Nestlé, noticed a crowd of people at a particular coffee shop in the city and realized that the baristas were pumping the piston of their espresso machine repeatedly (this was likely with a lever machine, where baristas have to pull down a lever to pressurize the brewing water and force it through a puck of coffee). 

“This meant they forced more water and air into the ground beans, which meant greater oxidization, which drew out more flavor from the beans and produced more of a crema,” Cumming writes. “In the history of at-home premium coffee, this is perhaps the closest anyone has ever come to a eureka moment.”

Favre used the observation in the cafe to develop the brand’s first single-serve coffee brewer. All pod brewers work slightly differently, but their technology is based on a similar idea: coffee grounds are preserved in a sealed container, usually made of aluminum. A small needle is inserted into the capsule, pressurized hot water is added, and out comes espresso. 

Nestlé took 10 years to develop their first machine, creating the Nespresso sub-branch in 1986. In 2012, a number of Nespresso patents expired—specifically, their patent for the actual pods themselves, the little aluminum canisters filled with coffee. That allowed other brands to make pods compatible with Nespresso machines and helped usher in a new era of at-home coffee brewing. Now, pod-based brewers are as important an amenity in hotels and AirBnBs as running water and WiFi.

In 2014, Nespresso launched the Vertuo line. One of the reasons Nespresso made the Vertuo was to appeal to American coffee preferences by offering larger-sized drinks as opposed to espresso-style beverages. But they also included a bunch of new technology, perhaps feeling the sting of losing so much of their intellectual property just years ago. Coffee YouTube creator James Hoffmann did a deep dive into the patents on the Vertuo and the machine’s new features. One of the most notable was the brand's redesigned pods: Instead of a thimble-shaped capsule, Nespresso made dome-shaped pods in three different sizes. The smallest for single espressos (the Vertuo box says these drinks are about 40 milliliters), the medium for double (80 milliliters) and “lungo” (150 milliliters) espressos, and the large for “coffee drinks” (230 milliliters). 

From what I can tell, there’s not much difference between the coffees in the pods themselves. In his video, Hoffmann opens up each pod and measures the amount of coffee in each. Predictably, the smallest pod has the least amount of coffee (7.5 grams) while the largest pod has the most (13 grams) and the middle is, you guessed it, in the middle (10.6 grams). 

What makes this seem like a ploy to lock consumers into exclusive use of Nespresso pods are the barcodes: If you flip each of the pods over, the outer rim has a barcode the machine reads so it knows what type of pod is in there. No other brand designs pods shaped like Nespresso’s new domes (that I know of), but I also don’t think that would matter because of the barcode. You can override the barcode if, say, you want to make a coffee-sized drink with an espresso pod, but I’m pretty sure your only option for brewing is Nespresso-made pods—I did see a TikTok video on my ‘For You’ page where a person reused their Nespresso pods by washing out spent pods and resealing them with aluminum stickers, so there are ways to get around repurchasing new ones.

Another proprietary piece of Nespresso's technology is their “centrifusion” technique, a portmanteau of “centrifugal” and “infusion.” I have to admit I don’t fully understand how this works. I’ve read dozens of articles on the process, most of which seem to get as far as, “Oh, this is cool!” without further explanation. The machine forces water through a puncture point in the center of the capsule and then starts rotating really fast—something like 7,000 rotations per minute. This pushes the grounds and water to the edges of the capsule, and water out through a dozen smaller puncture points that form a circle around the capsule. You can see this when you look at a spent capsule. 

This “centrifusion” technique seems designed to extract coffee evenly or ensure that all of the grounds are in contact with water for about the same amount of time. In his video, Hoffmann mentions that one of the goals of the Vertuo is to extract coffee without building up pressure, so perhaps that’s what the centrifusion does. 

What’s particularly confusing about this, however, is how Nespresso achieves “crema” in their drinks. Traditionally, crema is trapped carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules—CO2 is produced during roasting, but dissipates over time so the fresher the coffee, the more CO2; you generally don’t see crema on coffee unless it’s brewed using a pressurized brew method like espresso (most of the CO2 is released when brewing with a pour over set up when water hits the brew bed—that’s why you’ll see bubbles pop out during the first initial pour, particularly for fresh coffee).  

