Tips

Dear planet and coffee lover, the Evergreen® capsules have been designed to make sure you get ideal results from your first try. Nonetheless, depending on the coffee you use, it might not be the case. This page is here to help you reach the perfect coffee with your Evergreen®  capsule. Please note these tips are valid for the capsules compatible with all the different systems, ie not only Nespresso®.

if you have issues related to your Nespresso® machine and not the quality of coffee you get out of your capsules, please have a thorough look at our videos and tips on the different machines available in the market here.

Below we have put forward a few elements that will have an impact on the way coffee comes out of your machine: Tamping, Ground type, and the amount of coffee. If you cannot get a good coffee, try playing on one of these elements at a time the way we describe below and see how your coffee improves.

9 times out of 10 when the result is not great, it is due to the type of coffee used.



Types of coffee ground



Fine Ground Coffee - the one we recommend!
Fine Ground Coffee is the type of coffee that will enable you to get the strongest coffee. If your coffee is finely ground, like espresso blends usually are, do not put too much pressure while tamping. If you see that the coffee is dripping out of the machine, ie that the water cannot go through the capsule, it usually is because there is too much pressure in the capsule. We therefore recommend to put less pressure. However, please note that this can depend also on the density of your coffee. Sometimes, not putting any pressure at all other than the pressure of putting the lid back can be enough, sometimes you do need to put a lot of pressure, so our advice really is to try a range of different set ups and combinations until you reach your perfect coffee.
Medium/Coarse Grind Coffee
Medium/Coarse Grind Coffee will usually be less strong than the fine grind coffee. Here, you should not hesitate to put more pressure in the capsule if you find your coffee is too watery.
Coffee Roast Levels
Coffee comes in four main roast levels: light, medium, dark, and darker than dark. We recommend to choose a coffee from Medium to Dark roast.
Our Favorite Coffees:
We actually sell coffee ground specially for our Evergreen capsules, you can get it here. It is an organic, fair-trade coffee of the highest quality roasted by a renowned coffee roaster, Pablo Contreras from SHB International.
However, we currently only sell our coffee in Europe (most countries), so if you do not live in Europe, you can try the following blends: the Lavazza Qualita Oro, Lavazza Crema i Gusto and Illy Classico have given very good results with our capsules and are available in most supermarkets. If you like your coffee strong and intense, you can try Taylor’s Hot Lava Java or Malongo Suprême. Please note we are not affiliated in any way with any of those brands.


Tamping
How much pressure you apply during tamping is a critical part of the process to make a good coffee. Even the taste of coffee itself can change depending on the amount of pressure you use!
Our advice is to play with it until you find the right balance for you.


Amount of coffee:
Usually, the best result is obtained when the capsule is not filled with pressed coffee to the top as this usually means the water will flow through with difficulty and the result will not be optimal.
The best set up is to have your coffee after tamping slightly below the top of the capsule, this way when you put the lid back on you will barely have to put any pressure to close it. See picture below. You can put more coffee if you like your coffee intense, but go back to putting the recommended amount if you see water flows through with difficulty.

Some additional tips

Get more intensity and body in your coffee
If after trying the tips above you still struggle to reach the intensity levels that you require from your espresso, you can try to use the Evergreen capsule with the single-use lids that you can find here. Their main advantage is their smaller size compared to the reusable lids, which enables you to put more coffee in the capsule.

The capsule not fitting in the machine
Sometimes, usually when too much coffee ground has been put into the capsule, the machine will not close after having put the capsule inside. A simple trick to avoid this problem is to push the capsule on the side opposite the lid so that it fits in the machine, just like shown in the video below.


How to get Cream on top

In our experience, rich crema is more present when fine ground coffee is being used. It will also very much depend on your coffee, some coffee produce naturally a lot of cream, some do not.
But a simple barista trick can help you materialize more cream and enhance the flavours in your coffee. First, put the Evergreen capsule filled with coffee in the machine. Then, start the machine, and turn it off 2 or 3 seconds later, right before the coffee starts flowing out of the machine (or as soon as it starts flowing out). The idea is to have hot water remaining in the capsule. Wait around 10 seconds for the hot water to enhance the coffee power, then restart the machine to let the coffee flow in your cup - with more cream than usual!


Cleaning:
After having used the capsule, be careful to wait a few minutes before grabbing it as it will be hot. Once its temperature has decreased, grab it and empty the coffee inside. Then clean it with water.

You can also put it in the dishwasher.

Before drying the capsule, make sure there is no more ground coffee stuck anywhere.