The world of coffee drinking has evolved massively from popping a spoonful of freeze-dried granules into a cup and adding hot water. Proper ground coffee is now available at the push of a button and one of the percolated powerhouses to do this is Nespresso.
For decades now, it has offered pod coffee to the masses but over the last 10 years it has introduced the Vertuo range, which uses a bigger capsule and offers more drink sizes as a result.
One of the newest machine to use these pods is the Nespresso Vertuo Pop. I've been using this Vertuo Pop for a number of weeks now - here are 5 things to know...
1. The design is compact and fantastic looking
The first thing I noticed about the Vertuo Pop was the size of the thing - it's cute and compact. Putting it next to the Vertuo Next, which has been a mainstay in my office, it's got a far smaller footprint. It looks like the Next, just squished in at the edges, measuring 13.6 (w) x 42.6 (d) x 25cm (h).
Just because it is smaller in size, though, doesn't make it any less solid. There's a nice weight to the machine at 3.5kg which means that it doesn't wobble or anything when making the coffee.
The smaller size does mean that the water tank capacity is now reduced to 600ml (around two big cups of coffee) and there's only room for eight pods in the bin, so I did find myself emptying that and filling up the water more frequently.
2. Nespresso finally embraces colour
The Nespresso Vertuo Pop review unit I received was a cream one. It's a great colour that reminded us of a macchiato, with its white top and black base.
There are loads more colours available, though, making the Pop, well, 'pop' in its environment. You can also choose aqua mint, spicy red, Pacific blue and mango yellow.
All of these come with the same black base, with the colour on top and look great. It's lovely to see Nespresso adding a bit of colour to its line-up.
3. Fussy about coffee? There are plenty of pods to choose from
When it comes to Nespresso, it's always hard to choose a machine that takes the smaller pods or go all-in on the Vertuo capsules.
I think the obvious choice is Vertuo as the bigger capsule means that there are four drink sizes to choose from: espresso (40ml), double espresso (80ml), gran lungo (120ml) and mug (230ml).
Add to this some 40 coffee categories to choose from and what you have is a veritable variety box of joe to choose from.
4. The coffee making process is simple, coffee quality decent
Everything you need to do with the Nespresso Vertuo Pop is done with one button. You press one button to make the coffee, multiple press it to clean the machine and that's pretty much it.
The Vertuo Pop Capsule slip into the top of the device, which is easy to lift up with straightforward visual instructions guiding you how to do this on the top of the machine.
The water container is also easy to fill - as it is on the outside of the machine it's clear to see when you are getting close to it being filled up.
There's also a drip tray on the front of the machine. I found that this kind of just rests near the machine rather than clipping nicely to it. I think the reason for this is that if you are a big mug coffee drinker, then you will be moving it frequently - that's because the compact nature of the coffee machine means that mugs can only fit under the nozzle when this is taken away.
It's not an issue, but does feel like the drip tray was an afterthought, rather than integral to the overall design.
5. It's a connected coffee machine
I wasn't expecting any smart home smarts with the Vertuo Pop but this is a machine that you can connect to, using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Once done, and you have downloaded the app, it will inform you about updates and, the best bit, is that it reminds you to descale your Nespresso machine - something that's easy to forget and essential if you want the thing to keep working for a long time.
Nespresso Vertuo Pop: Final Verdict
Given that the full price of the Nespresso Vertuo Pop is £99 - come the sales, you can usually find it for nearly half that price - this coffee machine is an essential buy.
Its smaller footprint means it's ideal for those that don't have too much space. Given the colours on show, though, even though it's not a space hugger this is one coffee machine that certainly stands out.
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