For many, Nespresso is the ultimate gadget to catch a glimpse of early morning, and for some, it’s the anathema of coffee nerdery. One can’t overlook the popularity of single-use coffee pods, especially in a country like India where coffee consumption is on the rise. It has taken years but Nestle India will launch the premium coffee brand in India this year, complete with Nespresso coffees and machines while a boutique will also be opened, first in Delhi, before expanding to other cities.
In many ways, Nespresso is like the iPhone camera. You point, snap and come away with a memory using the iPhone. Similarly, when you yearn for a cafe-style espresso, you get it within a few seconds. It’s one of coffee technology’s great success stories and has become a global multi-billion-dollar business.
India’s premiumisation wave
Nespresso is the most convenient caffeine delivery solution. The user has to purchase a coffee machine that can work with Nespresso pods, which need to be inserted into a chamber. Fill the water chamber and push the ‘espresso’ button to see black gold flowing into a cup within seconds. It’s hot enough to be enjoyed anytime of the day and there is a wide range of coffee available.
George Clooney has been the face of Nespresso for decades
According to National Coffee Association, Americans drink an estimated 491 million cups of coffee each day and the way they drink has changed drastically. We will come to that later. The British Coffee Association says that 98 million cups of coffee were consumed each day in the UK in 2022. India continues to be a market of tea drinkers. Here, on an average about 30 cups of coffee per annum per person are consumed, which is much less than the average global figure of 200 cups. The other side of the story involves the growing disposal incomes and time youngsters are spending at cafes. It is this wave Nespresso can ride with what the English barista James Hoffmann calls the “microwave meal” of the coffee industry.
People are willing to pay more for coffee and there are a number of brands doing brisk business selling coffee beans. With Nespresso, the range of capsules is vast to the point it can be compared to learning about different regions of wine — the more you explore, fondness grows.
Looking for simplicity
You may wonder if Nespresso is only about convenience. The answer is complicated. In 1975, an engineer named Eric Favre took a trip to Rome soon after starting to work at Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. After a visit to Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè, he wanted to develop a machine that could offer a decent cup of espresso but conveniently. At an espresso bar, machines are expensive and so is coffee.
The dream was to give customers a machine into which a sealed pod containing coffee slips in and the design ensures greater aeration. A needle-like spout would pierce one end of the pod and hot water got pumped through the needle at high pressure. As pressure increased, the foil would be forced against a spiked plate, bursting it inwards.
If you look at a modern Nespresso pod, you will see aluminium-bodied capsules and there is a foil lining on the top. There are many other capsules in the market that look similar but Nespresso is somewhat special (and has quite a few patents). Look at the underside of the capsule and you will see a silicon gasket that keeps the pod in place when placed inside the machine, ensuring the water doesn’t go all over the place. Three little piercings takes place in three places for hot water to get pushed through. The boiler in a Nespresso machine can get very hot and very quickly, which is required. What’s magical about this is that you pull shots that are consistent in taste and experience.
All this happens at the blink of an eye, which makes Nespresso akin to a MacBook. Nespresso doesn’t challenge artisanal methods that are expensive and takes time but not everyone has time to spare. Consider this: You can build a gaming PC but you can also buy a gaming laptop.
There are people who enjoy a moka pot in the morning or use an Aeropress to get good results but there are customers who want from the Nespresso machine what they want from technology — simplicity. We are looking at a crowd that doesn’t ask whether Nespresso delivers espresso. The answer to this question, in fact, depends on who you ask. Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano will have a different rule as to what makes an espresso. We can only keep arguing about it.
Nespresso can deliver an enjoyable cup of coffee within seconds
Doors are open for competition
Thanks to George Clooney and David Beckham, Nespresso has become a household name in the West. In the US, in 2011, only 7 per cent had single-serve brewing system in their homes but, by 2020, the number reached 40 per cent. Keurig and Nestle are responsible for making the single-serve philosophy popular but outside America, not many talk about Keurig. Perhaps that will change in the coming years. Perhaps Indian companies will give the single-serve capsule business a push.
What Nespresso in India needs is a Clooney or Beckham. They helped gallop the sale of a concept. Nespresso is now a great gift item. Drip coffee makers are facing tough competition. Clooney has been the international face of Nespresso since 2006 and, since last year, Beckham chimed in because he could appeal to an entirely new consumer demographic.
It sounds great to talk about Nespresso in terms of the MacBook. But we need to see how Nespresso pods get recycled in India and the degree to which independent coffee makers manage to handle the pod revolution because... patents, patents and more patents are with Nespresso.