Capsules of Coffee: Nespresso, Dolce Gusto, Tassimo, Senseo. The Guide

Coffee capsules is becoming a widely adopted method to take coffee at home or at office. Trends suggest that restaurants will adopt this emerging technology sooner or later.

If you have a coffee capsule system at home, how many times in a restaurant did you think that your home coffee tastes better?

The first coffee capsule I took in my life was in 1991, in Switzerland. By that time, it was the only way to have coffee in my office. Secretary of the Department ordered capsules from time to time, and workers paid for them as they needed in packs of 10 capsules.

At lunch time, we skiped the coffee at the restaurant, simply because the one we took at the office was far better, and maybe because this capsule coffee made the get back to work smoother.

Did you ever tried to refill a Nespresso capsule? It's not complicated. There are lots of sites with video tutorials out there. There are also substitutory capsule systems, and so ever, that make the capsule coffee cheaper.

And... how does it taste? Is there any foam in the top? The response is yes, it tastes good, as good as the coffee is, but never as good as the original. And the foam? Yes there is foam in the coffee.

This trial made me find out that there was no additions to the coffee to make foam appear so much. Other ground coffees produces the same foam when used in same coffee capsules. So, there is no, at least, added foam activators, when comparing to other coffees.

You can do another experiment: open a new Nespresso capsule and empty it. Save the coffee. Take over the aluminium paper cover of the front of a used capsule and empty the used coffee inside. Fill in the used capsule with all the coffee you saved. Use aluminium paper to cover all the surface of the capsule, and make it suitable to be reused. Make a cup of coffee with it and taste.

Well... if the used capsule recovered somehow a minimum of the original sealing, you will get a cup of coffee as good as the original. Actually, the coffee is the same, and the quantiy too.

Conclusion: the secret of capsule coffee is the coffee. If the coffee is good, the cup of coffee tastes better.

The first manufacturer to open the market was Nestle with Nespresso. Although Nestle released their product to the swiss market in 1976 it wasn't since 1988 when it became a success. Nowadays Nespresso has sold 20 billion capsules and is the main coffee capsule provider, with a share of more than 20% of the European ground coffee sales market.

Nespresso has protected their market with more than 70 patents that covers relevant aspects of the whole system, the machine and the capsules. Even that the coffee machines are branded by several manufacturers, all the machines are built by the swiss manufacturer EugsterFrismag, with the only exception of DeLonghi, that builds their own machines.

Nespresso machines work at 19 bar pressure.

Nescafe, another brand of Nestle, released in 2006, another capsule coffee system, called Dolce Gusto. With Dolce Gusto, as opposite to Nespresso, you can taste several other beverages, like Nestea and Nesquik, and their combinations between them and coffee, and all other varieties of coffee, latte maquiato, cappuccino, and their light versions. It is a complement to Nespresso, as Nespresso has focused its product to all the coffee gourmets, delivering 13 fixed varieties of blended coffee, several temporal offers of origin coffees, and, from time to time, special variations with aroma flavours, like vanilla, almond, cinnamon and so on.

Altough you can buy Dolce Gusto capsules at the supermarket and grocery stores, Nespresso capsules are only sold by Nespresso itself.

Dolce Gusto machines work at 15 bar pressure, as most expresso machines of the market.

Tassimo, since 2004 is the bet of Kraft Foods in the capsule coffee market. It's a mix between Nespresso and Dolce Gusto, as it offers a good shortage of coffee varieties (coffee, cappuccino, lette maquiato, etc.) and several other beverages well supported by brands like Twinings (tea), Milka and Côte d'Or (chocolate), tiramisu and crème brûlée. The coffee is provided by brands like Saimaza, Maestro Lorenzo, Carte Noire, Kenco and since 2010, Starbucks. Tassimo coffee machines work at 3.3 bar pressure.

Lavazza, the italian coffee maker, has developed a system called Lavazza Blue, covering a wide range of machines, from home to office and even vending, and a big shortage of beverages consisting in coffee specialties, teas and infussions.

Illy, the other italian coffee maker, has released the method Yperespresso, with several machines and focused exclusively in the expresso coffee market.

Senseo is the brand of Sara Lee, the machines are Philips made and the coffee is Douwe Egberts (Marcilla in Spain). It cannot be considered expresso coffee. It's more like filtered coffee because the use of a filter paper capsule and a lower pressure system (1,5 bars). It is by far the cheapest method of all. With Senseo you can take only coffee of ten varieties and origines, including cappuccino.

In case you want to be the owner of a capsule coffee system, you should know that you will pay more for every coffee, but, in return you will obtain always the same quality coffee, you will forget how to load a coffee machine, and how to clean it too and, last but not least, you will keep a big choice of coffee varieties at home, to offer to you guests or just to cover all the tastes of your family.

If I were to choose one system by now, maybe I will choose Tassimo because its multifunctionality and the great variety of tastes and beverages avalaible. Tassimo capsules are sold in grocery stores, and with Nespreso you have to register to their webpage (Nespresso Club), and put your orders there. The main con of Tassimo is that 3.3 bar pressure is not enough to deliver the best espresso coffee.

If you take the coffee with a lot of sugar, then maybe the best election is between Tassimo and Dolce Gusto, because of its multifunctionality and that I guess that you really don't mind on the quality of the coffee.

If your budget is low or you prefer filtered coffee then your choice is Senseo, the cheapest one, regarding the machines and the capsules.

But if you are a fan of George Cloney and want a real exclusive coffee system, with a big shortage of well designed coffee machines, you definitively should buy Nespresso.