My name is Pavel Shelyagin and for the New Year I received a capsule coffee machine as a gift. The first coffee made was terribly bitter and tasteless. I had to figure out what's what to figure out how to make a really tasty drink. Now I'll tell you everything.
For you to understand, I am not a coffee expert who easily distinguishes Robusta from Arabica, Ethiopia from Brazil, and, to tell the truth, I find it difficult to catch the nutty or cereal notes. In my opinion, coffee is divided into tasty and tasteless, and everything else is marketing gimmicks.
Attempt number one
In addition to the coffee machine itself, the set included a huge set of capsules, probably about 20 different types. I took the first one that came across, threw it into a special hole, substituted a cup and began to wait for a miracle.
The coffee machine made a technical noise, the backlight lit up in different colors, the magic of making coffee was happening in front of my eyes. After 30 seconds, the cup was filled with a thick black drink with a pleasant beige foam. I took a sip, choked, and poured it into the sink. The miracle did not happen.
Something went wrong
It turned out that we need to deal with these capsules - not all contain the same delicious coffee. There is hotter, there is sour, there is softer. I needed something in between.
I opted for the Ethiopia capsule. The advertising brochure said it was coffee "with heady floral aromas and a delicate hint of musk." Well, okay, let's try.
Attempt number two
I took the capsule and threw it into the apparatus. The resulting drink looked great again, but this time I already knew that the taste might not match the appearance. Indeed, the taste was so-so, but much nicer than the first time. After the third sip, I seemed to like it. But to be honest, I expected more.
How did you make delicious coffee
I decided that the most delicious coffee, of course, is with milk. Experts can now frown, crackle, real coffee is black coffee. I do not argue, but for me it is too vigorous.
The situation is that the coffee machine does not heat the water to the boiling point, so if you simply pour milk from the refrigerator into the resulting coffee, it will be slightly warm and not very pleasant to the taste.
Therefore, I decided to thoroughly warm 150 ml of milk in the microwave (1 minute), then put the lightest Voltesso capsule into the coffee machine, which prepares 40 ml of espresso and put it all together. To my surprise, it turned out really tasty.
How to choose a coffee machine
I have no idea. I just shared my experience of using the one that was presented to me, namely Nespresso Vertuo Next Premium. To my taste, I only liked those capsules that make either a classic espresso 40 ml or a double espresso 80 ml. My personal top:
- Voltesso 40 ml (sweet cereal notes, intensity 4/13)
- Il Caffè 40 ml (cereal, woody)
- Bianco Leggero 80 ml (sweet biscuit notes)
What is the bottom line
A capsule coffee machine is not the thing that I would buy myself. But it was very nice to receive one as a gift. It is inexpensive, unlike automatic coffee machines, and the drink is certainly an order of magnitude tastier than instant coffee. Take on arms, there are many holidays ahead.
My rating is 4/5