j-j.co.za

Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.

Excuse the poor quality of the picture, the Blackberry camera isn’t really suited to taking closeups of small newspaper adverts.

This afternoon I saw in our local community newspaper (Highway Mail – 8 June 2012) that Hirsch’s were advertising “Fits into a Nespresso” coffee pods. Branded as “Cafe Luxe coffee pack” they come in sleeves of 10 capsules. Priced at R39.99 its about a rand per cup cheaper than the original nespresso. Not sure if it’s worth the difference but I haven’t tried them so shouldn’t comment on the quality.

This coffee comes in 5 flavours :

• Decaffe
• Lungo
• Mild roast
• Medium roast
• Dark roast

I am intrigued. If anyone has bought or tried this coffee please let us know.

Update :

I see that the online Espresso Shop also stocks these capsules. They have pictures of the capsules, also priced at R40/pack of 10, along with an FAQ stating that these are fully compatible and won’t damage your Nespresso machine. More details at their website here.

Update 2 :

I bought some of these capsules to try out. I used the first one this morning. Will provide more feedback as I go along:

• The capsules are in rather colourful, but plain and function box.
• You can slide the box open to remove a capsule without having to damage the box in any way
• The capsules feel plastic rather than a thin metal
• After putting the capsule into the machine it was a fair bit more difficult to close the Nespresso machine (and pierce the capsule)
• Once in and pressing the “make coffee” button some clear water come out before coffee starting pouring out. I haven’t seem this before with the normal Nespresso capsules
• The foam on the coffee wasn’t as “rich looking” as with the normal coffee
• I tried the medum roast blend (the orange box), and it was ok-ish. Perhaps slightly bitter, but nothing special. Neither good nor bad.
• When I took the capsule out after using it and examined it, the cap which normally has the lattice piercings in it was pierced but somehow not as cleanly as is normally the case

After just one cup my initial thought is that I probably won’t buy these again. For saving R1/cup it isn’t worth it, especially with the niggles above. Still, have 49 more cups to go, so more feedback to come.

Update : If you come across this post through a random internet search, you may want to read this later post, it is a whole lot more useful. (Not so compatible Nespresso pods)