Introduction
If you are in the market for a coffee machine, there are two major types to consider; one is Nespresso, the other is Keurig K-Cups. What is the difference between the two? Well, Nespresso (swiss company) is mainly targeted at making espressos. Although the Vertuo line can make 5 different coffee sizes, namely espresso, double espresso, gran lungo, coffee, and alto xl. The Nespresso original line only makes two coffee sizes, namely espresso and lungo. Lungo means long, and is double the size of an espresso – the water goes through the coffee “longer”; thus the name “lungo”.
The K-Cup is made by Keurig (american company) and is extremely popular in the US. There are many coffee pods available for the K-Cup machines, so there is no end to variety. Also the K-Cup machines can brew about 2-5 different cup sizes all depending on your machine and the pods themselves.
Pod Construction
The Nespresso pods are made out of aluminum, and the coffee is hermetically sealed to keep the freshness. Every box of 10 pods is stamped with an expiry date. The pods can be 100% recycled, since when you order from Nespresso, they can send you free UPS shipping bags. Then you simply fill the bags up with used pods and then bring the bag to a local UPS store. Both the coffee and aluminum are recycled. Recycled coffee is used for compost, and recycled aluminum is used for other metal products. The aluminum is food grade and is coated internally with food grade laquer.
K-Cup pods are made out of plastic. There are are some cheaper Nespresso compatible pods available on Amazon. I have never heard of plastic coffee pod recycling at all. Keurig has a webpage explaining that you need to disassemble your pods to recycle them. Unfortunately some cities (like Bakersfield) do not recycle that type of plastic. That’s a lot of work compared to Nespresso. Also the costs of K-Cup pods are usually less than the Nespresso pods – there is a reason they are cheaper. I’m also not sure if the plastic is of good quality (food grade).
The Coffee
Well now the important part, the coffee and what it tastes like. I have had the pleasure of trying K-Cups back in 2004 when they were first available for business use, and have also tried a number of recently manufactured Keurig machine coffee products. The K-Cups tastes just like other regular coffee. So I haven’t been that impressed.
When I first tried a Nespresso brew – I was amazed! How could such a cheaply priced machine produce an extremely high quality espresso instantly (with 40 seconds)? It was the first time I enjoyed having coffee without sugar and without milk, black, wonderful gold. Every single Nespresso pod variety I have enjoyed. I long to have my daily Nespresso!
Nespresso only uses the highest quality coffee to make a superb brew of coffee. From their corporate web site, you can see that only 1-2% of coffee grown globally meets Nespresso’s specific taste, aroma and quality requirements. Once you taste it, you would agree that it’s great coffee!
The Jury
Well, you can decide. Maybe if you live in a big enough city that can accommodate a Nespresso boutique, then you could always visit one and take a test drive. I’m sure you’ll love it.
Alvin Bunk 