The Nespresso Vertuo giant capsule has been available for a year, but is not popular. Rightly so? I took a Vertuo machine to autumn camp and had it tested by 14 leaders.
What the farmer doesn't know...
Neo-spresso
The machine itself looks elegant and has a high-quality finish. There is just one button for brewing coffee and an elongated lever for opening and closing, that's it. The water tank holds 1.7 litres, which is sufficient for normal use. At school camp, we had to fill the tank twice a day, but the machine was constantly running. Which brings us to the big problem with this system: Bigger coffee means a longer wait.
Foamy brawl
Conclusion
Many thanks to the media leadership team at the Zurich sports holiday camp Fiesch.
When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
"How can I open the machine now?" wonders the head of the newspaper course, prising at the machine. Suddenly, the upper part gives a jerk and pushes upwards with a quiet hum. Although motors are not high-tech, they are unusual for a Nespresso machine. "And where do I put this capsule now?" asks the radio manager. Every year I organise media courses for children aged between 11 and 15 at the Zurich sports holiday camp in Fiesch. We write the camp newspaper, broadcast radio and television articles and do travel blogger articles with the children. The intensive week with little sleep is the ideal place for a stress test of the new Nespresso capsules.
Coffee and multivitamins are part of the basic equipment at autumn camp.
At first glance, the Krups Vertuo Plus looks like a normal Nespresso machine. However, the capsules are much larger than usual and round instead of conical. According to Nespresso, the new process has been developed over years of research. Instead of forcing the water through the capsule under pressure, the capsule is swirled around and "rinsed out", which should ensure a better crema. Thanks to different capsule sizes (from small espresso capsules to giant Alto capsules), it is possible to dispense up to four decilitres of coffee from your machine.
How much coffee a capsule makes is labelled on the capsule itself. Thanks to a barcode, the machine also knows how to prepare the coffee, including the amount of water. You therefore need to be careful not to confuse the espresso with the Alto size (4 dl). The capsules are inserted into the machine "upside down", i.e. with the flat part facing upwards. This confused the leaders a little at first, and the machine was labelled unusable on the first morning, which changed over the course of the week.
Caused confusion: The new capsule technology Vertuo
Nespresso wants to take back full control of the capsule business with Vertuo due to competition from the conventional capsule system. Of course, the company is not officially admitting this. Larger quantities of coffee are a necessity and the new technology produces an even better crema, as Nespresso explains the new system. Larger capsules also mean more? The fact that years of research have not been invested in environmentally friendly capsules is a missed opportunity. After all, Nespresso takes Vertuo back for recycling free of charge.
Once you have inserted the capsule, the machine first starts to make the usual noises. It then takes several seconds for the coffee to come out. Only when the machine starts to whir and the capsule starts to rotate at up to 7000 revolutions per minute does the coffee come out in a thin stream. This happens after about 20 seconds. Depending on the size, it takes over a minute for the coffee to be ready. A little too long for me, but I am also very impatient. You can also interrupt by pressing the button for longer.
Crema: Nice, but a lot
Nespresso is particularly proud of the crema and there's plenty of it à gogo. Only when a third of your coffee cup is crema do you realise that there is such a thing as too much crema. The quality of the coffee foam is not on a par with portafilters, which is probably what they wanted to make up for with quantity. It doesn't quite work. I would prefer a little less foam and a little more coffee. It's very good for Nespresso. As with the normal capsules, the strength of the Vertuo capsules is indicated on the packet. We had the impression that even the strong coffees were milder than comparable, normal capsules. That's just fine - after all, I don't want to have to choke down a 4-decilitre espresso.
Ruth the capsule machine
In general, the coffee performed well with the leaders. The initial scepticism about the operation was quickly dispelled and Ruth (as we christened the machine) did a disservice. While reading the capsule size took some getting used to at the beginning, everyone understood it on the second day and nothing went wrong. As the last newspapers were printed, the last articles filmed and the last radio programmes broadcast, Ruth whirred contentedly one last time and delivered the last coffee of the camp before disappearing back into the packaging. We will miss you.
