After beer, rum, brandy, and tea, coffee is my favourite beverage to consume in large quantities. Especially during the morning, when drinking the first three in public is generally frowned upon. The only reason I prefer tea over coffee, is that I don't like instant coffee, and up until now that was the only way I could drink it in the comfort of my own home, so I often didn't.
That was until last weekend, when we spoilt ourselves and bought a Nespresso coffee machine. We chose the basic U machine and Aeroccino bundle, as it was on sale, and because it offers three different lengths or cup sizes; ristretto, espresso and lungo. We'd also used a machine like this on our last trip to Cape Town, and had enjoyed the relative ease of producing a delicious coffee each morning.
Unfortunately our first machine leaked, so this weekend we ended up taking it back and replacing it for another, non-leaking machine. While we were waiting for the staff to test our returned machine, and sort out the paperwork so we could get another one, we were approached by the Dolce Gusto sales rep.
Sadly upon arriving home, and un-boxing the machine, we discovered that it had several deep scratches on it. We promptly repacked it, and took it back to the retailer in order to exchange it. Fortunately the manager was willing to exchange the machine, and we insisted on opening the replacement while still at the store to make sure everything was in order. It was, and we went home with our third machine.
After setting up the Nespresso machine, and getting it ready to brew our first cup of coffee, we discovered that the set of 16 sample capsules bore the expiry date of 30 September 2013, only two days later! Clearly the new machine we received was older stock, as the sample pack contained a Finezzo Lungo capsule, the flavour that was phased out early this year.
While bleak about the eminent expiry of our coffees, even though the expiry date is merely a guide line, we were quite excited at the prospect of being able to taste the discontinued flavour. I made a cup of coffee with the coveted yellow capsule, and took a sip. It was rather disappointing, in fact it lacked flavour, and was quite insipid for an espresso. Em didn't like it much either, which is saying something since she tends to like the lower end of the intensity range. I had initial wondered if some of the flavours had escaped this particular capsule due to its age. After brewing another cup of coffee from the batch of sample capsules, we discovered that that could not be the case, as the fresh coffee had all the familiar flavours of the coffee we'd been enjoyinh in Cape Town. So in hind sight, there must have been a reason the Finezzo Lungo was discontinued in the first place, and it's probably to do with it's lack of flavour, and potentially it's popularity too.
