The Nespresso Citiz is a great example of the modern range of Nespresso machines. It offers a way to brew great coffee at a fairly affordable price while also having a small, sleek, and eminently usable form factor.
With a machine like this one, you can easily get the twin benefits of great coffee and easy cleanup in no time at all!
What does it do well?
First things first, let’s address the obvious thing that it does well – the coffee maker makes Nespresso pods very well. This means that the coffee you’re going to get has a great flavor to it, and that the best way to make your coffee is really easy, too.
The Nespresso Citiz also has a simple mechanism by which you can change the flow of the coffee you’re brewing between espresso and lungo, allowing for better control with the capsules that you’re using.
There is also something very small that I want to address that the coffee maker does quite exceptionally well – the fold-up cup tray is a simple, yet brilliant, marvel of design! There’s something really simple and approachable about it, obviously, but it’s also the kind of thing that you can tell a lot of effort has gone into – the shelf is designed to be precisely the right height for the coffee maker to easily dispense your drink with minimum mess and fuss.
Finally, we want to quickly mention the good performance level of the Nespresso Citiz. The brewer itself can build up to nineteen bars of pressure in a fairly short amount of time, leading to a really effective level of extraction in no time at all!
There is an argument that you don’t need that much pressure when brewing coffee, but we would point out that the mechanics of brewing coffee here are a little different.
In a portafilter, it’s not worth getting far above nine bars of pressure at an absolute maximum. The reason for this is that the brewing chamber and the coffee aren’t going anywhere, and the basket is typically unpressurized. Therefore, the only thing you’ll be doing is forcing liquid through the basket at a great speed. This leads to poor and under-extracted coffee!
In a totally sealed container like a Nespresso pod, though, you can easily use the higher pressure to extract more flavor from the coffee. The base of the pod is designed so that it will only ‘pop’ and start dispensing at high pressures. Therefore, it’s worth getting to the highest pressure that threshold allows to express high pressure on the coffee itself, leading to greater extraction in a shorter period of time.
What does the Nespresso Citiz do poorly?
Well, there are a few things that it does a little poorly. First of all, we would be inclined to say that the Nespresso pods themselves are a little flawed. This is something of a contentious subject, so we wouldn’t go into it too intensely, but it’s totally true – the Nespresso pods have a flaw by design – they’re non-customizable, so you can’t change the coffee that you’re using.
The other thing that I spot as something of a flaw is the ratio between the materials of the appliance and the price point. At the time of writing, this machine costs just under $280. For that, I would expect a higher level of build quality than plastic!
Despite the notorious fact that we all know about plastic taking around 10,000 years to degrade, it takes much less time than that to possibly become damaged to the degree that it cannot be used for its intended purpose. For instance, a hairline crack or small piece of damage within the body of the machine could make it quite a lot less safe and reliable to use. Since plastic tends to be quite a brittle substance, this can occur relatively easily.
As I say, for the price point that this coffee maker is sold at, I would appreciate a higher build quality than plastic – at
the very least, I might expect a mixture of metal and plastic that would lead to the machine being stronger in the long run.
Finally, I want to quickly mention the capacity of the water tank – thirty-four fluid ounces. That’s not very much water at all – just over a liter, for a metric conversion.
That might sound like plenty, but when you consider that a big, comforting, steaming mug of coffee clocks in at around 350ml of water, you realize that you barely get three cups of coffee before you have to refill the appliance itself. Naturally, this is something that I would quite dislike! A larger tank would make for a much more functional coffee maker.
What is the verdict?
Well, the verdict is a bit of a strange one. Personally, I wouldn’t buy this machine and put it in my house. However, that’s because it’s rare that I ever make one cup of coffee, and then walk away from the machine. Typically, if I were making coffee with a machine, i would make two or three cups, perhaps more if there are a lot of people around for a chat.
However, if you’re someone that really enjoys pod coffee and sees the benefit in only making one cup of coffee every day, then this option might be for you. The pods allow dependability to your morning cup of coffee, and the machine is certainly a sleek, simple way to make that coffee happen.
To sum it all up, then, it’s a rather frustrating ending for this article – we’re not really any closer to saying whether or not this machine would be a good or bad purchase. Well, that’s really a case-by-case decision: if you can see the utility in the use case I outlined above, then this machine would be great for you. Otherwise, there might be another option out there for you!