Nespresso Vertuo Creatista review: What’s it like to use?
The instruction manual is very keen for you to download the Nespresso app, but I found this to be unnecessary and it did not add anything of value. There’s very little you need to do to familiarise yourself with the machine; simply pop a pod of your choice in and you’re good to go. You can choose pods ranging in size from single espresso up to a whopping 535ml of coffee with the Carafe pod.
I really liked the adjustable cup height, meaning you can insert a tall travel mug – often an irritating niggle with coffee machines. The milk preparation is seamless, too. The Nespresso Vertuo Creatista comes complete with a stainless-steel milk jug, which is simply inserted underneath the steam wand onto a scale. The scale cleverly weighs your milk to calculate how long to steam it for – a genius idea – and then runs it to your chosen temperature and texture settings. This takes very little time, is pretty quiet and the results are impressive.
Maintenance-wise, there are automated cleaning cycles which the machine will remind you to run, and the wand delivers a self-cleaning spurt of steam after each use, so all you need to do is wipe the external wand down.
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Nespresso Vertuo Creatista review: What could be better?
As with all pod machines, the limitation is that there is only so far you can go with coffee quality if it’s not fresh. However, these pods taste good and if you’re usually satisfied with the taste of Nespresso capsules, then these will continue to please. The addition of fresh milk – or oat, coconut, whatever you prefer – is also a huge bonus when it comes to improving the overall taste of pod coffee.
While I can’t sing the milk steamer’s praises enough, if I were to suggest one tiny tweak, it would be to have a manual option for any frustrated baristas who would prefer the option to personalise their milk a bit more.
