lol, i should have seen this earlier.
i have tried most of the pod system. (im lucky enough i have a number of offices, so i can put a different one in each and in the process, test it for myself
)
in short, it boils down to this:
for ultimate taste, go for a E.S.E system if you want something bigger than standard espresso. otherwise, go with Nespresso.
i will briefly explain each one i tried:
i started off with Dolce Gusto a couple of years ago, got it from costco on the cheap. but after a few weeks i notice the coffee/drink really doesnt taste that good. it lacks the polish/relax/feel good factor. the milk pod is good, but it's definitely a milk powder type milk. some of my people dont like it at all.
then i went onto Nespresso, knowing that it makes no difference to taste which ever machine i got. i bought their one of their cheapest design by magimix just for the test. taste is definitely very good. but it only does one size (well, two if you count lungo as well). another down side is, unlike other machine, it doesnt offer milk pods, so you need a fridge. In office environment, some time is hard to have a fridge in meeting rooms.
next one up is Tassimo T55, i like how costa and starbucks (at the time, but now they switched) makes pods for them. might just be brand effect but clients and visitor are often find them quite posh. bigger sized coffee definitely taste above-average. espresso is not so great. i think it's down to the pressure (less than 15 bar+ used in other machines). and it splashed everywhere when it makes foamy drinks. they also offer a better milk pods, taste abit creamy-ish (which some people don't like). strangely, the tassimo is the only one that ever jammed out of the lot. but it was no big deal, just pull the plug and empty the whole lot and start again.
then i moved house, so i bought a ESE machine from delonghi. it has the steam forth pipe on the side for making very decent forth. this one is by far the best tasting machine as it uses ESE pods OR any coffee beans you happened to have in the house. for home use (when i actually try to relax over weekends, i think this is most suited). the only downside and it's a big one, cleaning up after use is a total nightmare and prepare time is also very long.
shortly after i got my own machine, the philips one went on sale, so i bought one from viking office supply. while it's not bad, but choices are very limited and soem times hard to find the pods. i dont rate this one very high. it didnt even give me that "special toy" moment, i gave it away to one of the guys in the office.
about a year ago, starbucks left the Tassimo system and joined the K-cup system which originated by Aldi in germany. It was originally sold by Tesco as one of the cheaper alternative too nescafe Dolce Gusto. Once Starbucks joined, they repackaged it and sold it for a lot more. taste wise, it's not too bad, but again, not much refinement with the drinks. i think starbucks changed the formula, so it doesnt quite taste as good as it did with Tassimo.
few months ago, i got a new office, so i went and got another one which is fairly new to the market, the new illy Francis range. i got the Y1, and it's quite a looker. so thats the one i have now currently in my room. taste is fair, not as good as their previous system ESE, but fair abit easier to use. the other thing is that, this one actually give very hot coffee. most of the other ones will not give proper hot coffee.
at one point we actually rented one of those commerical version of nespresso machine. it uses coffee discs rather than pods. to me, the taste is the same. i think they re-dsign the pod to be a disc so in a busy environment, the waste is more compacted. but given the cost, i dont think it's worth it. i much rather buy a couple of cheapish ones from the normal range and use the pods.
EDIT: i dont think £100 is enough for bean-to-cup machines. i think they are definitely a level above pod machines (if people can cycle to beans fast enough, rather than lettign the beans sit in the loader for months)
