Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me preface this review by saying I love the Nespresso OriginalLine machines and I own 3 of them. I bought and returned a black VertuoLine machine when it first came out last year. I was excited to try it, seeing as it could make coffee AND espresso. It was a huge letdown for me for various reasons. When I heard the Evoluo machine was coming out and it fixed the flaws of the original VertuoLine and improved overall performance, I figured I'd give it another try. Does the Evoluo live up to the hype? Unfortunately, it does not. I've had this machine for a week and it's been a pain since day one. The set up instructions are the same as the VertuoLine machine, so I thought I could run a cleaning cycle and have my Evoluo brewing coffee in 10 minutes or less. This was not the case. After pressing the button 3 times to initiate a cleaning cycle, the Evoluo drained some water from the reservoir and I heard the machine fire up. It can take up to 5 minutes to complete a cleaning cycle. 15 minutes later, there was no water coming out of the machine. The button was blinking extremely fast, so I referred to manual. My machine over-heated. I turned off for a few minutes and turned it back on. I initiated the self cleaning cycle again. 3 blinks, which meant my machine needed to be descaled. What? I called Nespresso and they assisted me by walking me through some trouble shooting steps. The machine was unplugged for a few minutes and plugged back in, it was turned on and off, it was restored to default settings. It was still overheating and wouldn't complete the cleaning cycle. I was transferred to a supervisor who tried to sell me descaling solution. I was tempted to drop kick the Evoluo, but I settled for turning it off and unplugging it for a few hours. Later that day I plugged the machine in and attempted to run a cleaning cycle. It took 15 minutes, and I got around 10 ounces out. Good enough. I brewed a pod of coffee with no problems. Everything was fine for 4 days. I ran the cleaning cycle every day to avoid coffee sediment. (See below) On day 5, I tried to make a cup of coffee and the machine overheated mid brew. A coffee pod that cost $1.10 had to be thrown out because the machine malfunctioned. That is it, I'm done. I hope I received a lemon, and this isn't a normal occurrence. Even if The machine functioned perfectly, I would still return it. Here's why: - One button control and display is counterintuitive, especially if you need to troubleshoot the machine - There was a large amount of coffee grounds in my cup every time I brewed a capsule. I ran a self clean cycle twice a day. - There is no hot water function. If you try to run some hot water through the machine to preheat your cup, the Evoluo will start a 5 minute self cleaning cycle. - The machine over-heats. It looks like Nespresso created a bigger problem while trying to fix the temperature issues of the VertuoLine machine. - The "crema" in the coffee is just foam. It's also quite bitter and needs to be stirred to avoid bitter coffee. By the time you're done stirring the coffee to avoid a bitter cup, the "crema" is all gone. Even the espresso capsules produce a foam "crema", which is extremely disappointing when compared to the crema produced by the OriginalLine machine. - The coffee needs creamer or milk to bring out the roasting notes listed on the Nespresso website. If you try to drink it black, all the coffee capsules taste like bland, watery coffee. Stormio is a perfect example. I didn't taste any of the woody or spicy notes until I added milk. The flavors were much more pronounced afterwards. - It's over-priced. Both the machine and the coffee are overpriced. You can get a good single serve coffee machine with many features the Evoluo lacks for much less money. Even propriety cups of coffee are about half the price as the Nespresso VertuoLine capsules. The other cups come in much more flavor and roast options. - The espresso is terrible, especially compared to the Nespresso OriginalLine capsules and machines. If you are looking for an espresso machine, I highly recommend getting an OriginalLine machine. Black Friday is coming up and there are deals posted on some OriginalLine machines. If you are looking for a single serve coffee maker, I'd skip the Evoluo and get either a Keurig, Bunn MCU, or an aero press. Despite all the machine's problems, there are some things I liked about it: - The design: Nespresso is famous (or in some cases infamous) for the designs of their machines. While the VertuoLine machine had a retro feel, I liked the futuristic design of the Evoluo. - The capsule container: After having to remove hot plastic cups from other machines by hand, I really enjoyed the automatic removal of the capsules into the attached capsule container - The flavored coffee: I only liked 4 coffees from the VirtuoLine line up. 3 of them were flavored. The hazelnut in particular was extremely good. After adding cream, it tasted like a real roasted hazelnut.