Amazon Brand (Solimo) Compatible Nespresso Coffee PODs Review

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When you see the price of these compatible Nespresso pods made by Amazon, it makes you realise how much profit Nespresso must make on their own original pods.

These replacement pods will work perfectly in your Nespresso machine and will taste similar to the original Nespresso pods but they are an absolute steal compared to what you normally pay from Nespresso.

The Solimo brand from Amazon have 3 different types of pods available that will fit into your Nespresso machine. Ristretto, Espresso and Lungo

Ristretto is the strongest with a strength rating of 4/5 followed by the Espresso pods with a strength rating of 3/5 and then finally the Lungo pods with a strength rating of 3/5 as well.

This particular review is for the Ristretto pod and is the one we would recommend because the pricing is so competitive that you should go for the strongest version as you will probably find them to be slightly weaker than the strongest Nespresso original capsules.

For example, if you normally go for one of Nespresso’s “Intenso” capsules like Kazaar, Roma, Arpeggio or Dharkan then its best to go for these Ristretto capsules.

The Nespresso capsules cost in the region of 4 or 5 times as much as these and as an owner myself of Nespresso coffee machines for many years I used to always use 2 Nespresso capsules every time I had a coffee anyway because there just wasn’t enough coffee in one individual pod.

The seemingly most obvious thing to do if you don’t have enough coffee in your cup after using one pod is to just keep your finger on the button to push more water through to top it up to your desired level but that’s actually a bad idea and will adversely affect the flavour of your coffee because you are over extracting the coffee, diluting it and watering it down.

A good tip for getting the best flavour our of any coffee pod is not to push more water through an existing pod to get more coffee in your cup, but to use two pods instead on the default setting.

The default setting is specifically set to give you just the right amount of water for the capsule you are using so if we are using the Nespresso terminology of “Intenso” and “Espresso” you should press the button that delivers the least amount of water which by default is 40ml and that will give you the best flavour.

If you are using a Lungo capsule then press the Lungo button once which by default delivers 100ml of water which is great for an Americano type of black coffee.

Don’t be tempted to press the water button again whilst the capsule is still in the machine because you’ll effectively be pushing water through a pod that has already been used.

You would never take a used capsule out of the used capsule drawer and put it in again but that is what you are doing if you push more water than the default through any pod.

If you use Lungo capsules and you want to top it up with more water then eject the capsule first then add more water and you will get a much better flavour.

To get a decent sized coffee you will probably have to use two capsules and when you are using Nespresso original capsules then that can add up to quite a lot of money especially if like me you drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day.

If 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day sounds a lot then take a look at this article which explains that coffee is in fact good for you.

Because these compatible capsules cost about 15% of the price of the Nespresso oriiginal’s I found that adding 1 extra pod over and above what you normally do is going to give you pretty much an identical strength to what you get from the Nespresso pods and you can happily do that with every coffee that you drink and still save a fortune over buying the Nespresso pods.

So if you normally use 1 Nespresso pod then use 2 of these and if you normally use 2 Nespresso pods then use 3 of these in each cup of coffee you drink.

If you do that then the strength and flavour is going to be extremely similar to the Nespresso pods that you won’t be able to tell the difference.

If you are sceptical as to how Amazon can do their own pods that are a fraction of the cost of the Nespresso pods but still be able to achieve a flavour profile that is as good as Nespresso we will explain why.

No shops

Amazon operate completely online and do not have any expensive shops with staff to pay and high shop rents to pay for with all of the other shop overheads that eat into profit and have to be added to the cost of the capsules that the end user (you) has to pay for.

No specific marketing

You will see Nespresso television ads and magazine ads and adverts on bus stop billboards. You pay for that through the cost of the pods. You will never see Amazon advertising their coffee pods and that saving gets passed over to you in the form of cheaper pods.

No George Clooney

George Clooney is one of the most famous actors in the world and Nespresso hire him to promote their coffee. They pay him a LOT of money and that cost gets added to the price of the pods.

No fancy packaging

Have you noticed how nice the packaging is on the Nespresso original pods with shiny, strong cardboard tubes and how the capsules are also fancy? All this gets added to the price.

The packaging on these compatible pods is plainer and that gets passed on to you by way of a lower cost per pod.

Would you rather have a nice looking pod that costs more or as long as the coffee tastes good you are not bothered what the packaging or pod looks like?

Less profit margin

On top of all that, Nespresso like to make good money from their coffee and Amazon also want to make money but are prepared to make less because customer satisfaction is the most important thing.

Hopefully the above 5 points explains why you can confidently buy these Amazon compatible Nespresso coffee pods and enjoy a high quality cup of coffee but pay an awful lot less for the pleasure.

Last update on 2024-03-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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