I gave up.

Hi! I bought the Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS on sale for 30€ 3 months ago to replace a filter coffee machine.

The official Dolce Gusto website had a great sale on bulk orders for pods. It brought the price down to 26c/pod. So I tried a bunch of pod varieties. The Italian themed ones are pretty good: Palermo, Napoli, Milano... I liked the Barista pods too. The Kit Kat pods were kind of gross. Some of the store brand pods were gross too.

Unfortunately, my spouse absolutely hated the Dolce Gusto pods. She quit coffee entirely during these 3 months. I made her try the Barista pods, and she said they were OK. But my spouse didn't want to drink a Dolce Gusto coffee on her free will.

So I swallowed my pride and bought a Nespresso machine on sale for 73€, and it came with a 30€ voucher for branded pods. So the price gap between Dolce Gusto and Nespresso was pretty small. Off-brand Nespresso pods can be found for around 15c/pod too. Some of them are pretty good. So you can save money that way.

I brought my Dolce Gusto machine to work and even my colleagues poked fun at me. Everyone says that Dolce Gusto is bad.

Honestly, I can't fault Dolce Gusto. The machine is easy to use, and has a small footprint. Some pods are pretty good. Most pods are bad. But that's ok.

It's just that Nespresso tastes better, and the pods are cheaper too (if you buy the off-brand pods). Dolce Gusto tastes more watery in comparison.

I can't recommend Dolce Gusto, even though it's a pretty good coffee machine (all things considered).