Originally Posted by skywardhunter

Us South Africans are quite particular about our coffee . The issue with Nespresso is less about the freshness of the beans, indeed as long as they are immediately vacuum sealed they pretty much don't degrade, the issue is that the quantity of ground coffee in a single capsule (I'm referring to consumer capsules, no idea how much is in the commercial ones) is I think 6g, either way it's approximately enough for a single shot of espresso. I usually have a double-shot which then becomes weak with Nespresso pods as you strain to extract the flavour from such a small quantity of ground coffee.

As for baristas, yes most aren't special but the main difference with barista brewed coffee I find is that the texture of the manually steamed milk is better than what comes out of the machines.