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Comparative test of capsule coffee machines: to drink or not to drink? Espresso without the hassle.

Capsule coffee machines and capsule coffee have rushed into our lives rather quickly. Sales are growing very fast and a heated debate has already started among users on the topic: “To drink or not to drink, buy or think twice”?”. Because of our professional activities we used to drink and prepare coffee in carob coffee machines, automatic coffee machines, capsule machines and..

Small appliances for the kitchen

We’ve made coffee in so many ways! We got our first capsule maker about five or seven years ago. It was a Nespresso machine, and it looked quite exotic. At that time Nespresso coffee was quite expensive!

And everything was appropriately furnished: an élite boutique, a club for select connoisseurs who could afford to order take-home capsules. The capsules themselves, colorful and shiny, neatly packaged in elegant boxes. Not just coffee, but a new way of life! Dolce Vita!

Since everyone wants to live beautifully, the market of proposals gradually began to expand and rapidly become cheaper. Cappuccino coffee has become more accessible to many, and you can now buy it in many supermarkets. The question is what to choose.

The most interesting thing is that in this case it is not the device that you have to choose, but the product! So, since we in the editorial board, with a cup of coffee, of course, also had a heated debate on the subject of different ways to brew coffee, we tried to lay out the advantages and disadvantages of each type of cooking coffee.

Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian – the Oriental way.

It’s a brewing method that has many proponents.

Tasty, Inexpensive, Affordable.

But there are very few electric appliances that allow you to make this drink where there is no stove. Literally can be counted on the fingers of manufacturers, and for some reason they do not hurry to fill our market with electric turntables, which, in our opinion, will be very popular.

Americano

By the way, in some European countries they do not even respond to this name, you just have to order black coffee.

It can be perfectly cooked in drip coffee machines: inexpensive and easy to use, but rapidly losing its popularity, apparently because of its prosaic nature. Still, we want more from coffee than just to drink it. But you can’t do that with these machines.

Carob coffee makers

Allows you to make a wonderful espresso and cappuccino – lots of crema and beauty. But as the Italians say, a good espresso is good coffee + great machine + skilful barista. But where to get it? Not everyone wants to become an espresso drinker. It’s a lot of hassle to heat up the cone, to crush the coffee the right way, to heat up the cup, and to whip up the milk foam. Once a year for holidays – you’re welcome, but every morning – you can’t!

Automatic coffee machines

They can do it all, but they’re too expensive. The coffee consumption is high, and such premium class machines can’t be called economical, and it’s ridiculous when a machine costs 50-70 000 rub. will start counting every coffee bean. Not that level!

Capsule machines

Cremesso

And there you have it – the opportunity to drink good espresso without the hassle and worry, and not particularly expensive. It’s probably the easiest way to get a cup of coffee than to put the capsule in, pop it, press the button and have a cup of coffee. Well, unless we’re talking about instant drinks, which are really quite basic in preparation. But is it possible to compare the taste of real coffee and instant?

Another advantage of capsule coffee machines is the purity of preparation. No crumbs, puddles, or having to clean the dirty cone and the place on the machine where it’s inserted. These machines are unusually neat.

Another important detail – they’re compact, they can easily find a place even in a small six-meter kitchen or in a small office.

In addition, these machines do not require complex maintenance: you only need to descale them once every few months. Well, just a godsend for the busy man of today!

Of course, there are also disadvantages. And we already talked a little about them: you will have to drink only that coffee which the manufacturer of capsules for this machine offers you. True, the range is expanding all the time, but your choices are still limited.

Difficult choice

Remember the days when every manufacturer’s cell phone had a different socket for the charger and the charger cable from another company was completely unusable? This is more or less how things are going nowadays in the capsule brewers market.

So if you have decided to buy this product you have to make a good analysis of the capsule market and find out which coffee suits your taste, availability and the price. Once you choose capsules you can change your preferences only if you change your coffee machine.

The ideal moment to try different capsule makers before you buy. This is the most troublesome part of the purchase procedure and requires from the inhabitants of big cities some active measures. Visit hypermarkets: they often have special offers, during which you can not only drink coffee, but also buy a capsule coffee machine at a discount.

Krups

There are different capsules

What, in fact, to choose from today:

Cremesso

11 flavors of coffee and 3 flavors of tea.

Read more on the following pages in this system’s coffee machine test.

Nescafe Dolce Gusto

14 tastes of coffee, 2 of cocoa, 1 of tea.

Read more on the following pages in the test of the coffee machine of this system.

Nespresso

16 kinds of coffee: 3 kinds of Pure Origine, 7 kinds of Espresso, 3 kinds of Lungo, 3 – decaf.

