Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Nespresso Goroka Review


At Isabel i have nowadays the possibility of brewing an espresso on a (super cheap second hands) canary yellow Francis Francis espresso machine.
Before last weekend there was only this very small and cheap Magimix Nespresso machine. Although i had my hesitations about this system, i did not have high expectations and wishing on those lazy Sunday mornings and so i was satisfied with their strongest capsule (Ristretto) mixed with warm milk from my Bodum milk frother. A good Barista needs to be creative enough to get satisfying results with a minimum of equipment. ;-)

And so again Nespresso surprised me with their 'Monsooned Malabar' capsules half a year ago. Not the real stuff of course, but again drinkable. Let's say, with a pre warmed cup and 25 seconds extraction it was above amateur espresso machine brews. Not to be too critical about the average home 'barista', but most home single origin (expl : from one certain bean and not as a blend) shots are not my cup of tea/coffee - sorry.

And now Nespresso launches a Grand Cru Limited Edition called Goroka, or a Papua New Guinea Single Origin. When the average Monsooned Malabar is a nice bean, but not too overloaded with taste, a Papua New Guinea is a bit more complex and it is most difficult to press all their tastes into an espresso. In the cupping we mostly discover lots of fruit like prune, apricot, oranges and lime, but the overkill of acidity quickly ruins our espresso experience.
So, a far too difficult task for the Nestlé boys? Yes indeed. The espresso cup shows nothing of the promised prune and fruit ; at least not on this machine. It didn't taste that bad in the beginning, but the aftertaste was very sourish, sticking on the tongue.
Then i tried to take the fine ground out of the capsule - Medium Roast, and prepare a small cupping bowl with it. The cup showed more real New Guinea and cleanliness, but of course way off the 'real' stuff.

Conclusion : a too ambitious project that, in my opinion, scares of more costumers than it attracts. I don't know the exact bean(s) they use for this Goroka, but probably a cheap one, to sell it with big margins : 35cent a capsule (7 grams?) is very expensive. That makes let's say 140 times 35ct or plus minus 49 euros a kilo. I don't wanna talk about margins, but count high, very high.
Cheers, Mister Clooney.

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