Caffe Borbone Nespresso Compatible Coffee Pods, Black Blend, Freshly Roasted and Packaged in Italy - 50 Individually Wrapped Coffee Pods - NOT Compatible with Vertuo

great taste. very strong. brews slowly as it goes through pod. Open wrapper smells like deep scents of leather, spice and robustness. Flavor delivers that scent profile. much stronger and better quality than cheaper pods. for true espresso lovers.

Great coffee. Individually packets . Very convenient.

I hate giving bad reviews, and I was really hoping I'd have a good experience with these. With a 4.2 rating and 21,341 ratings, i felt confident in buying these.Problem: They didn't work in the machine. Very little water flowed through the capsule, and then stopped. I've read other reviews of people's machines breaking because of the pressure, and blowing gaskets in the water pumps.I tried 4 capsules, all leading to the same result, and decided to stop before any damage is incurred by my machine.From what little espresso was produced, it did seem to taste good. I'm really bummed about these not working out.Also frustrating is that there are no refunds available from the seller, however Amazon customer service still provided me with a refund, so that's good.I've also emailed the manufacturer directly, and reported the issue. I hope they can fix this. I'm not sure how i'll know it's been fixed, but until then, I won't be able to buy these.I'm not sure how anybody else was able to use these in their machines.I'm tempted to open each capsule and just collect the grounds to run through a normal coffee maker, as I hate waste, but this isn't how I normally do my coffee in the morning. I don't even have a normal coffee maker, so maybe i'll give the grounds to my mom or something.

On a recent cruise, one of the Italian Engineering Officers told us in no uncertain terms that Borbone espresso was the best. We had never heard of Borbone, but fortunately Amazon had. We have to concede that the Gold Blend flavor is excellent.Other reviewers have had trouble with the capsules. We have found that if we press the Espresso button on our machine, then the coffee flows out well. If we push the Lungo button, the coffee stream slows to a dribble once the machine has produced a normal shot of espresso. These capsules are plastic, not aluminum, and they are slightly shorter than an aluminum capsule. Our DeLonghi Essenza Mini machine works fine with the shorter Borbone capsules. Perhaps some machines do not work as well with shorter capsules. We have used quite a few of these capsules, but if we have trouble with them in the future, then I will update this review.Each of these capsules is packaged in a sealed bag to keep them fresh because these capsules appear to have some openings on the plastic end. Aluminum capsules do not need to be individually packaged because they are completely sealed. I prefer the aluminum capsules because they can be recycled, but these capsules do cost less and make very good espresso shots. (Lungo labeled capsules make the best Lungos.)I was tempted to take off a star because these are not aluminum, but they are a high quality product and the coffee is excellent so I felt they deserved 5 stars.

I have the same experience as others where the pod design doesn't allow for proper water flow, thus it takes a long time to "brew" a cup. It seems to me that if a pod is specifically designed for the Nespresso machine, the pod should be identical to a Nespresso pod. It's not only annoying having to wait so long for a cup, the pod design also has "holes" in the bottom that allow for the coffee aroma to escape (Note: these pods are individually wrapped, which helps keep in freshness; however, the fact remains that this pod design is flawed.). The coffee is good enough, and priced right, that I'll order again, but it would be nice if the manufacturer listened to people's reviews/feedback and changed the design to fix this flaw.Honestly, I saw the reviews noting this design flaw and thought it wouldn't bother me having to wait a bit longer for a cup - but, it's not just the wait, it's also not producing enough water flow to sufficiently "brew" the cup.There are several reviews with photos that clearly show these pods next to a Nespresso pod where you can see the difference in the design.UPDATE: I've figured out why these pods "dribble" water out. It's because the pod design doesn't allow for the pod to be punctured like a typical Nespresso pod. Instead, the pod comes with holes for water to flow through that are much smaller than the holes the Nespresso machine creates when it punctures a Nespresso pod. Please modify this pod design - seems easy enough to me. Also, as originally mentioned, these holes don't keep the coffee as fresh as it would be if completely sealed. Photo credit goes to user "mamamia" - I just added the red marker to highlight the holes...

I have tried several Nespresso pods, and these are by far the best I’ve tried.

Coffee quality

I really wanted this item to work. It was recommended by a friend from Italy, but had issues using the pod with the nespresso maker. It wouldn't brew properly and had issues with water flow. Its not worth continuing to use and risk breaking my machine. Too late to return. Not sure what to do with all the pods now.