It must be a pretty smart coffee if someone so irritatingly handsome and wealthy as George Clooney is prepared to endorse it. And yet Nespresso, the self-styled premium brand from the Nestle stable, has been using Clooney as the face of Nestle to the world since 2007. If the big guy goes for it, then it must be surely worth a look just to see what all the fuss is about.



The Nespresso machines come with a wide range of functionality from the simplest basic espresso maker to a full featured machine that assembles the most amazing cappuccinos without any human intervention whatsoever. Literally, it's like having your own coffee bar at the press of a single button, without all the irritation of having to wait for it to be made and the shame of ordering a dangerously fattening chocolate muffin that lies in wait at the local coffee shop. And there is no noisy bean grinding, spilt coffee grounds and the like to mess up the surrounding area either. At the press of just the one button it all just happens by itself.

And the coffee? Well, it really is to die for!

Absolutely amazing quality, smoothness and consistency when compared to the traditional handmade espresso machines. A real mark of a great espresso is the thickness and quality of the crema, the golden foamy top which should float on any well made cup. With Nespresso it just appears every time with every cup ? the perfect consistent crema.

There are a wide range of different blends of coffee including de-caffeinated and those specially formulated for those who like their coffee long.

So, what's not to like?

The coffee itself has to be purchased from Nespresso and they are the only suppliers of the little capsules which contain the precious vacuum packed coffee. The cost of the coffee ?it is not cheap when compared to a teaspoon of instant coffee and more expensive than grinding your own coffee and using a traditional espresso machine. But to my mind the quality of the coffee combined with the convenience of the pods make the difference well worth paying. Another bonus with the capsules is that they are air tight, so the coffee keeps fresh for up to a year.

Another feature which concerns some customers is the environmental impact of all those little pods. It is true that in Switzerland there is a recycling scheme where the capsules are collected in particular locations and then melted down so that the plastic and aluminum can be reused and the grounds turned into fertilizer. In most countries however, these pods are just dumped into bins for disposal in dumps and landfill. Competitors to Nespresso offer much more environmentally friendly recyclable capsules and it is likely that consumer pressures may force Nespresso one day to review its manufacturing methods.

Finally, a complaint of a number of Nespresso users is that there is nowhere on the machines that really warms the cup into which the coffee is poured. Some of the more sophisticated machines have a warming plate but it does little other than take the chill off the cups. It is of course a problem shared with many espresso machines but it seems a shame that this feature has not been fully considered.

Overall however, for the coffee fan there is much to recommend these machines and a tasting at a store near you is strongly recommended.