Nespresso CitiZ

When Nespresso contacted me asking if I wanted to review their red CitiZ machine, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I started dabbling in coffee late last year (starting with a coffee press and beans from illy and Trader Joes) but I’ve never made cappuccinos or espressos at home because I don’t have the right equipment. Making coffee at home is a struggle, anyway, because 1. the clean up is a hassle with a coffee press (coffee grounds that don’t go down the sink), 2. it takes too much time for the coffee to get ready (I read that it takes seven minutes before the coffee is ready for stirring so that’s what I do) and 3. I usually can’t finish the entire container of coffee before it gets stale (or loses its aroma). Well, this Nespresso solves basically all of my problems:

I love the color because it matches my other appliances (my KitchenAid mixer and my Sodastream) and because it’s so easy to use. The Nespresso came with a ton of pods that contain the coffee so there’s no mess and practically no clean up involved, either. The machine has a handy water container that you fill up so you don’t have to fill it everyday:

The espresso is finished in about a minute and this is all you have to clean up:

The pods all have different flavors with varying levels of caffeine (there are decaffeinated pods, too!) The regular flavors are about 55 cents each and the specialty flavors are around 62 cents per pod. I’ve read some complaints that the pods are expensive, but if you think about how much you spend at Starbucks each day, the pods are super cheap. I go through a pod a day and I keep the machine at Ken’s place because he loves using it as well.

Pros:
– Easy to use; we didn’t even read the instructions before starting to play with it
– Very fast; we usually don’t have that much time in the mornings and this machine takes less than two minutes from start to finish
– No clean up; the pods are clean and we never have to deal with coffee grounds
– Small; it doesn’t take up that much coveted counter space!

Cons:
– Loud; the first time Ken ran the machine, it woke me up from the other room (I’m used to the noise now)
– Temperature; the espresso comes out at the perfect temperature so if you put milk in it, the espresso becomes a little warm. The model we have at our office comes with a milk frother (which solves the temperature problem at work) but at home, we have to heat up the milk.

The things I dislike about the machine are very minor and I really think the machine is great. Some other people complained that the pods aren’t customizable but I think the flavors are so great that Ken and I are huge fans of the machine and have been using it everyday since I received it from Nespresso!