Amazon.com: Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker, Chrome: Kitchen & Dining Review
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OVERVIEW: As a long-time coffee snob I couldn't miss the chance to smackdown these upstart espresso wannabees. Well, more fool me. I was no match for the charms of little miss Pixie; this cheeky wench promptly staked a claim on my valuable counter space, right under the wings of old matron Silvia.
BACKGROUND: I've had a Rancilio Silvia V1 for over a decade. Years ago I made the popular PID modification: a computerized thermostat for superior temperature control. I've replaced the boiler, twice, and the steam valve. I've upgraded its over-pressure valve and tuned it for optimum steam pressure. I don't just grind my own beans, I buy fair-trade single-origin 20 pound bulk bags and roast to perfection on a homemade roaster. I make at least four lattes a day, and grind through a pound of coffee a week. To be sure, the PID'ed Silvia is hardly the Rolls Royce of espresso machines, but it is the Toyota Camry: a tried and true performer; a middle-of-the road favorite. The Nespresso is the new Smart Fortwo: affordable, stylish, leading edge, versatile and fun. Sure, they'll both get you where you want to go, but they're not really in the same market niche.
I've been wanting to give the Nespresso a workout for a couple years, and when Amazon Vine gave me a chance to review not one, but two models, I jumped. They are: the Nespresso Pixie (C60) and the Nespresso U (D50), both with the Aeroccino Plus milk frother. To which I added the Coffeeduck refillable capsules. What follows is a comparison of all of the above versus my old standby, Silvia.
SUMMARY: For a quick and tasty single shot of espresso or small cappuccino the Aeroccino frother with the Nespresso U and Pixie do a consistently good job. Compared to my Silvia, well, I've made many worse cups over the years, much worse, but, after a decade of mods and mastering technique, these days I usually make better.
INTRODUCTION: To start with, let me say that the Pixie and U model ranges are not Nespresso's top-of-the-line but closer to introductory level. Their least to most expensive model ranges are as follows: essenza, U, PIXIE, citiz, lattissima and maestria. As to temperatures, warmup times, and taste, I couldn't detect a significant difference between the U and the Pixie models, so contrasting them comes down to aesthetics and ergonomics. If I write "the Nespresso" I mean either the U or Pixie models, interchangeably. Also, when I write "cup of coffee" versus "espresso" I'm merely referring to the volume of water pushed through the pod, though a purist would rightly distinguish between a Cafe Americano and a ridiculously over-extracted espresso. Temperatures were taken with my Extech 22-816 digital multi-meter, and weights were taken with a Philips HR2394 kitchen scale. What follows is a particularly long, perhaps overlong, review. If you couldn't care less for technical comparisons, ancillary diversions, personal opinions and supplemental recipes skip to the succinct conclusion at the end.
TEMPERATURE: Some people complain Nespresso temperatures are too low, and regarding a cup of coffee it's a fair criticism; though regarding a shot of espresso it's wrong. A shot of espresso was usually around 175� degrees Fahrenheit (though it could range from 165� to 180� - more on that later), but a cup of coffee only reached around 155�. In comparison, my Silvia's espresso temperature was around 165�, but as I can set the Silvia's PID to any arbitrary temperature, that's really only relevant as a way of saying the Nespressos are right in the ballpark for espresso. However, many people recommend coffee temperature at 155�-175�, so at 155� the Nespresso really is on the low side.
VOLUME: Because a "normal" shot of espresso is called a "double", it is possible for marketing departments to do semantic gymnastics around the term "shot of espresso" with enough ambiguity to avoid a lawsuit. Without getting into a blizzard of definitions, let me simply assert that a single is 1oz, a double is 2oz, a triple 3oz, and what you would normally get if you ordered a shot from a barrista would be 2oz "double" shot of espresso. Now for some hard numbers:
The Nespresso U had the following default shot volumes: small=0.75oz, medium=1.1oz, large=3.25oz.
The Nespresso Pixie had these default shot volumes: small=1.55oz, and large=3.5oz (no medium button).
I say "default" shot volumes because both models are easy to reprogram. And I eventually did so, practicing without a pod, until settling on 1oz single shots for the small button, and 4.5oz coffee cups for the large.
