Monday, February 10, 2014

Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker With Aeroccino Plus Milk Frother, Aluminum

Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker With Aeroccino Plus Milk Frother, AluminumHeats up quick. You can be enjoying an espresso in under 30 seconds. Even the milk frother is quick, and cappuccino won't take more than 60 seconds. I think a couple of the stronger capsules (the black ristretto and purple arpeggio for example) taste pretty good. It's important to understand this is an espresso machine, and it makes a wide variety of "coffee flavored" drinks, but is not going to make something exactly like drip coffee. If that's what you want, you can come close by making an americano (running some hot water into an espresso or lungo without a capsule in place). It's nearly as quick and still tastes good. I just wouldn't want anyone disappointed because they are looking for something to make a 24oz mug for the morning commute. I highly recommend the Pixie for speed, convenience, taste, and did I mention it's a pretty nice looking machine? If there is a downside, it's the cost of the capsules. I found going directly to Nespresso was the least expensive but still not cheap, though customer service was good. One last recommendation: keep a cheap ice shaker handy to add delicious iced drinks to your repertoire!

This handy little machine brews a fabulous cup of expresso. It takes up very little counter space which is a real plus and it's easy to use and clean. Ordering from Nepresso is quick and their selection of favors is vast. No more speciality coffee runs for me. The reason I gave it a four star instead of five is because of the milk frother. While the frother works like a charm, it does not get milk hot enough when making mochas and/or other milk based hot drinks. To solve the problem I put the frothed milk in a microwave and heat it up an additional 30 seconds or so. If you are looking for a top notched expresso maker that needs very litte space you can't go wrong with the Pixie. When the maker's warrantee has expired I'm going to try the refillable capsules you can order on Amazon so I can brew different whatever brand of coffee I want.

Buy Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker With Aeroccino Plus Milk Frother, Aluminum Now

I owned a large, expensive automated coffee/espresso maker with frother. I never use it to steam milk. The Nespresso is easy to use and to clean. Great for small spaces.

Read Best Reviews of Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker With Aeroccino Plus Milk Frother, Aluminum Here

The Nespresso Pixie is an excellent, quick, low mess tool for making very good espresso and the Aeroccino milk frother is great for preping the milk for cappuccino.

Pluses = It really does make very good espresso and cappuccino coffee and does it easily with less mess than other tools. No need to buy a grinder ($200+) and less need to experiment with technique to get good results versus standard espresso machines. The Aeroccino milk frother is also less of a mess and more consistent in producing good frothy hot milk compared with the steaming apparatus on the less expensive espresso machines. The available pods are almost all very good tasting and only moderately expensive. The Pixie is very compact and takes up little counter space and would work well as an RV traveling espresso maker.

Minuses = the standard dose for espresso is only 1.35 oz. (a lot smaller than single serving coffee makers like the Keurig). This makes a very small cup of espresso and also makes a very small cappuccino when mixed with an equal volume of steamed milk. If you want to have a 5 6 oz. cappuccino serving, that requires TWO pods and doubles the cost per cappuccino. At the Nespresso Club online store, they cost between $0.65 $0.70 each. The Aeroccino works very well, BUT you must get just the right milk volume when using the frothing whisk and it must be COLD. If you use too little or too much milk, the whisk will NOT ROTATE. If it does not rotate, the milk around it will scald and you will need to clean it out before it will work properly again. If the milk warms up, the frothing cycle will be too short and you won't get enough froth.

Suggestions = One way to work around the small espresso serving size is to re-program the espresso volume to a larger amount (easy to do from instruction book). I bumped mine up to 2 oz. and that works well to produce good espresso, BUT the cappuccino tends to be a bit dilute. I went with a compromise of 1.5 oz. for the espresso and cappuccino. A cappuccino size of about 5 6oz. (with foam) is a more reasonable serving size. Make sure you check the pod prices from Nespresso on line. Their prices are about the lowest you will find. They also have a large variety of specialty recipes on their site. If you look the Pixie and Aeroccino up on line, you can get a lot of very good video demos that illustrating the ease of making good espresso and cappuccino. Just remember to make sure that you fill the Aeroccino up to within about 1/4" of the bottom line without going over the line so the frothing whisk will spin properly. If it does not immediately start spinning push the on off button to turn off. This will prevent the milk from getting too warm or scalding before you start. Next add or pour out a little milk as needed. Then try again.

You can find "do it yourself reusable pods", but they are not easy to use, reported to be not very effective, and you really won't save much by the time you spend $15 $25 per pound for decent espresso coffee and supply the labor of experimenting with filling them just right and with the right grind and cleaning them between reuses.

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I could not be happier with this purchase. I have very little open counter space and this machine has a very small footprint. The frother works wonderfully and I can make a delicious cappuccino in less than a minute, including the time it takes the Pixie to warm up. I had a bit of a problem with the machine when it arrived as I was getting too much hot water when it was set on the espresso setting. This was quickly resolved by one quick phone call to Nespresso. Kudos to nespresso for great customer service and very quick delivery of the capsules. I bought a variety of flavors from Nespresso and am enjoying making delicious coffee drinks at home. I had another brand of espresso machine prior to this. I am getting much more use from this one as it is so much easier to operate and clean.

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