Introduction

In the year 2022, Nespresso decided to release espressos as part of their World Explorations theme, where the espressos are named after popular coffee culture cities. In addition, the espressos released were based on some of the most popular Limited Edition espressos that were previously released by Nespresso. Although the formulas aren’t necessarily exactly the same as the previous Limited Editions. But I think the intent by Nespresso is to provide the consumer with coffees that they can consistently provide year round and provide coffees that will be very popular and enjoyable. At the current time, these World Explorations Espressos are only available for the Original Line (OL); So I suspect there may be a significant increase in sales of OL machines both in the US and worldwide as these espressos continue to be sold.

Miami Espresso

The World Explorations (WE) Miami was first released in early January 2022. The intent of this coffee is to provide a Latin American / Cuban style coffee, since the Cafecito de Cuba has been extremely popular and it is not always possible to obtain Cuban coffee beans regularly. The WE Miami Espresso is available in the US and some other countries year round as a regular capsule. In some countries, like the UK, it’s only available as a Limited Edition. No one is certain as to the reasoning why Nespresso has made them limited in some countries. Also Miami is known for its Latin American and Cuban influences on the local coffee culture, and thus the naming of Miami Espresso is appropriate for this style of coffee.

The WE Miami uses coffee beans from Latin America and the Caribbean and contains 5.6 grams of coffee per capsule. So far, it’s been very popular. All other levels of the coffee are shown in the pictures above. The capsule can be brewed as either a ristretto size cup or an espresso size cup. I find brewing it as a ristretto brings out more chocolate notes and tastes much better. Be aware that you may feel a buzz after drinking one of these.

Paris Espresso

This has been the most talked about coffee on r/nespresso since January when rumors of a “Paris Black” like coffee would be available this year. The Paris Black was a 2018 Variations (Winter seasonal release) Limited Edition release that sold out very quickly because it was the most popular coffee made by Nespresso ever. The intent of the WE Paris Espresso is to make a similar coffee that will be as popular (read on) as the Paris Black.

The original Paris Black used arabicas and robustas, but had an intensity of 9, and had low acidity and high bitterness/roasting/body. The aroma/taste notes of the Paris Black are cereal/nutty, syrupy with wood and spice notes. Paris is well known for its coffee culture, and coffee is typically made with robusta beans; plus also “French roast” is type of bean roast which is a dark roast and is the most intense. Thus it is surprising that Nespresso created the Paris Espresso with an intensity of only 6.

The WE Paris Espresso uses Latin American arabicas and a Vietnamese robusta. The WE Paris Espresso has aroma/taste notes of cereal/biscuit with light citrus and bitter notes. NOTE: This is very different than Paris Black. Regardless of the differences, I suspect the Paris Espresso will be very popular; the Latin American arabicas are used in some of the better Nespresso coffees. Also the Il Caffè used a Vietnamese robusta and was very popular (including the current Vertuo version) as a 2020 Winter seasonal release.

Istanbul Espresso

Back in early 2019, Nespresso released the Café Istanbul Coffee House Limited Edition capsule consisting of beans from Yemen, India and Indonesia with an intensity of 9. It was very popular and was said to deliver a good kick! The notes have been described as strong, spicy and salty. A lot of people on r/nespresso have asked for this coffee to be re-released.

The WE Istanbul Espresso uses an Ethiopian arabica and a Indian robusta. The taste/aroma notes are said to be wild fruits and a touch of almond. So as with the WE Paris Espresso, the WE Istanbul Espresso seems to use a very different formula. The fact that it uses both a Ethiopian arabica and an Indian robusta really peaks my interest though, as the Master Crafted Single Origin Ethiopia and India are two of my favorite coffee capsules; plus you can see in the above levels chart the acidity is very high. I suspect the WE Istanbul Espresso may be the most popular of the series regardless of the formula differences.

When traditional coffee is made in Turkey, they use a cezve and put the finely ground (like powdered sugar) coffee, water and sugar in the cezve. Then they heat up the cezve typically on heated sand, the coffee heats up and is not stirred, so the sugar caramelizes at the base of the cezve and give the coffee a sweet flavor. So I think because the Istanbul Espresso has almond notes (usually associated with caramel notes), thus Nespresso associated the naming of this WE coffee to Istanbul.

Rio de Janeiro Espresso

The Cafezinho do Brasil has always been a favorite Limited Edition from Nespresso. One of the reasons I like it so much is that it is made with all Brazilian arabicas, and that it has a distinctive bitterness to it. There are also herbal notes present, but the intensity of the herbal notes has varied by year.

The WE Rio de Janeiro Espresso has the exact same intensity and exact same levels (bitterness, acidity, roastiness, body) as the Cafezinho do Brasil. Also this description on the Nespresso Turkey site, describes the exact same beans used in the Cafezinho do Brasil. So I highly suspect that the two will taste very similar. Once I have my first sleeve of the WE Rio de Janeiro Espresso, I will do a side-by-side comparison of the Cafezinho do Brasil since I still have at least one sleeve left.

Enjoy your coffee!

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