Essenza Nespresso

After a few days of use here are my comments for the C100T and Aerocinno. I am using the combo in a small office setting. The no mess of the espresso machine is great. The shots are really good and consistently good. The machine is very simple to use. Fill w/ water, turn on drop in espresso capsule, push button, and you are done. The only drawback I can mentinon is the capsules must be ordered from nespresso directly. In terms of cost they are significanlty more expensive than premium whole bean or ground espresso roast coffe (lavazza, petes, starbucks, etc.). So with regards to the espresso machine it is perfect for my office due to the no mess and no fuss cup of esspresso. Honestly, I love it. But in my home I will be keeping my Starbucks barista espresso machine due to the fact that it will take any espresso and at home it is easy to clean. The aerocinno is ingenious. It is the perfect compliment for any espresso machine with one caveat, the servings that it can make are only for... Read more

I must first disclose that I am not an espresso connoisseur; I drink lattes and cafes-au-lait, and until the time my husband (a quad-espresso per day drinker) purchased the Nespresso C100, I had been a loyal Starbucks patron for at least 9 years. We've had the C100 now for over a month and since firing it up the first time, neither he nor I have stepped foot in a Starbucks. If you're not an espresso drinker and are afraid of the C100 PLUS a regular coffeemaker taking up counter space, fear no more. The C100 has two default settings -- one pulls an espresso, and the other, a 4-ounce "lungo" -- *and* its volume, unlike the C90, is also programmable. I've heard some people complaining about the noise Nespresso machines make, but really, have you ever listened to the noise -- and I'm not talking about the deafening and/or obnoxious music -- coming out of Starbucks?? As far as the quality goes, I haven't had coffee this good since my trip to Europe. It is consistent, never... Read more

In my opinion, the coffee made by this machine is as perfect as you can make in approximately the space of time it takes to make instant coffee (and in approximately the same physical space). The noise is also much less than I have heard with some other Nespresso machines.

No doubt if you choose to grind/roast/grow your own beans you can make better espresso, but for the rest of us the quality is near perfection.

The only issue I have is that you are limited in the height of a cup you can fit under the spout. A standard coffee cup fits fine, but if you want to use anything that is much taller, then most cups do not fit - and I prefer to use the espresso capsules to make a big cup. Even my shortest non-coffee cups do not fit unless I jam them in at an angle. An extra 1/4" of height would be nice....

Oh, and buy your capsules from Nespresso.com. The Amazon.com merchants are reselling genuine capsules at a significant markup. Each capsule is somewhere... Read more

Why pay for a more expensive Nespresso machine? This one does what all the others do - namely makes great coffee! Looks cool and sleek in office or at home.

I was initially reluctant to buy this based on the fact that they use proprietary pods. Had that reluctance stuck with me, I probably would've spent a few hundred more on a high-quality manual espresso machine, or over a thousand on an automatic machine. $.52 a cup is reasonable when you consider that grinding your own works out to about $.30 a cup, but yields a greater mess and requires more soap and water for cleanup each time. With two little kids at home - who has time to clean? I was absolutely giddy the first time I used both the machine and the frother. Separately and together, both machines match or rival what all too many of us pay $3-5 for from the local coffee shop. I'm convinced that our friends will like us more if we decide to share some of this with them. I bought this at Williams-Sonoma based on loyalty as I had sampled it 3 times over a two week period and finally couldn't take it anymore. I had to have one! Consumer reports also ranks this machine highest in its... Read more

After a lot of research and knowing how tasty the Nespresso espressos are (free sample at a store a year ago that I fondly remembered), I bought the Nespresso C100 on Amazon in September 2009 for an anniversary present to ourselves. In four months, we have made about 180 cups of cappuccino or espresso for my husband and I and an occasional guest. We make about 2-3 cups during the weekday and more on the weekends.

- Very fast and easy to make, with no mess. Fill up the water dispenser, turn the machine on, pop a colored pod in the maker and close lever. Wait for buttons to stop blinking to show it is heated, then push the button. Enjoy the smell! Very easy to clean - run water through by pressing the button and dump out/wash the tray where the overflow grill is and the basket that catches the many pods.

- Aeroccino froth maker is soooo much easier than trying to use the steam nozzles that most cappuccino maker's have (no splattering and nice, consistent... Read more