Now, a cup of coffee is obviously larger than a shot of espresso, but even more so these days. My grandma's heirloom coffee cups, circa 1970, hold 5 ounces; the smallest for sale at Starbucks is 8 ounces; and my modern coffee mugs hold 11 ounces. The Nespresso reservoir is only 30oz, so you would get just three ten ounce cups of coffee from the entire reservoir. Be warned: temperature-wise, taste-wise and capacity-wise, using the Nespresso to make "cups of coffee" means making cups of coffee sized just right for Deputy Fife in the Mayberry Diner.
ADVICE, TEMP. SURFING: Unfortunately, although the Nespresso machines do a good job of keeping the first few ounces hot, past 3 ounces temperature falls rapidly. As a practical matter, this doesn't affect me because I like the Nespresso for single shots (1oz) of espresso or small cups (4.5oz) of coffee. That gives espresso at 175� which is perfect, and coffee at 155� which is okay.
Rancilio Silvia owners learn to their dismay all about temperature variability, which is why the PID is such a popular modification. But what we've learned can help Nespresso owners, too. The technique is known as "temperature surfing" and means operating the machine in a particular way so as to give consistent and optimum temperatures.
For the Nespresso, my surfing advice is simple: always draw a large empty shot (3oz) of hot water into your cup before loading a pod and making the espresso or coffee (first tossing the hot water down the drain). This does two things. First of all, it heats the cup. Most of your expensive espresso machines have a warming tray above the boiler expressly for the purpose of keeping espresso cups hot; because a hot cup makes for better taste. The Nespresso doesn't have a warming tray, but by filling the cup with hot water you warm it up even more, plus by running a few ounces of hot water through the Nespresso you pre-heat its internal elements. My measurements consistently showed a 10� temperature increase from the first to second cups, following this technique. The first shot was typically 165� and the second was around 175�. On a couple of occasions I managed to get shots as high as 180�, but this was after dozens of consecutive pulls with hot water alone and not consistently repeatable: the fifth shot might be 180� but the sixth would be back to 175�. Eventually, after 30 minutes of experimentation the cartridge hatch on the Nespresso U model was too hot too touch, but the espresso temp. remained 175�.
WARMUP TIME: Compared to Silvia, the Nespresso is a dream: just 30 seconds from powering on to drawing a warmup shot, after which it's as warm as it's realistically going to get. Silvia's vast bulk takes at least 10 minutes to get cosy, but preferably closer to 30. As a practical matter, I turn her on when I wake up in the morning - half an hour later she's ready to give me lattes, but I still have to draw a warmup shot first. In the best case Nespresso's time from power-on to first shot of espresso is under 2 minutes; Silvia's: over 10. As a convenience factor, this should not be overlooked.
QUANTITY OF COFFEE GROUNDS: This is where I have a legitimate criticism of the Nespresso. Perhaps criticism is too strong a word, more like demystification. In any case, the criticism isn't against the Nespresso so much, as the pods.
Do a little research into the subject and you'll find that an espresso "single" is made with grounds weighing 7-8 grams/single shot, whereas cups of coffee are made with 14-16grams/liter (see Wikipedia articles on espresso and coffee_grounds). Probably not coincidentally my Philips kitchen scale tells me Nespresso pods contain 6-8 grams of coffee grounds (depending on the flavor).
Translated into English that means each Nespresso pod contains the optimum quantity of grounds for a single shot (1oz) of espresso, or a 4.5oz cup of coffee.
Compare Nespressos 6-8g of grounds to my Rancilio Silvia, for which I have three portafilter baskets with the following capacities: small=11g, medium=17g, large=22g. Most of the time I use my large triple basket and extract only double shot of espresso, which makes for a very rich shot.
Not only does "coffee theory" tell us we should be making 1oz shots, or 4.5oz cups, with a Nespresso pod's 6-8g of grounds, but my taste buds do as well. Sticking with those smaller volumes the Nespresso shot flavor compares very favorably with what I get from home-roasted beans on a super-modified Silvia. But a 2.5oz espresso from Nespresso tastes over-extracted; and an 8oz cup of coffee tastes weak, not to mention lukewarm and bitter.
