Nescafe Dolce Gusto single-serve coffee machine

Cappuccino, sprinkled with raw sugar

So, I just came in off the porch a few minutes ago, after having a coffeehouse-quality cappuccino to finish off my lunch (obviously I wrote this post yesterday!).  DH, DD, and I sampled cappuccinos all over Italy last year (she was there for four months…that’s a lot of sampling!), so we do know what a good cappuccino tastes like.  We also know what marginal and poor ones taste like.

I received a Nescafe Dolce Gusto coffee machine by Krups to try out and review.  Although the cappuccino that I just had was not quite as good as the very best that we had in Italy, it still ended up being pretty darned good, and certainly a LOT better than the kind that we got from self-serve machines in some hotels.  In fact, I’d give it a A-/B+ on just about every scale, except for convenience.  There, I’d have to give it an A+.

This single-serve coffee machine is easy to assemble, and super easy to operate.  It comes with a big scary manual, but most of it is in other languages, so the part you need to read is really minimal.  And if you’ve got a mechanically inclined friend handy, or you are such a friend yourself, you’ll have no trouble putting it together and using the easy-peasy quick guide to start quick brewing your own coffee delights.

And they’re good drinks.  I didn’t notice any of that icky chemically taste that you get with powdered mixes.  Probably because there’s true brewing going on here.

Two things that I’m not crazy about, one of which is a complaint for every new toy that comes in my house: it takes up a lot of counter space.  Since I’m not a daily coffee drinker anymore, I don’t really want to have it sitting out…even though it looks darned snazzy with my Pompeian red kitchen (I asked specifically for the red model!).  Finding a convenient place to store it where I won’t hesitate to bring in out and show it off is my next task.  I’m sure it won’t be that hard

The only other thing that I’m not a huge fan of is the packaging for the coffee capsules.  I don’t know what kind of plastic they are, but they don’t appear to be easily recyclable.

Even with that caveat, I would definitely recommend this machine to my friends who love all different types of fancy coffees.  The two-capsule drinks like cappuccino work out to be a little over $1 per serving, much less than buying a coffee drink out.  I’m not going to do the math for you to figure out how many you’d have to drink before you recoop, but know that the machine is about $170 retail.

Images: Cyndi Lavin