Never does the general population feel the crushing importance of caffeine more than in that time immediately after waking up, when we are at our least equipped to operate heavy machinery (in this case, your drip coffee maker).
Finding a caffeine fix that tastes great, doesn’t cost a ton, and requires as little effort as possible isn’t the easiest task, which is why people often justify the upfront cost of a Nespresso.
But before you head to their website and get overwhelmed by 13 machines that ostensibly do the same thing, you'll want to get some background info — and see if the investment will actually pay off in the long run. To help you out, we researched every single machine and even tested a few to pick out the best of the best.
Is a Nespresso better than a standard espresso machine?
If you're expecting a Nespresso to produce the same quality result as a well-crafted espresso shot, you'll be disappointed.
However, if you're looking to make a decent-tasting espresso with minimal effort, a Nespresso is the machine to do just that. During our testing, it took no longer than a minute from turning on the machine to get hot espresso. There were no measuring out grounds, tamping down, or lengthy clean-up process. Even compared to a moka pot, a Nespresso is faster and easier.
Though you do lose out some on quality and a robust flavor that you might through other methods, the machines still make espresso shots with a nice layer of crema that more than do the trick for an at-home latte or cappuccino. Though Nespressos use pods like Keurig, the drinks it makes taste much less like pod-espresso than Keurig coffee tastes like pod-coffee.
While it may not have coffee snobs renouncing their daily visit to their artisanal coffee shop or their $600 Brevilles, the Nespresso does provide a level of convenience that's pretty much unmatched.
Will a Nespresso machine save you money in the long run?
Nespressos don't exactly scream budget-friendly at first glance. The cheapest machines start at $169, and the most expensive top out at $849, putting them well within the range of fully-loaded fancy espresso machines. (Though they do go on sale regularly and during shopping holidays like Black Friday.)
Usually, people justify the investment in a more expensive machine based on what they might be spending at a coffee shop. Say your daily latte costs you $5 (for fans of dairy-alternative milks, this is already likely on the low end). If you use our top pick machine, the Essenza Mini, you'll be incurring an upfront cost of $179. There are off-brand discounted pods out there, but for the case of this example, let's say pods cost about 80 cents a pop. If you were to get a coffee every single day, here's how the price would shake out:
Daily latte habit for one year = $1,825
Daily latte habit with an Essenza Mini for one year = $471
This of course doesn't include the price of the milk you'd be using, and assumes you either a) own a milk frother or b) are fine microwaving some milk (as we did during testing). If 52 ounces of Chobani oat milk costs about $5, and you use 8 ounces of milk per latte, you'd be using about $285 worth of milk just on lattes for a year. It also assumes that you'd be using one pod per drink, when you could easily use two. Still, even doubling the number and adding in the milk cost puts it at a lower amount than a latte.
Daily Nespresso latte with rough cost of milk factored in = $756
Daily Nespresso latte with two pods and milk = $1,048
Don't get us wrong, there are some days when a latte out makes more sense — and we don't want to give the impression that millennials could afford a home if only they curbed their coffee habits — but as a Nespresso is still an investment, we wanted to show you how the math shook out.
Even with that under consideration, a Nespresso isn't quite as cheap as using a moka pot, a stovetop method for creating a rich-tasting espresso that'll run you about $30. But again, the Nespresso saves you a ton of time, which might make building that at-home cappuccino habit a lot easier. For what it's worth, I bought a single latte in the month period I was testing Nespresso machines, which was down from my average of three a week.
What's the difference between the original and Vertuo Nespresso lines?
The brand has two lines — the aptly named original line, which includes the first Nespresso models that only make espresso, and the Vertuo line, which can make coffee as well as espresso drinks.
The most obvious difference between the two lines is what kind of drinks they can make, but there's more to it than just that. Though both machines produce espresso shots, the process from pod to cup differs. Every single original line machine uses the same 19-bar pressurized extraction on every single pod that replicates the process of a traditional espresso machine. The Vertuo line machines, however, read a barcode on the pod to adjust specific water temperature and flow settings, then spins the pod and uses centrifugal force for extraction.
The result is that Vertuo pods are more expensive, and don't have non-Nespresso branded options available at stores like Target like the original line (yet, at least). Many people also note that the espresso from the original line simply tastes better, which might be the result of a more closely replicated extraction process.
Ultimately, if you enjoy coffee and espresso drinks the Vertuo might be worth it (which you can read more about below), but getting a drip coffee machine along with an original Nespresso isn't a bad choice either.
