My last coffee machine was on it’s last legs, and being ever thrifty, I’ve just let it limp along, sometimes working and sometimes not. I’ve meant to look for one for a while, so the offer to try Nespresso coffee pods came at the right time. We didn’t have a compatible machine to try the pods in, so they sent us a wee one to use with the pods.
To be honest I was just expecting the wee Nespresso Essenza Mini and some iced coffee pods. What arrived was a bit different. Along with the little machine, came a whole box of iced coffee pods, two coffee glasses, a travel mug, and an ice cube tray.
The machine is very neat, and takes up little room on a worktop. It’s not very wide at all and seems to make enough for two larger coffees, and several expresso sized beverages. It took me a while to figure out the different coffee names, but I got there in the end.
The two new flavours of iced coffee, are:
- Intenso on Ice
- Leggero on Ice
Intenso on ice, is a rich, roasted coffee, with cereal notes, whereas the Legeero on ice is subtle, with lemony notes. I did have to look up their website to figure out how to make iced coffee with a coffee maker. Call me an iced coffee numptie, ahem, newbie.
I’d like to have made the iced vanilla coffee from their recipe, but my wee machine doesn’t have a milk frother, and I don’t own a milk frother. Yes, I know, I have almost every type of gadget under the sun, but a milk frother isn’t one of them. I did half wonder if putting some milk into my blender on a high setting might do the trick, but I didn’t take the chance. I am making a mental note to get a milk frother however. Having milk frothed latte needs to be in my future.
I did have a few cheeky cups of coffee to test out the machine, and to be honest, it’s fairly simple and doesn’t have excess bits on it to take up space. I might even give this one to my mum so that her carers can make coffee up in her room, and don’t have to come downstairs a dozen times a day. I might earn some brownie points there…and I can get myself a gadget with a built-in milk frother. See, there is some method to this chain of thought….
Ok, now the coffee part has been well figured out, it had to go to the iced coffee version.
This is what I did.
- Fill glass with ice.
- Pop Leggero on ice pod into machine and choose expresso setting.
- When expresso shot has finished, I poured cold milk over the back of a spoon, and into the glass, then stirred at the end. I did manage to achieve a little froth on top of the coffee, which went down pretty well on a warm Aberdeen day…
What did I think?
To be fair, iced coffee isn’t ever going to be my thing, apart from the odd glass as a change. I’m pretty much a traditional girl, and a hot latte is my bevvy of choice with caffeine.
Can I see this being popular?
I can. I’ve always thought of iced coffee as being an American thing, but my kids tend to buy themselves iced coffee shots in a coffee shop, so now I just have to figure out how to use these pods for the same effect at home. I suspect lots of crushed ice will do the trick, along whipped cream and some chocolate powder, but the possibilities are wide, as is the variation in the type and strength of coffee for the little machine.
Future
Our machine is going to be well used, whether by us, or my mum and her carers, so for that, I am grateful. I doubt I’d buy iced coffee pods personally, but that’s just me, although my youngest is planning how to use the Caramelito and Vanilio pods instead of the Intenso on ice and Leggero on ice for whipped cream iced coffee. He’s a teen, and I guess for teens, iced coffee really is a thing….. Ok, this old woman is off to settle for an old fashioned cup of hot caffeine…
Thanks to Nespresso for our samples.