Tagged with Nespresso

Vida e caffe coffee capsules (Nespresso compatible) now available

A month or so ago I was in the vida e at Canal Walk in Cape Town when I noticed they were selling capsule based coffee machines, as well as the capsules themselves. On enquiry they said that they were compatible with the Nespresso machines. Great, I picked up a box (a rectangular arrangement rather than the tubes we are used to).

Tried them out, they work fine and taste great.

Others have had some hassles getting them to work properly. Read the interesting post (with lots of pictures) over at Square Art (link) here, documenting some problems they had with the capsules, and how to solve the problem.

The capsules are the same plastic ones as the Caffelux which made me wonder if they weren’t just co-branded items produced by Caffelux. Google indeed confirmed this to be the case with a post on the Luxury Coffee website confirming they were producing them for vida e. More info here.

I forget exactly how much I paid for them, think was around R58 or so, and I see they are on the Luxury Coffee website for R59.90 a box.  So pick some up at your local vida e, or get them from Luxury Coffee but let us know what you think of them. Both the VIDA ESTRELLA REGULAR (10 CAPSULES) and VIDA ESTRELA DECAFFE (10 CAPSULES) are available.

P.S. Just to sweeten the deal the box came with a voucher included for a free cup of coffee at vida e. Nice touch.

Nespresso compatible coffee pods at Hirsch’s (updated with first thoughts)

Nespresso compatible pods

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)

The Nespresso experience

A month and a half ago I had the privilege of visiting Valencia, Spain. During the time there we drank a lot of coffee, and everywhere we went, including the hotel breakfast area, the places served Nespresso. The coffee had a nice frothy head and was consistently enjoyable. Some places had self-service and the machine was quick and easy to use. I decided I would get one. Conveniently there was a Nespresso shop located just behind the hotel so I popped over and bought some of the required coffee capsules. At this point I discovered that the “home use” capsules were little cup-shaped ones and different from the flat industrial ones. The sales person assured me the taste would be the same as all Nespresso machines used the same high pressure 19-bar pressure pump to produce the required high quality coffee experience. I purchased my first 6 strips (of 10 capsules each) of Nespresso coffee – having now bought into the programme.

When I got back to SA I went to my local shopping centre (Pavilion) and checked out all the options. I found the same pricing across all the stores, and although I could have saved a few hundred rand having it shipped from Amazon (UK )I was too impatient to wait. After trawling the mall between the various stores trying to figure out which was the right one for me, I finally bought the CitiZ (with Milk) from a very helpful sales lady at Boardmans (the only shop with someone who knew their product).

With the machine came a R350 voucher to be used for the purchase of coffee pods. Marvelous, well, except that they had no vouchers, but confirmed a few days later per telephone that I just needed to take my till slip down to Springfield (no address provided) and they would give me the voucher and let me buy some coffee.

Since I had the coffee I bought in Spain and the machine came with a starter pack (one capsule each of the 16 flavours in the range) it wasn’t too much of a problem.

Early last week I was finally in Durban on a “working day” so I decided to try to find the Durban supplier. It wasn’t listed on the www.nespresso.co.za website at all, only addresses for Cape Town (at the Waterfront) and Johannesburg were supplied.

I tried calling them a few times (found the number on Google), only to get a recorded message suggesting I call Jhb. So I took a chance and headed down to what I thought was the address (Google again) :

7 Springfield Ind Pk, 7 Willowfield Cres, Springfield Park, Durban (wrong)

I got there, no luck and no sign of the place. The security guard at the gate didn’t have a clue who or what Nespresso was. I sat in the car in the visitors parking and googled again. A few more addresses came up but none turned out to be correct :

Unit 28 Springfield Ind Pk 7 Willowfield Cres Springfield Park Durban (wrong)
13 Springfield Industrial Park, 9 Mahoganyfield , Springfield Park, Durban (wrong)

Taking a chance I put Nespresso into the TomTom. Big thumbs up to TomTom, they got me to the place.

Real Address : Unit 28 Springfield Industrial Park, 9 Mahogany Way, Springfield Park, Durban

Update : They have moved again. Current address : 254 Lilian Ngoyi Road (Formerly Windermere Road). Phone : 031 303 3374 (link here)

When I eventually got there, the staff were friendly and helpful. I filled in two sets of forms, they then produced the magical voucher, took my order, which ended up being 10 strips at a total of R576 (Average of R5.76 per cup), less the R350 voucher for a pay in of R226. I was happy with my haul and we have been enjoying the coffee ever since.

By way of comparison, I bought my first 6 strips of capsules in Valencia, Spain, at 3.55 euros each. At an exchange rate of R11/Euro that works out at R39 a strip (R3.90 a cup), so we are paying a premium of 36% here in South Africa. Could be worse I guess, but makes me wish I had bought more over there.

 

The machine itself, I bought the CitiZ&Milk (the left one in the pictures above) which according to the detail on the European site seems to be made by DeLonghi (it has the pipe-like spout rather than the tear drop one). It works really well, the milk frother is great, though a bit of a pain to clean.

I am delighted with this coffee machine, the simplicity and consistency is just great, and each time I have a cup I am reminded of my time in Spain.

I know a lot of people have said that Nespresso is over priced, and that I could have bought a machine, which freshly grinds the coffee from the bean for each cup, for only a little more than the price of the Nespresso machine. Such a machine uses coffee beans which work out lass than half the price per cup. I looked (briefly) at that option. The machines had too many settings, buttons, nozzles etc (for me). The R5,70 odd per cup of Nespresso isn’t cheap but is a whole lot less than having coffee out at the local coffee shops, is just as nice, and I get to have it while waking up.

The Nespresso machine is great because it simply just works. You can’t really get it wrong and you consistently get that great cup of coffee. I am very happy with it and my guests have been too. It is really quick to make a cup of coffee, taking a minute or less to warm up from a cold start, and each cup you make thereafter takes only a few seconds. No mess, no fuss and easy to keep clean.

I am sold on the Nespresso experience and would recommend it to anyone.

Table of comparative pricing information (Europe to SA) below :