I grew up in a household where coffee was taken seriously. My father is Italian — Milanese, specifically — and the morning espresso was not a casual affair. The right grind, the right pressure, the right cup, the right temperature. I absorbed all of this without really thinking about it, and then I moved to the UK at twenty-four and spent the better part of a decade being quietly disappointed by coffee.
Not all of it. There are good coffee shops in this country, and I found them. But at home, I'd been compromising. A cafetière with whatever beans were on offer at the supermarket, or instant when I was in a rush, which was most mornings. Neither was right. Neither was what I actually wanted.
I bought a Nespresso machine three years ago and it changed things considerably. But I'd been rotating through different pods without settling on one, and the inconsistency was its own kind of frustration. Some mornings were good. Some weren't. I wanted every morning to be the same.
Why Ristretto
The Ristretto is Nespresso's most intense original blend — intensity level 10, which is the top of the original range. It's a blend of South American and East African beans, roasted to bring out a woody, slightly bitter character with a dense, syrupy body. A ristretto shot is shorter than a standard espresso — less water through the same amount of coffee — which concentrates the flavour and reduces the bitterness that comes from over-extraction.
I'd tried the Ristretto before in a coffee shop and recognised it immediately as the closest thing I'd had in the UK to what I grew up with. Dense, dark, with a crema that holds for longer than a lighter roast. When I found the Nespresso Ristretto pods in a 50-capsule pack, the decision was straightforward. Fifty capsules across five sleeves, long expiry, consistent quality. This was the solution to the inconsistency problem.
The Morning Routine Now
I make two ristretto shots every morning. The machine takes about twenty-five seconds per shot. I drink them standing at the kitchen counter, which is how my father drinks his espresso and how I've always felt it should be done — not at a desk, not while doing something else, just standing, drinking, waking up properly before the day starts.
The consistency across the 50-capsule pack has been exactly what I needed. Every shot pulls the same way — the same crema, the same intensity, the same finish. There's no variation between capsules, no off days. When you're building a morning ritual around something, consistency is the whole point.
The flavour is exactly what I want from an espresso: bold without being harsh, bitter in the right way rather than the wrong way, with a finish that lingers for a few minutes. It's not a subtle coffee. It's not meant to be. It's meant to wake you up and taste like something, and it does both.
Stocking Up Properly
The 50-capsule pack is the right way to buy these. I used to buy single sleeves of ten and run out at inconvenient moments — the specific misery of reaching for a pod on a Monday morning and finding an empty sleeve is something I've now eliminated entirely. Five sleeves lasts me comfortably through a month of daily use, and the long expiry means there's no pressure to get through them quickly.
At £45.40 for 50 capsules it works out at just under 91p per pod. Two pods a day is £1.82 for what is, genuinely, a better espresso than most coffee shops in my area produce. The economics of a good home coffee setup are considerably better than people assume.
Who This Is For
Anyone with a Nespresso machine who wants a bold, intense espresso and hasn't found their permanent blend yet. Anyone who's been rotating through pods without settling. Anyone who grew up with proper espresso and has been quietly disappointed by everything since. And anyone who wants to stop running out of pods at the worst possible moment — 50 capsules solves that problem definitively.
You can find the Nespresso Ristretto 50-capsule pack here. If you're exploring more, these collections are worth a browse:
Every morning, the same. That's what I wanted. That's what I have.
— Luca Marchetti, Edinburgh
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