ALDI Pod Coffee Machine And Coffee Capsules Super Deal

Hi There,

We were in ALDI today and they are doing a special on Pod Coffee machines this weekend.

 

It comes in 3 colours and is £49 which is pretty cheap by any standards.  As with all ALDI deals this will be a one off for the time being and once the machines are gone, they won't be back for a long time.

Although, I don't need a machine, having recently bought one, they had some coffee capsules 10 for £1.70 and as the machine said it was Nespresso compatible I bought some two packs of the capsules, and a capsule holder for £3.49.

However, when I went to make a cup of the strong ALCAFE INTENSE category 9 coffee:

the machine made some rather odd noises and didn't appear to give me as much of a cup as I expected, although it tasted very strong and was a good cup of coffee.  It wasn't until I was emptying the machine that I realised there must have been a problem.  The pod receiving tray, was 1/3 full of coffee and water, which accounted for my low measure with the ALCAFE INTENSE coffee pod.  

So what was the problem?

Looking at the top of the coffee pod shows its identical to Nespresso capsules in size and shape, so no issues there:

But looking at the back of the capsule, tells a whole different story.  New espresso and Nespresso capsules have a round protruding back as can be seen below:

When they are used this back is pushed in by the machine and 3 sharp prongs puncture the back of the capsule and the machine also breaks into the front foil as can be see below.

In this way the machine can force hot water 'under pressure' through the coffee pod to make the coffee.

Unfortunately, the ALCAFE INTENSE coffee pods have a rigid indented back so the espresso and Nespresso machine spikes cannot pierce the back and therefore cannot force the water through the capsule properly.

Therefore. If like me you thought that these relatively cheap ALDI coffee cartridges were compatible with your Nespresso machine as they come out of the packet, they are not.  This is a shame as it appears to be good tasting coffee.

Luckily for me, my machine appears to have a pressure failsafe mechanism built into it, and when it could not force the hot pressured steam through the capsule, it pushed it into the capsules catching tray inside the machine.  It dealt with the safely.

The next question is what to do with the other remaining 18 x capsules now my Dog Bree has very efficiently chewed up the boxes, I don't think I can take them back loose ;-)

I hope you find this Blog entry useful.  I certainly have.  Rest assured I will think up a suitable fixed1t solution to use the spare 18 pods.



If these are no longer in ALDI as it may have been one of their 'One Off' sales.  I now have the KRUPS Nespresso Inissia and love it:

Its cheap small and easy to use, I'd throughly recommend it and my #fixed1tMONEYSAVINGtips make it all the better as can be seen in my fixed1t YouTube playlist

#fixed1tNESPRESSOtips

Making Tea With Your Nespresso Style Capsule Coffee Machine

Nespresso coffee pod style machines are expensive to run with coffee capsules in boxes of 10 and for the majority of cases, always expensive. 

There are a range of machines and makers, the machine I purchased and used in my experiments is the Espressina Pod Machine

Espressina Pod Coffee Machine

The best known coffee machine is Nespresso, from the George Cloon ads fame.  They differ from the others in offering a wide range of coffees, with regular marketings of specialist coffees (at specialist prices).  Quite often people purchase these machines or are given these machines as presents for the quality of the coffee they produce, but also the convenience of filling it, switching it on, putting in the pod and hitting the button.  For people with busy lives they are a welcome relief.

So if the coffee is expensive, and I'm boiling a kettle constantly to make tea, then this machine isn't as useful or functional as I first thought, right?

What drew me to this machine was its marketing that it could make coffee and Tea, so I tried some of their tea, 

Tespresso - English Breakfast Tea

Unfortunately, I didn't like it.  I personally like my tea weak and not full of Tannin, but I found their tea was like water.  

The fact that they did Tea pods at all, made me think and I decided to experiment, I like experimenting.

• So opened up one of the espresso Plastic Coffee Capsules, empty it, and then fill it with tea.  I tried this and ended up with a mess.  

• Then I thought why not just put a tea bag in the pod and put it in the machine

This worked but it wasn't quite as simple as that, as I explain in my video.

I hope you like the video and share it with other people you know with Nespresso Pod using coffee machines.  I now make all my cups of tea using this method, its:

• quick
• reliable
• clean

I can throughly recommend it, especially as it saves money on expensive coffee pods.

 #fixed1tMONEYSAVINGtips



After getting a lot of capsule leakage from the Espresso Machine.

I now have the KRUPS Nespresso Inissia and love it

Its cheap small and easy to use, I'd throughly recommend it and my #fixed1tMONEYSAVINGtips make it all the better as can be seen in my fixed1t YouTube playlist

#fixed1tNESPRESSOtips