The Nespresso pods are not fresh and yet, every single drink, from their single espressos to their coffee-sized sippers, has crema. The coffee was ground who knows when, and when you try brewing them by using the pods' ground coffee on a pour-over brewer—there’s no crema. I have to imagine this centrifusion has something to do with the resulting crema, but I’m not sure. 

Pros of the Nespresso

If making coffee with a pour-over setup or on a manual espresso machine is like making toast by baking bread from scratch, then using a Nespresso is like buying a loaf of pre-sliced bread and throwing a few pieces in the toaster; there’s absolutely no “craft” to the process: all you do is select your pod, pop in into the machine, and press go. 

I write the above sentence with absolutely no disdain. Sometimes you’ve got all weekend to make a dough, simmer a sauce, and lovingly put together a homemade pizza. Other times, you want to throw something frozen in the oven and have dinner ready in 20 minutes. If your main objective is to simply get coffee delivered to you hot, quickly, and consistently, then the Nespresso is a pretty good investment. 

First, Nespresso is fast. Like, scary fast. When I brewed one of the smaller pods—the ones meant for espresso-style drinks—it took one minute and three seconds for the coffee to brew. That’s wild considering that the water in the brewing tank is about room temperature, so the machine can get water to around 200°F absurdly quick. Coffees brewed with the larger pods didn’t take much more time than that: Each drink was done within two minutes of pressing the brew button.

The Nespresso I tried, the Vertuo, is a well-designed machine. The brew tank is fully detachable and adjustable, so you can finagle it to fit wherever you’d like on your counter. The brewing tank makes a satisfying clicking sound when it’s fully attached; I attribute that to the influence of Breville, another coffee brewing company that occasionally partners with Nespresso and is known for its user-friendly designs. Operating the brewer is also straightforward. All you do is press a lever (which is wild—I assumed the opening was controlled by a spring, but it’s touch-operated and wouldn’t work unless the machine was plugged in), put a pod in, and press go. Once you open the lever again, the pod automatically slides into a disposal chute located behind the brewer. These design touches feel a little excessive, but also fancy, like you’re working with a high-tech piece of equipment. 

Lastly, the brewer offers a variety of coffee styles (my Vertuo came with 12 different coffees—four of each “size,” but all from different regions or blends) so you can easily shake things up if you want to try something new. Most brewers can be divided into two categories: they either make espresso or they make drip coffee, but the Vertuo seamlessly jumps between both. You don’t need to change any of the parameters on the brewer to pull a shot of espresso in the AM and a cup of filter coffee to round out your afternoon. 

Cons of the Nespresso

So let’s start with the obvious: The coffee from the Nespresso is weird. And it’s weird for a few reasons. 

First, the dose. For filter coffee, the 13-gram dose is pretty appropriate since you’re getting about 230 milliliters of coffee. A quick ratio I use for brewing filter or drip coffee is to take the dose of the coffee you want to use and multiply that by 16. The sum will get you the amount of water you need for brewing. In this case, that gets you to 208, which is a little low, but not out of the ballpark. 

But when you look at the espresso doses, the amount of coffee in each pod feels really, really low. Espresso is usually a concentrated beverage, and most baristas at most coffee shops are pulling shots of espresso with anywhere between a 1:1 to 1:4 ratio of coffee to water, but they’re usually landing somewhere around 1:2 to 1:3. When I dial in a new coffee I’ve never tried before, I usually aim for a 1:2 ratio—18 grams of coffee to around 36 grams of water for a double shot of espresso. 

The small capsules have 7.5 grams of coffee and give drinkers a 40-milliliter beverage. So the dose isn’t quite right for an espresso, and the resulting beverage has whispers of an espresso, but not quite. Same with the medium-sized capsules, which have 10.6 grams of coffee and put out an 80 mL or 150 mL drink (I’m not sure what to classify this as—perhaps a very short Americano?). 

This is all fine and good on its own—I don’t really care about there being a “right” and “wrong” ratio of coffee to water. What matters is being able to find the ratio that’s right for you. If users were able to adjust these ratios more (I mentioned there’s a way to override some of the sizes, but it can get complicated quickly), then the pod sizes wouldn’t bother me. But the whole point of the Vertuo is for the barcodes to tell the machine the precise and ideal way to brew, and I’m not convinced that Nespresso’s ratios are the ideal way to enjoy their coffee, nor that they need to be so didactic about how to enjoy coffee in general.

