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Comment by bigd | Hacker News Reader

This is so sad. Really? I know there's market for the non original coffee, but Is already non-trivial to find a decent taste, that is compatible and is cheaper than the original. Do they really need this stuff?? How much is going to cost? Because, honestly, sooner or later brewing it will become convenient again.

TLDR: Buying nespresso feels like buying cigarettes, isn't that enough?

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At $0.75 per pod vs. $0.15 = $0.25 per shot of espresso you would pay down the roughly $400 difference between a Nepresso machine and a proper Rancilio Silvia in about 800 uses. Maybe a year elapsed time if you drink 2-3 cups per day. And the espresso machine will make a much better drink and probably last much longer.

Pod machines are the "razor blade" and "printer ink" model taken to coffee. Yes you are being exploited.

If you try to cheap out with the espresso machine, I'd say go for pods. "Consumer-grade espresso machine" is worst of all possible worlds.

I'd say that capsule machines cater to the people that don't want to spend time making their coffee. For them, I'd rather recommend a good super automatic than a manual like the Rancilio.

There's no cheaping out.

Either you pay upfront, or you get dimmed with ink jet coffee (pun intended) until it's way more expensive.

er, really curious.. would a moka pot be considered a viable alternative? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot

no, it doesn't produce the same kind of coffee

It is very viable alternative! Contrary to sibling I think difference between Moka vs Espresso and Pods vs Espresso is about the same. And I suppose the marginal gain from buying expensive espresso over moka would not be that big for you.

But moka is: cheap, easy to clean, lasts forever, takes virtually no space and about as fast as my kettle.

Great example machine. The Silvia I use has made 10-15,000 coffees. It has had 2 services at $50NZ each, and came with a grinder. Both together cost $1000 about 15 years ago. Its cheap to run and excellent to use.

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