The invasion of the (coffee) pod people
In Italy, Nespresso machines can't compete with the divine espresso served in cafes. Elsewhere, it might be another story.
Ronald Holden
Ronald Holden
So here we are in Torino, or were, four years ago, drinking a coffee at the storied Caffè Mulassano and watching smartly dressed Italians walk by. Their shoes cost more than a month's rent, but their aperitivo's a bargain, since it comes with free access to a buffet that puts Seattle's happy hours to shame. (Not to rub it in, but where else do freeloaders expect happy hour deals as if they were a birthright?)
And the coffee! Sure, it costs 5 euros at the baroque counter, but it's the most fragrant, flavorful espresso you'll ever drink. And while we're on the subject: remember how McDonald's used to bitch about Starbucks and its fancy-pants coffee? (The YouTube commercials are here.) Well, take a look at the billboard campaign Mickey D is running now!
Which brings us to Nespresso. I tried the machine and its single-serving espresso a couple of times on a recent trip to Vancouver, B.C. (where the Tourism Vancouver people generously put me up in two new luxury hotels). The coffee was surprisingly good, and a lot tastier than the filter-basket drip you find in most upscale hotel rooms. A nice range of styles, organized by the color of the little pod containing the coffee, from robust to mellow. Of course if you want a machine of your own you've got to start by shelling out at least $300 for a machine (and up to ten times that much). And that's just the beginning.
The cost per capsule is 55 cents, and there are 16 different flavors and intensities. Nespresso boutiques in Europe are like high-fashion showrooms. Once you buy the machine, you return regularly as if checking out the latest couture designs ... or the latest movie star. George Clooney made a string of witty commercials for Nespresso; one with John Malkovich is here. You can buy the pods online, too, if you figure out how to navigate the too-cool-for-school website.
Nespresso doesn't sell its pods in supermarkets, but its single-serving coffee competitors are happy to attract customers that way. And boy, does it make Nestlé mad! So does the imminent expiration, in 2012, of its patents to the Nespresso machine. According to a big story in the New York Times last month, "Nestlé has been working on ... ways to prevent competitors from hacking a system that uses unique water dynamics to pump an espresso kissed with foam out of a hermetically sealed aluminum capsule."
The biggest competitor, Sara Lee's Senseo, started selling its own pod, a perforated plastic capsule called l'Or, in French supermarkets this summer, priced at 37 cents. The company says they've sold 30 million units since June. Another rival, Ethical Coffee, found its factories raided by French police on a claim of patent infringement. And an Italian rival, Lavazza, announced last week that it is buying a stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters so that it can compete head-to-head with Nespresso in the US market.
More than three quarters of Green Mountain's $800 million in sales last year came from espresso brewing systems and their disposable capsules — single-use, nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable pods made of plastic and tinfoil that are meant to be thrown away, filter, grounds and all, after a single use.
But what can they do? More biodegradable packaging? Recycling programs? Reusable filters? "The whole concept of the product is a little bit counter to environmental progress," says the Natural Resources Defense Council. "If you are trying to create something that is single use, disposable, and relies on a one-way packaging that can't be recycled, there are inherent problems with that."
The problem is less pressing, though, if you're sitting with your barista-brewed macchiato on the Piazza Castello in Torino in the late afternoon. Might even come up with a solution: why not mail the spent pods back to the company and require them to solve the problem? Meanwhile, I'll head along the arcade to the next café, Roberto or Florio, maybe, or even Torino, and get started on the aperitivo buffet.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Sep 17, 9:55 a.m. Inappropriate
You know in a depression which the economy is in, articles like this are just well depressing. Why not write one about how you can make decent espresso with an in expensive stove top espresso maker? And that if you buy your coffee from Costco at 1/2 the cost of buying it from Starbucks directly and make your own coffee in the morning instead of paying a baristia to pull a shot for you, you can save big $$$?
And face it, who in their right mind buys an expensive machine which requires a specialized coffee packet? In this business climate the manufacturer could either discontinue the machine, or go out of business. And then you'd be stuck with an outdated equipment. Vs those $30 stove top pots which make decent coffee and oh by the way are manufactured in Italy and I suspect every household has one.
Posted Fri, Sep 17, 12:33 p.m. Inappropriate
Excellent observations, GaryP. But the fact is, someone is buying those $300 espresso machines, and Starbucks & colleagues are still in business as well.
One of the most astonishing things about the global economy is the wide range of goods and services available...and the wide range of people who choose to spend their money on them. While it's undeniably true that you can make espresso at home for one tenth it costs to buy a shot at Starbucks, the companies that make home espresso machines (in Italy, in China, in Alabama, wherever) all have suppliers and payrolls and contribute to their local economies.
You may choose to spend your money in other ways, but that's a slippery slope; who's to say that my own choices of housing, transportation, leisure activities, etc., mesh with yours? And should it even matter?
Posted Fri, Sep 17, 2:21 p.m. Inappropriate
I'm don't begrudge your choice in coffee machines, but an article which proports to help the home espresso drinker get the best cup of java, misses the boat when they ignore the low cost yet extremely tasty alternative and pushes a machine which has all the defects of being a sole sourced coffee supplier.
It smacks of being a paid advertisement vs actual unbiased review of the product.
As for buying a cup from Starbucks or whatever that's fine too. Sometimes time is worth more than cash out of the pocket. I've bought overpriced coffee at Starbucks in the past and will again in the future. Sometimes I just want the coffee, and other times, I want a warm place to sit. And paying for coffee is sometimes the best option.
I guess my dander is up about home machines because a long time ago I bought one and after a while realized that the near pro machines were the only ones worth owning. The home machine just didn't make as good a cup. Then I "discovered" the stove top pot and a s stove top steamer and suddenly I was making store quality coffee or better. And once I looked into the difference between the high end machines and the home versions I realized that I'd need the high end one to have the quality I was used to.
So when some manufacturer comes along a home machine that uses a proprietary package of coffee, I'm highly suspicious that they intend to make their money on the back end selling coffee packets. Same way vacuum cleaner manufacturers make money off the sale of the bags.
But cavet emptor.
Posted Fri, Sep 17, 4:24 p.m. Inappropriate
Not to put too fine a point on this: the purpose of the piece was not to review or praise Nespresso, which in fact I do find overpriced, but to point to the idiocy of spending $300 on a machine that then costs hundreds of dollars a year in supplies. Which, if I read your comment correctly, is exactly your point as well.
FWIW, my own machine at home is a Krups Gaggia, a housewarming present 30 years ago, and I buy my beans at Costco, Trader Joe's or Safeway.
Check this article, by the way: http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19608/The-Starbucks-siren-and-her-many-costume-changes/, you'll see that I can't figure out what Starbucks is up to.
Posted Sun, Sep 19, 9:54 a.m. Inappropriate
I have wondered for several months (a year maybe) what was driving Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Now I think I understand the pitch. Thanks. I would never buy one, rather pay the barista, but I suppose it's an unavoidable marketing move.
Posted Mon, Sep 20, 12:35 p.m. Inappropriate
I had just read this: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10859465/1/neither-starbucks-mcdonalds-win-coffee-war.html
And it is an interesting side piece to your story.
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