Now let’s talk about coffee. It is very darkly roasted. Each pod gives you a range of roast levels from one to 10. The lowest level I had in my variety box (the Vertuo came with 12 different pods to try out, and we also ordered three other coffees which came in sets of 10) was rated a four, and it tasted very bitter and weird in the finish. Most of the coffees had that bitter, roasty finish at the end that blew out my palate and made it difficult to taste anything nuanced or different in each coffee. No matter what pod I tasted, they all tasted the same. 

I found this bitterness to be the least offensive in the biggest pods, the ones intended for coffee-sized drinks. But I still couldn’t taste anything inherent to the coffees themselves, which feels boring! I’ve brewed coffees on a Keurig system before, and with those brewers, I could get a sense that different pods would taste different from one another. But each Nespresso pod tasted the same with a bitter finish at the end. 

Now is where we talk about the elephant(s) in the room. 

Nestlé as a company has landed itself in hot water over the years. Former Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has gone on record saying that water should be treated like any other foodstuff one would buy and sell and that NGOs claiming water is a human right is an “extreme solution.” In the 1970s, Nestlé was accused of encouraging women, particularly women in developing countries, to forgo breastfeeding their infants and switch to more expensive formula feeding. And just this year, when Nespresso obtained B-corp status, a certification program that seeks to distinguish socially and environmentally responsible companies, dozens of other previously certified B-corp companies penned an open letter condemning the choice to confer this status, writing: “Although Nespresso has achieved the minimum currently required for certification… Nespresso’s abysmal track record on human rights from child labor and wage theft to abuse of factory workers is well documented by the media and NGOs.”

But let’s zoom in and look at the Vertuo itself and specifically, the pods. Coffee pods and their effect on the environment have enjoyed a long life in the cultural zeitgeist. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you remember some discussion about how many times a line of spent pods could circle the globe. 

Nespresso claims that their pods are recyclable. They are, but you have to drop the capsules off at one of their designated drop spots, give them to your mail person when they deliver your order, or bring them to a Nespresso store. Their pods say they’re recyclable, and while that isn’t a lie, it seems misleading and I imagine many people will either throw them into their home recycling or simply throw them in the trash. Just because something is technically recyclable doesn’t mean it will get recycled. 

So, What Should You Do?

As a coffee pro, it’s easy for me to forget that many people simply want coffee as a caffeine delivery service. That’s 100% acceptable! I can’t find any fault in the actual design and use of the Nespresso, and I’m kind of amazed by how quickly and consistently the brewer makes coffee. It literally couldn’t be any easier. 

But if you’re here, I have to imagine you care a little bit about what your coffee tastes like, and I think there are a few options for single-cup coffee and quick brews. For example, many of your favorite coffee brands make instant or steeped coffee options.

I think Nespresso is a better value for people interested in making espresso drinks at home (the instant options I listed above are, in my opinion, better for drip coffee), but we also wrote a review of the best home espresso machines with options that range in price from a few bucks to a couple hundred. I think those machines are better options. They do require a bit more work on the part of the user, so if that’s a dealbreaker, Nespresso is a good option to consider. 

FAQs

How is Nespresso different from drip coffee?

Nespresso machines use pre-packaged capsules and high pressure to extract a concentrated espresso-like coffee that's much stronger than regular drip. Because of this, the coffee from Nespresso can be used to make lattes and cappuccinos with an external milk frother.

Is Nespresso better than Keurig?

I’m not sure you can say one is better than the other, but I’d be more excited to see a Keurig if, I was in a hotel room or traveling somewhere. Because so many different coffee companies make Keurig pods, I’d be able to customize my experience and find roasters whose coffee I’m more excited to drink. I don’t mean this is a bougie way—if I found pods of Dunkin coffee, I’d drink that over a Nespresso pod simply because they don’t roast their coffee as dark. The dark roasting highlights the bitterness and lingering taste of coffee. 

Why We're the Experts

• Ashley Rodriguez has been in the coffee industry since 2010, having worked as a barista, shop manager, and coffee trainer.
• She's written several of Serious Eats' coffee-related reviews, including milk frothers and coffee makers. We also regularly consult her on coffee content and equipment, harnessing her expertise as much as we can.
• For this review, she tested the Nespresso Vertuo for over a week, logging over 10 hours of brewing and tasting drinks from it.