Coffee Excellence

At squint central UK we run on coffee (and of course tea with milk). When I arrived the only coffee available was the "flavia" stuff many here thought was "quite good" (they are rather new to coffee in this tea drinking nation). I found this stuff (I hesitate to call it coffee, more like brown water) undrinkable. So we, the admin staff, bought an "espresso" machine. It was red and had no name. Its coffee pods were generic and the "Italian Espresso" was OK. The machine broke down a number of times, but they are a handy lot here, and it was resuscitated time and again. Finally before Christmas this year it finally passed on, it shuffled off this mortal coil and is making OK coffee for the choir invisible.

After much debate and numerous phone calls Nespresso honored us by delivering a "corporate" machine. It is beautiful. It works flawlessly and its design exudes excellence. I am most impressed. The water tank is larger than the one we have at home, more importantly it fits perfectly beneath the spigot of the water filter machine that it stands next to (see lower picture). The crank handle closes on the coffee capsule with a satisfying crunch and ejects the spent capsule when lifted. The espresso cups (acquired from Nespresso) are perfectly sized for the three (short, med and long) measures of elixir provided by the machine.

The coffee capsules differ from the home version (apparently to prevent theft) and are tightly compressed, flying saucer shaped, foil enclosed delicacies that fit into the slot on top perfectly.

And then there's the coffee itself. Hot, rich, dark with just the perfect amount of foam. Excellence in any form is what I value. 

The machine and it's capsules

Side view, it stands to the right of the water machine.