Nespresso Espresso Coffee Machine Review

I was first introduced to a Nespresso machine many years ago while visiting with my sister. My husband and I are both big coffee drinkers, and we’ve become quite fussy over the years. When buying coffee out and about, I find it’s a bit hit and miss (about 50% success rate for a good coffee); I do have a few favourite spots that guarantee me a good drop every time including the local Muffin Break and Coffee General on New Zealand’s North Shore.

When it comes to coffee at home, I’ve tried coffee bags, instant (for very drastic situations), plunger and a manual coffee machine. Coffee bags I don’t mind so much and often grab these if I’m travelling, instant is terrible, plunger is a bit messy and the result grainy, and the short stint my husband and I had with a (cheap) manual coffee machine over a decade ago was a bit of a disaster.

This year, I splurged and bought a Citiz & Milk Espresso Machine in red.

Citiz & Milk Espresso Machine

This is it featured on the kitchen bench.

With Christmas coming up, I thought a review of my experience might be useful. I’ve had the machine for 5 months or so now. 

What I love

• It makes (really) good coffee every time. So happy with the quality of the extracted coffee.
• Ultra easy to use
• It’s simple to clean and keep clean (expect milk attachment which I discussed in Drawbacks below). The machine really doesn’t need much cleaning at all! Just emptying the used pod tray and a wipe over every now and again.
• The design is stylish and is compact enough to leave on the kitchen bench
• Cheaper than buying coffee out
• Pods are recyclable 
• I enjoy delighting friends with great coffee when they visit
• Can froth cold and hot milk

Drawbacks

• The Nespresso coffee pods aren’t readily available in stores. You either have to go to a store, or order online from the Nespresso store. The closest store to me at the moment is over 30 minutes away, and I do like to go to the store instead of buying them online so I can recycle the pods.
• Pods make for more waste. It was important for me to make sure if I got a pod machine, I recycled the pods. It would be great if there was a more convenient/better system for recycling pods. 
• Coffee costs about $1 a cup, so it’s not cheap, but still much more affordable than buying coffee out.
• I found with the milk frother, I couldn’t fill to the max line because the milk would bubble and overflow out the top of the container (the seal didn’t hold it in). The issue with this is because the Citzi & Milk model has the milk frother incorporated, the milk went right down under the machine and through the deck and it was a nightmare to clean! So now I don’t EVER fill it to the recommended line. I fill the milk to just so I can still see the frother knob and that gives me just enough milk for one cup of coffee. I never have the problem with milk overflowing now, however, it is a bit annoying that something I purchased isn’t functioning to its capacity. 

EDIT UPDATE: After chatting to both Nespresso and getting tips from others, I now remove the cappuccino spring from the frothing attachment and it means I can fill the milk up a little more (but still not best to the max line).

Overview of Drawbacks

Because of the milk issue, I would be inclined to recommend the basic Inissia model (which my sister has) with the seperate milk frother attachment over the Citiz & Milk model. The Citiz looks good because it’s all together which I really do like, but for the extra price, I’m not sure it’s worth it when filling the milk to the max line is SUCH a disaster in terms of cleaning. If you had the milk machine part seperate, at least spillage would just be on the kitchen bench and easy to clean rather than permeating through the deck of the Citiz & Milk model. The Nespresso machine itself is excellent (which the basic Inissia model is too) and will save about $100 going with the cheaper option. However, if you only fill the milk to where I do, there is no problem, so it all works fine now. There are other even more expensive models but I haven’t had any experience with those.

Nespresso Inissia (with seperate milk frother)

Set up

I have my machine permanently set up on my kitchen bench. It’s used 3-6 times everyday.  I purchased two identical containers that I sit behind the machine. One to store all my fresh pods, and one with the pods that are ready for recycling. I also purchased Alex Liddy Facet Double Wall Espresso and Latte glasses which I love so much! They keep coffee insulated and hotter for longer, but the glass is cool to touch. They enhance the coffee experience for me. However, the glasses are REALLY fragile, and if other members of the family would handle them, or even put them in the sink with dishes to go in the dishwasher, they would break. They were quite expensive so it’s such a shame. However, I loved the experience of the cups so much, I would buy them again, and just hand wash them and make sure NO ONE ELSE TOUCHES THEM. Ha. 

My Favourite Nespresso Pods

I like my coffee medium strength and smooth, and below are the Nespresso pods I like the best (from what I have tried):

• Volutto
• Linizio Lungo

My Favourite Non-Nespresso Pods

Non-Nespresso Pods are not recommended with warranty (of course) but I do use non-Nespresso pods in my machine sometimes. They are usually plastic but can still be recycled by scooping out the coffee on the inside (compost) and placing the plastic part in the recycling bin. My favourites are:

• Jamaica Blue (available online and from Jamaica Blue cafes)
• Avalanche THREE (NZ brand – available from the supermarket – not sure if available in Australia)

Iced Coffee

Iced Coffee is such a nice treat during the hot months, and this is how I make it. Since being in NZ, I’ve discovered Lewis Road Chocolate Milk (with Whittaker’s chocolate) – so yum! 

Summary

I really enjoy the Nespresso machine. There is no doubt the machine makes GREAT coffee, every single time, and it has saved me spending money on buying coffee out. Every morning, I delight in making myslef a great cup of coffee – ahhhhh, so good! 

More Reviews

Thermomix Review