Nespresso Coffee Machine

I received a Nepresso Pixie coffee machine for christmas and it's revolutionised my home coffee experience! I haven't bought a coffee in a cafe or a restaurant since christmas. It's so unbelievably simple. I chose the pixie because it has two straightforward buttons on the top which dictate the volume of water added to each coffee. I prefer 'push' buttons rather than 'touch' ones as I feel that it less likely that a fault will devleop. The machine itself is so simple to use and, helpfully, incredibly easy to clean.

I bought a separate milk frother (it keeps the machine simpler that way). Having done a great deal of research on the topic, I decided upon a manual frother which is heated on the hob. Both cheaper and easier to clean, it makes milk froth of almost marshmellow thickness. I can't recommend this model enough - it's a Judge milk frother and cost £15.95 on Amazon.

If you don't want to buy a separate milk frother, but own a filter coffee jug, you can simply add hot milk to the jug and froth it manually. I looked at other more original kinds of coffee machine. But, knowing how lazy I am, I realised that I couldn't buy one as the novelty would wear off after a couple of months and the machine would just be sat on the side of the kitchen, unused and gathering dust.

I've hughely enjoyed trying out all the coffees supplied as samples with the Nespresso machine. I think the five I tried on the first day was a little excessive though - i'm not sure my heart agreed too well with all that caffeine! My favourite so far are ristretto (for a strong, smooth coffee), roma (slightly less strong than ristretto) and decaffienato intenso for that coffee hit late in the evening.

Yes, at 30p a coffee this isn't particualrly cheap. However, in my opionion it is well worth it and also relatively economical. Firstly, I don't drink a lot of coffee (a maximum of two cups a day) so 60p a day on coffee seems reasonable. Secondly, I no longer buy coffee out. Most coffees are at least £3 so for me my Nespresso actually saves me money. I also really enjoy visiting the nespresso shop in Picadilly and sampling all the varieties of coffee. For me it's all part of the owning a Nespresso machine experience.

PS the milk frother makes incredible hot chocolate. My favourite hot chocolate powder is the straightforward Cadbury's one which you add hot milk to.