You’ve just had dinner at one of the best restaurants in the country, the kind of place where the chef talks about his passion for perfection, obsession with detail and demand for the best, freshest ingredients. You know that there is probably one cook in the kitchen for every couple in the dining room. So you might feel surprised — even cheated — to discover that the coffee you are now enjoying was made by the waiter popping a capsule into a machine and pressing a button.
This is not a fanciful scenario. In the UK, more than 15 Michelin-starred restaurants use Nespresso, the market-leading capsule system, to make their coffee — including Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck in Berkshire, and The Ledbury in London. In France, Nespresso supplies more than 100 Michelin restaurants, including the legendary L’Arpège in Paris. Even in Italy, where the first espresso machine was patented in 1884, more than 20 Michelin restaurants use the new capsule system, and many others around the world use it or its rivals developed by Illy, Kimbo, Lavazza and Segafredo.
via Aeon Magazine
(Thanks Jim!)
The article continues in vein of twee coffee scoring with little nuance across services…who plumbs those things anyhow? Article load fails to halt when I allow aeonmagazine.com?!? A little more of what you saw in the article or comments might be nice, Domela?
I’m really happy to hear this. As a resident of Portland, Oregon, I am a true fan of excellent coffee. However, with the prevalence of amazing craft coffees in the Pacific Northwest US, I have had to keep my ownership of no fewer than three Nespresso machines on the DL. Now, perhaps I can safely come out of the espresso closet.
On the other hand, if artisan-brewed caffeinated beverages really are superior to what can be achieved with automation, maybe we can bring those same virtues into other areas as well. Hand-crafted 14nm wafers anyone?