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The Nescafé Dolce Gusto is a coffee capsule system from Nestlé. The machines are produced by hardware manufacturers Arno from Næver, Krups and De'Longhi.
Contents
Melody series
The first series of 2006 consisted of the models KP2000 (Black/Silver), KP2006 (Black/Silver/Red) and KP2002 (Black/Silver/White), all of them operating in a standard pressure of 14 bar. The device itself consists of a water tank, an internal water pump and an electric heater. The dispenser is in the top, where a lever lowers a plate with a single needle on the capsule holder.
The machines debuted a proprietary capsule system called smart capsule, with 8 g each, and could prepare hot or cold beverages — the heating is done internally, but for cold beverages the water has to be manually chilled in the water tank with ice.
In late 2008, Nestlè launched a new series, KP21xx/Melody2, with new colors and some other improvements:
Since September 2010 there is a new series, Creativa Melody2, that has an LCD display. This allows the machine to be programmed and customized, for example, set it to automatically turn on in a given time and brew the capsule already in the holder. In addition, the outflow can be personalized, to obtain the same taste regardless of the cup used. There are pre-programmed settings to different capsule varieties, that can be further customized.
Circolo, Piccolo and Fontana
In Mid-2009 Nestlé added the Circolo series to the line. This machine, as the name suggests, sports a rounded design, with the same technical specifications of the Melody2 devices, but with a LED light in the water tank.
In September 2010, the previous two series were supplemented by three more. Besides the Creativa mentioned above, there is the Piccolo (small, KP10xx), aimed to customers with limited space, as it is smaller, with a 600 ml water tank. Other than that, it is technically identical to the Melody2 machines.
Similarly, the Fontana (KP30xx) has the same underpinnings, but with a design reminiscent of a water tap (Italian Fontana).
The devices work, depending on the series, with 14 or 15 bar pressure.
Similar systems
In contrast to Nespresso system, which is also made by Nestlé and has Krups as one of the major hardware vendors, the Dolce Gusto capsules are freely available in stores — with Nespresso you can only buy it either online or in special Nespresso stores (however non-official Nespresso-compatible pods are available from numerous high street retailers).
Capsules
Each pack contains 16 capsules. These are sufficient for 8 or 16 cups, depending of the type of beverage. In almost all beverages with milk, two capsules are needed: one capsule with milk powder and other with the other ingredient (be it coffee, tea or chocolate). The amount of time of preparation for each one varies.
Inside each package there is a code number printed, the so-called pleasure points system. These can be redeemed at the online Dolce Gusto shop (i.e. a pack of coffee capsules are available for 220 points). There are also coffee and tea equipment.
Varieties
The variety of flavors varies by territory. The following list provides information on the varieties available currently (January 2017) listed by territory (AE = UAE, AR = Argentina, AT = Austria, AU = Australia, BE = Belgium, BG = Bulgaria, BR = Brazil, CA = Canada, CH = Switzerland, CL = Chile, CN = China, CO = Colombia, CR = Costa Rica, CZ = Czech Republic, DE = Germany, DK = Denmark, DO = Dominican Republic, EC = Ecuador, EE = Estonia, ES = Spain, FI = Finland, FR = France, GR = Greece, GT = Guatemala, HK = Hong Kong, HN = Honduras, HR = Croatia, HU = Hungary, ID = Indonesia, IE = Ireland, IL = Israel, IT = Italy, JO = Jordan, JP = Japan, KR = South Korea, KW = Kuwait, KZ = Kazakhstan, LB = Lebanon, LT = Lithuania, LV = Latvia, MA = Morocco, MT = Malta, MX = Mexico, MY = Malaysia, NI = Nicaragua, NL = Netherlands, NO = Norway, NZ = New Zealand, PA = Panama, PE = Peru, PH = Philippines, PK = Pakistan, PL = Poland, PT = Portugal, PY = Paraguay, QA = Qatar, RO = Romania, RS = Serbia, RU = Russia, SA = Saudi Arabia, SE = Sweden, SG = Singapore, SI = Slovenia, SK = Slovakia, TH = Thailand, TR = Turkey, TW = Taiwan, UA = Ukraine, UK = United Kingdom, US = USA, UY = Uruguay, VE = Venezuela, VN = Vietnam, ZA = South Africa):
Criticism
The pod and coffee capsule system draw some criticism due to the lock-in effect. This means that the low cost of acquisition for each coffee machine is illusory, since the costs of the capsules for it exceeds that of conventional coffee — sometimes several times — and can cost more than the machine itself in a short time span unless a refillable capsule is used. A further disadvantage is the increased amount of waste due to the disposable nature of the Nescafé capsules, although in some countries recycling programs exist.