Can someone please tell me what the deal is with Nespresso? We noted the boutique on the Champs–Élysées in Paris last year, and when we saw the pedestrians with the same posh carry-bags in Barcelona, we decided to check it out. It was a veritable mall of coffee! One whole wall is filled with their signature coffee pods, organized by colour, and looked for all the world like a space-age cafeteria or a cosmetics shop. The rest of the store wasn’t empty either, but filled with an array of gift packs, accessories and a cafe to sample the goods.
Each pod – their website calls them “precious coffee capsules” – makes only one cup of coffee. That makes it great for offices and waiting rooms but the waste must be quite high and according to Wikipedia, the cost of brewing a cup is three times that of other methods. That doesn’t seem to be a deterrent, and neither does the fact that you can’t buy the coffee from other vendors – you have to line up at the counter to request your daily dose. But the store was packed and unsurprisingly Wikipedia reports that Nespresso is the fastest growing ground coffee product in Europe – now up to 20 – 40% of the ground coffee market.
From the looks of things, they are positioning themselves in the both the daily necessity and luxury markets and doing well. With 16 flavours to “match your every mood” (plus the revolting sounding raspberry vinaigrette special edition), it was time to try some. But when tried to go into the cafe to try some, we were intercepted by a security guard who told us that the Nespresso club was for members only. Coffee, coffee everywhere and not a drop to drink!
Life is too short to drink bad coffee. Have you tried it? What do you think?
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