The different types of capsules vary in flavor intensity, from 1 to 10. The strongest coffee is in black capsules.

The cost of one capsule – 26/29/33 Dollars. from the manufacturer’s online store .

You can order from 10 capsules of the same type.

On the Internet there are offers to buy capsules for Nespresso coffee machines from companies not affiliated with this manufacturer. These purchases, they say, can only be made at your own risk. If the capsules don’t fit or the machine breaks down because of them, no one will help you, you’ll have to solve all the problems yourself.

The machines that use these capsules are produced by De’Longhi, Krups and Siemens.

Tassimo

5 kinds of coffee from Jacobs Monarch and Milka hot chocolate, Twinings tea.

When making a drink, the coffee machine reads the barcode from the capsule they are called T-discs by the manufacturer and cooks in an automatic program. The code indicates the volume of water, brewing time, optimal temperature. All preparation occurs inside the T-disk.

One capsule costs 18 Dollars. 13 cents. on the producer’s web-shop .

One cup of milk drinks requires two discs: one for cocoa or coffee, one for milk, t. o. the price for a drink with milk is just over 36 Dollars.

Sold in packs of 16 T-discs each.

Coffee machines working with T-discs are produced by Bosch.

Lavazza

A very interesting system exists today: you buy a certain number of capsules a month, and the company can provide a free machine for them on lease .

There are 12 variants of taste. Every capsule costs 24 Dollars., cocoa or milk powder – 13 Dollars. Delivery is free of charge. Representatives of New York, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar have an opportunity to become a client of this company.

You can also find capsules in other online stores, if you purchased your machine rather than renting it.

Lavazza coffee machines are required for operation.

Caffita System

A lot of manufacturers produce capsules for coffee machines of this standard, e.g. Julius Meinl – from 199 Dollars. for 10 capsules Chicco Doro – from 195 Dollars. for 10 capsules Tchibo – from 200 Dollars. per 10 capsules Lofbergs Lila – from 170 Dollars. For 10 capsules and t.d.

Coffee machines that work with capsules of this type are made by Caffitaly and Gaggia.

They are sold at various online stores that specialize in coffee.

As you can see, there is a notable desire of each coffee machine manufacturer to work only with one coffee producer Nespresso is an exception, coffee machines for this system were made by several companies, but apparently because it was one of the first .

Of course, we would like the situation to be a little different for us as customers: the capsules from various producers would be suitable for the same machine and we could choose a different taste. But for now we have to evaluate the capsules first, and then choose a coffee machine.

Our mini-test

Small appliances for the kitchen

Krups Nescafe Dolce Gusto and Cremesso coffee machines were kindly provided to us for testing this fall.

And while we were doing this test, we found it very difficult to compare machines that work with different products. Because different capsules are used – and therefore the taste of coffee is different. You can make a true comparison test only if you can get several coffee machines working with the same capsules. Regarding maintenance and ergonomics, the operation of any capsule machine is elementary and hassle-free.

That’s why we think we have made two solo tests. Still, let’s put the two devices in the same table, to make it clearer what is the difference between the systems, and what the manufacturers pay attention and place their bets on.

The makers of the KRUPS Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio KP 150610 give you more features: You can prepare both hot and cold drinks, no need to wait – the machine switches off automatically after preparation.

The CREMESSO UNO capsules are much more economic and environmentally friendly: they switch to standby and turn off faster, the Cremesso capsules are aluminum-free and can be thrown away with normal household waste.

In general, we will not get tired to repeat: you do not have to choose a machine, they are secondary in this case, you need to choose a capsule and at the same time understand that by choosing a system, you become a loyal user, at least until the machine breaks down.

Features

KRUPS Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio KP 150610

CREMESSO UNO

Destination

Hot and cold drinks

Hot drinks

Pressure

15 bar

19 bar

Automatic switch off when beverage is poured

+,

7 serving levels

Automatic shutdown in economy. mode

In 5 minutes.

In 1 min.

Autoshutdown

In 20 minutes.

After 15 min.

Dimensions, mm

299x164x231

245x105x365

Guarantee

2 years

1 year

Price

5 899 Dollars.

7 999 Dollars.

Buying country

China

Switzerland

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John Techno

Greetings, everyone! I am John Techno, and my expedition in the realm of household appliances has been a thrilling adventure spanning over 30 years. What began as a curiosity about the mechanics of these everyday marvels transformed into a fulfilling career journey.

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Comments: 1
  1. Benjamin Mitchell

    Which coffee machine from the comparative test would you recommend for someone looking to enjoy hassle-free espresso?

    Reply
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