Of course, taste is personal, and if you love triple lungo shots from your Nespresso, then more power to you. But before you judge, let me give you one bit of advice: try comparing one triple-shotted pod against three single-shotted pods (one pod against three) and see if the latter isn't astoundingly better.
For around ten ounces of top notch espresso Silvia costs me about a dollar a day, about ten cents per (1oz single-sized) shot. With Nespresso pods at sixty cents per 1oz single-shot pod over the course of a year the difference comes to $1800 - enough to buy that Rolls Royce of espresso machines, or at least the Mercedes Benz. Of course, the reality is I would never spend that much, I'd just over-extract the pods and suffer with worse coffee. One can't helping thinking of the ink-jet printer: manufacturers practically giving them away then selling ink for more than its weight in gold.
COFFEEDUCK PODS. One way people save money is pod adapters that can be filled at home, and I've tried the black Coffeeduck brand at seven dollars each (for the Nespresso Pixie be sure to get the black ones). The breakeven point is about 15 shots, but I'm not sure they'll last.
Be warned, the Coffeeduck pod adapters won't work with the Nespresso U or any other automatic model - only the manual models like the Nespresso Pixie. Not only do the Coffeeduck directions explicitly state this, but I mistakenly tried it before reading the fine print and they're not kidding: for one terrifying moment I thought I had ruined the Nespresso U. It's one reason to prefer the Pixie.
Getting the right grind with these is tricky. My Rancilio Rocky grinder must be set eight notches coarser than what I use for Silvia. I fill to the top, tamp with my finger, top off the grounds and finger-tamp again. I don't know how one would use these without an expensive espresso grinder, but since I do have one they let me fill my own pods for about twelve cents apiece. A considerable savings over sixty. The tradeoff is what you might imagine: time and mess from finger-tamping powdery dry grounds, then cleaning out the hot, wet, sticky grounds with a toothbrush. Still, saving fifty cents a pop, more or less, is nothing to sneeze at.
The espresso quality is top notch, every bit as good as Nespresso's Pods as long as I grind fresh and brew immediately. There is no advantage in pre-filling a bunch of them, as they go stale in less than a day just like any espresso grounds. This is one area where the Nespresso pods have a real advantage. With their airtight seal and special gases they keep fresh for, as far as I know, forever.
MILK FROTHING. First off, let me say that I absolutely adore the Aeroccino frother, and I wouldn't even consider buying a Nespresso without one. The simple reason is hot chocolate. Oh, and it's good for coffee-based milk drinks, too.
Using the Aeroccino is simplicity itself. Pour in � cup of 47� milk, press the button, and 60 seconds later it stops itself - now pour out frothy 145� milk for your cappuccino. Pour in 1 full cup of 47� milk, press the button, and 120 seconds later you have frothy 145� milk for your latte. Cleanup is 53 seconds with hot water rinse and a paper towel wipe.
Now, those are good numbers, but, in a head-to-head face-off, the Silvia really shines in this department. Unfortunately, before it shines it has to warmup. First give it 60 seconds to heat up from espresso stage to steamer stage. At that point � cup of 47� milk heats to 160� in a mere 30 seconds. Meaning that on the first � cup Silvia is 30 seconds slower than the Aeroccino but 15� hotter. Thereafter no reheat time is required, and Silvia heats twice as fast as the Aeroccino, or given the same amount of time, heats 30� warmer. Even better, if I don't care about getting the world's best micro-foam I can put a two-cup pitcher of cold milk under the Silvia and walk away, returning several minutes later to a full pint of hot, slightly frothy milk for multiple lattes. Silvia's 115 second cleanup time is twice as long as the Aeroccino's 53 seconds.
Where I expected the Aeroccino to fall short is in making quality microfoam, and to a certain extent I right to worry, but it's not as bad as I feared. If you stick with only � cup of milk you can use the larger of the two Aeroccino paddles (the unused one stores conveniently on the underside of the lid) and it gives decent foam. By the way, they aren't kidding when they say not to use the large paddle with 1 full cup of milk - I tried, and got milk all over the place, like putting too much soap in the clothes washer. Anyway, the larger paddle makes for a nice quantity of froth. It's not exactly microfoam (look it up on Wikipedia), but it's not bad. Needless to say, I can get perfect microfoam from Silvia, but to get it I have to stand there nursing the pitcher, and to be honest I don't usually bother.
