Nespresso Essenza C101 Espresso Maker, Black

This is my third Nespresso machine, following an old trio of D150s and a more newly deceased D290.

In use now for a couple weeks, the C101 continues the streak of winning machines. This is the bare-bones Essenza, without cappuccino wand, cup warmer, etc.. After a decade of looking at the milk warming wands, I realized they had never been used, and cost money. I'd rather not maintain a supply of cream in my office, nor cart in water as often as brewing "Americanos" would require.

Use is simple drop in a Nespresso pod (50-70 cents each), push the button, then the machine makes the espresso in about 30 seconds when it has sufficiently heated up. Trivial, even before injecting the morning caffeine. Every time very good espresso with a thick crema. An advantage over some older models is that making the coffee can be programmed in even before the machine has warmed up.

One can save more money buying the C91, but that one is manual in the sense that AFTER it is warmed up, one must start AND STOP the water for the cup, and a too-late stop is the gaffe for which I buy an automatic machine in the first place. One can pay more for the Pixie, but the only difference I could decipher is a smaller footprint and perhaps a faster warm-up, and worse aesthetics IMO.

I've synchronized watering the Nespresso machine with watering my plants each is once a week, i.e., about every ten cups of espresso, which is about how often the empty pods need to be dumped from the internal trash can, as well.

It looks seriously industrial on my filing cabinet no plastic Mr. Coffee. Which brings up another selling point, abandoned machines such as my old D290 still can serve as conversation pieces on the coffee table, although a friend partially revived it after a month as a paperweight .

[5-12-11 update a couple of times now the darn thing has stopped working when I accidentally tried to make an espresso without water, which wasn't problem with the old D290, and then no water was drawn into the machine, apparently sort of a vapor lock problem. After thrashing around for quite a while, I discovered that running it for a while without a pod inside draws enough water through to re-prime the tubes.]

[7-12-12 update no problems whatsoever since last update.]

[8-5-12 update got another for my aging mom to replace her D150, which she likes.]

[8-26-12 update got another for home.]

I've had this machine with the separate frother for around 3 years now. It still delivers a great espresso with a perfect crema. It's not as good as what I can do with my Rancilio with Peet's. But it's close enough without all the drama. I got it for my office, where I didn't want the mess, but took it home for the holidays and found it so convenient, it never went back.

The only problems have been:

1) sometimes it doesn't open the capsules correctly, so you have to open and close the bar a couple of times to make it work without wasting a capsule. This happens most with dented capsules.

2) The packaging of the capsules leaves a lot to be desired. Around 20-30% of them arrive with small dents and 5-10% have major ones. I've talked to Nestle and their only solution is to offer to take them back. I'd rather they fix the problem. Especially since one of the things that really attracted me to this system was the fact that the anodized aluminum capsules look so cool, like little jewels, when they are perfect. But when they are dented, it's like your new Ferrari after a fender bender. It may drive the same, but it's embarrassing to let anyone see you with it.

3) Frother's pretty useless because it's difficult to clean, has to be handwashed, takes to long to heat up the milk, and produces very little (just enough for a single). I'd be better to save your money, heat your milk in the microwave and use one of those $5 hand frothers.

Buy Nespresso Essenza C101 Espresso Maker, Black Now

I have had this machine for over a year and I am pleased with the perfect cup of coffee each time. Each of the color cubes are selected for the taste at that moment. Whenever I have people over for dinner, this coffee is served after the meal with rave responses. I have gotten 14 people this year to purchase this machine. Now that I have started drinking this coffee, I have not been able to drink the regular drip coffee.

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I felt a little guilty buying this machine. You have to buy the coffee capsules from Nespresso. I suppose you could empty them out, compost the grounds and recycle the aluminum, but that's way too much work. On the other hand, it makes a great cup of coffee. A couple of Lungos to start the day and a quick short or long shot any time your caffeine load wanes ... just perfect.

The instructions are not entirely clear. I'm not sure if it's French graphic conventions or just my bias toward textual explanations, but I was confused for about five minutes. My confusion was easily cured by loading the thing up and pushing buttons to see what happens.

I think I'll have some coffee.

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Bought this machine when we arrived here, and the machine works perfectly fine. Although other offers are now coming through for 149 $, Amazon's product is slightly priced. The delivery was fast and on time. No complaints about the product.