COCOA. This is the Aeroccino's forte. I've been looking for something like this for years, and The Aeroccino does it. The secret is powered sugar. Nothing could be simpler. Secure the small paddle in the Aeroccino cup. Pour 1 full cup of cold milk into it. Add 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa power (I've tried Hershey's, Nestle's and Ghiradelli's). Add 1 heaping tablespoon of powdered sugar. Press the button and wait for it to finish. Two minutes later you will have a perfect, unrivalled, sublime cup of hot cocoa. Pour into a drinking mug. Add a dash of vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a dollop of whipped cream or all three. If you think it's too sweet or too chocolatey, experiment with a half-teaspoon more or less of cocoa or powdered sugar, to taste, until you reach nirvana.
After heating and frothing the cocoa might form a film on the bottom of the Aeroccino, and if you don't wipe it out with a wet paper towel before making another cup the Aeroccino might overheat, flashing red. When this happens you can sometimes ignore it, taking the Aeroccino off its base, putting it back on, and pressing the button again, repeating as necessary until it's hot enough to drink. To avoid this altogether just make sure to wipe away any cocoa film from the Aeroccino before making a second cup.
If you use granulated sugar instead of powered sugar, then about 50% of the time the small paddle will pop off the nipple inside the Aeroccino. This is because the granulated sugar falls to the bottom of the cup and interferes with the paddle's rotation before dissolving. If this happens you will see the milk stop spinning in a whirlpool and you should press the button to turn off the Aeroccino. I won't tell you to reach in and reseat the paddle with your fingers in case its too hot, but when I've done that I haven't been burned. The paddle won't fall off twice because by that time the granulated sugar will have dissolved. To avoid this, don't add the granulated sugar at first with the cocoa, but wait until the Aeroccino has finished heating and frothing. Or just use powered sugar and forget about it.
The practical upshot of this is that I now drink a cup of hot cocoa every day instead of only once a month. I make it for the kids whenever they want instead of only as a very special treat. There simply isn't any comparison to "instant cocoa" mix, whether it be Nestle Quick, Swiss Miss, or whatever. Those substitutes pale in comparison to the genuine article, as every hot chocolate connoisseur knows. In short, if there's a better way than the Aeroccino to make hot cocoa, I'd like to know what it is.
ERGONOMICS. It's here where the only real differences appear between the Nespresso Pixie versus Nespresso U. Compared to those two, Silvia is a beast. And when you add in the size of the Silvia's coffee grinder (the Rocky) along with the necessary tray for catching loose grounds, it's safe to say the Silvia easily consumes five times as much counter space as the Nespresso on its worst day. That said, see my uploaded photograph of the various machines, which is the best way to get an impression of their relative sizes.
As far as appearance goes, you know what you prefer, but for maintenance I like the smooth surface of the U versus the ridges on the Pixie. The ridges in the Pixie tend to collect coffee and milk splatters and need a meticulous scrubbing with towel or sponge to clean. Whereas the U simply wipes clean. Also, the U cleverly uses magnets to hold the cup base in place, allowing you to remove it entirely if desired. Also, the U has the delightful ability to rotate the water reservoir off to either side or directly behind, letting you customize it to your space. Both the U and the Pixie have a place underneath for storing excess power cord.
Unfortunately for the U, I was much less pleased with its "automatic" pod handling. First of all, whenever the pod latch was opened the U eventually pumped hot water. Whether or not any pod was inserted. And not necessarily right away, but when the machine has warmed up, which might take 35 seconds. More than once I was startled by scalding hot water suddenly running out of the spout when my back was turned, because I had plugged it in, fiddled with the latch to see if anything was happening, wondered if it was, decided it wasn't, and forgot about it until whoops! better find a cup.
Also, against the U, it had a considerable amount of leakage into the drip tray on every shot: 13ml, to be precise. And as the overflow cup is only 260ml that means after 20 shots your overflow cup overfloweth. It made quite a mess before I worked that out. The Pixie doesn't have that problem, leaking perhaps 1ml per shot.
Worse, the automatic pod loader on the U jams up when trying to use the Coffeeduck adapter pods. Coffeeduck warns you about this, but I didn't read the fine print and tried it anyway, and it jammed. Because the U doesn't have a manual open, I wasn't sure how I was going to get the old pod out as I couldn't open the hatch, jiggling it with increasing desperation it finally broke free. Then, just to be sure, I did the same all over again - with the same result. In contrast, the Pixie is easy to open and when a Coffeeduck gets occasionally stuck a simple flick of the fingernail will break it loose. Considering that "automatic loading" just means not having to pull a simple lever, it's hard to understand why you'd want it. Mainly for aesthetics, I think, to get rid of the lever. But I'm a guy - I like levers.
AMERICANO VS. LONG BLACK. There are two ways to get a Mayberry sized 4.5oz "cup of coffee" from the Nespresso: the obvious way and the better way. The obvious way is to program your large button for 4.5 ounces, stick in a pod, hit it, and drink what comes out. It tastes exactly like you'd expect from pushing 4.5oz of (under-heated) steam through 1oz worth of espresso grounds: over-extracted, weak and bitter espresso.
Fortunately there's a better way: it's called "The Americano", and it's the way Silvia has always made cups of coffee for my many beloved ancestors who haven't yet cottoned on to these Frou-Frou lattes and expressos (sic). An Americano, for those who don't know, is just a shot of espresso with enough hot water to make a full cup. It's surprisingly good. The Long Black is even better, and is made in the reverse order by adding the shot of espresso to the hot water, preserving more crema.
To make a Long Black with the Nespresso is simplicity itself. Just program your small button for 1oz and your large for 3.5oz. After warming up the machine and your glass pour 3.5oz hot water into your cup by pressing the large button with no pod loaded. Then load the pod, wait 15 seconds, and press the small button to add a great single shot (1oz) of espresso to the hot water. Voila, a Long Black.
Earlier today I did a side-by-side comparison of a 4.5oz Long Black made on the Pixie (1oz espresso shot added to 3.5oz hot water) versus a simple 4.5oz shot through a single pod. As expected, the Long Black was smoother and sweeter. In exchange for a slight decrease in "strength" there is a large decrease in bitterness. If a stronger cup is desired, I'd suggest trying a Long Black made from 5oz water and two single shots (2x1oz) of espresso.
CONCLUSION. I'm a coffee snob who's spent countless hours roasting his own beans and nursing great espresso out of his (relatively) expensive and finicky Rancilio Silvia. I really wanted to hate the Nespresso, but I just couldn't. As long as one respects the limits imposed by a mere 7grams of coffee grounds per pod, the Nespresso U and Pixie machines are fine espresso makers. I got both to review and between them decided to keep the Pixie mostly because of its compatibility with the money-saving Coffeeduck adapter pods. The Nespresso's quick warmup time lets my non-coffee-snob wife make herself a quick pick-me-up, something she wasn't willing to do with slow and fussy Silvia. On the downside, respecting limits means pushing no more than 1oz of water through the pod: a "single" shot of espresso, perhaps added to no more than 3.5oz of hot water if making a "long black" cup of coffee. As long as one makes a pod-less warmup shot first, 1oz espresso shots are perfectly hot at 175�; and 4.5oz cups of coffee are acceptably hot at 155�. The Aeroccino makes quick work of foaming � cup milk for a cappuccino, and it does a fantastic job of making 1 full cup of hot cocoa - add in the package discount and I would never consider buying a Nespresso without an Aeroccino. Price-wise, the Nespresso package costs well under 1/3rd of my Rancilio Silvia/Rocky combo, but taste-wise they aren't that far apart. On the other hand, the pods are considerably more expensive than raw beans so years from now you may wish you'd saved your quarters and gotten a high-end espresso machine to begin with.
NOTE REGARDING FROTHER: This review includes my take on the Aeroccino frother, even though it isn't part of this particular package. I would always opt for the frother package with the Pixie, and because of that I took 1 star off my rating for this frother-less package.
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Product Detail
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 4.4 x 9.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
- ASIN: B008TUWP24
- Item model number: C60-US-SS-NE
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,898 in Kitchen & Dining (See Top 100 in Kitchen & Dining)
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