Dolce Gusto: how the system works and what to buy for it

Of the common home systems, Dolce Gusto is the only one that will make you a latte macchiato or a hot chocolate without any milk in the house. The whole trick is that the milk is dried inside the capsule. It is also the system where the cost is easiest to get wrong — half the drinks need two capsules rather than one, and the pack states the number of capsules, not the number of drinks. This article explains how the machine handles a capsule, what belongs in it, and where the system runs into its limits.

How Dolce Gusto works

The principle is simple and worth knowing, because almost everything else follows from it — from why there is nothing to wash up, all the way to why coffee from a Dolce Gusto does not taste like coffee from a portafilter machine.

The path the water takes through the capsule

A flow-through heater warms the water, so the machine is ready in a matter of seconds and does not have to keep a boiler hot. The pump then forces the water into the capsule at a pressure the maker quotes as up to 15 bar. As you close the holder, a needle pierces the foil on top of the capsule and hot water goes inside. Pressure builds up in there until the outlet membrane in the base of the capsule gives way — and the drink runs into the cup.

The capsule is therefore the entire brewing chamber. The coffee never meets water anywhere else in the machine, nothing in the holder silts up with coffee grounds, and once you have your drink you simply throw the capsule away. This is the main practical advantage of the whole category, and Dolce Gusto takes it further than the rest: because there is no milk system inside the machine, there is nothing to flush through even after a latte macchiato.

The milk is in the capsule, not in the fridge

Dolce Gusto handles milk drinks with dried milk in a capsule of its own. Hot water under pressure dissolves the powder and froths it at the same time, so you get foam with no steam wand, no frother and no open bottle of milk in the fridge. In an office or a holiday cottage that is a decisive difference from systems where you have to supply the milk yourself.

There is a flip side to it that the marketing does not mention: dried milk tastes different from steamed fresh milk, and plenty of milk capsules contain sugar, so the drink comes out sweeter than you would have mixed it yourself. Anyone who cares about the taste of the milk will be happier with a machine they pour their own milk into. Anyone who cares that a drink appears at the push of a button and nothing needs washing is right at home here.

You set the volume yourself

Older models have a lever or a slider and you dose by hand — the capsule has a mark printed on it with the recommended amount of water, and you stop when the gauge on the machine reaches it. Newer models have preset buttons and stop on their own, and some will remember your volume.

It is worth knowing what follows from that. If you pull too much water through an espresso, you do not get a lungo, you get a diluted espresso. And the other way round: a capsule for lungo holds more coffee and a different grind, so you can only pull a short drink out of it at the cost of it coming out harsh. The volume setting on the machine is fine tuning, not a way of turning one capsule into a different kind of drink.

What the capsule looks like and why you cannot mix it up

A Dolce Gusto capsule is a hard plastic half-dome with aluminium foil on top. Next to the little Nespresso cup it is markedly bigger, and at the same cup size it will carry more coffee or more milk powder. That is exactly why the system copes with drinks the size of a tall glass, which a small capsule could never manage.

The practical consequence: nothing else fits a Dolce Gusto. The holder has one shape, so Nespresso compatible pods, Tassimo T-Discs and paper pods will not physically go into it. Nor will a Dolce Gusto capsule go into any other system. A universal capsule does not exist, and there are no adapters for this system.

The second common mix-up is brand versus system. Krups coffee machines and De’Longhi machines are both built for Dolce Gusto, but the same firms also build machines for other systems. The name on the casing therefore will not tell you what to buy — what settles it is the name of the system, not the maker of the machine. How to tell the system from the shape of the capsule we go through in detail in our article on how to choose coffee capsules.

One drink, one capsule or two

This is the most important thing you need to know about Dolce Gusto, and at the same time the commonest source of disappointment after a first order. The number of capsules in a pack is not the number of drinks.

• Black coffee = one capsule. Espresso, lungo, americano and grande all come out of a single capsule. A pack of sixteen capsules is sixteen drinks.
• Milk drinks from Nescafé = two capsules. Latte macchiato, cappuccino, flat white and caramel macchiato are built from two capsules that you load one after the other: one is milk, the other coffee. A pack marked sixteen capsules is therefore a pack for eight drinks.
• Non-coffee drinks usually come in one capsule. Cocoa and chocolate drinks for children have the milk component and the flavour together, so a pack gives you as many drinks as it has capsules.
• Compatible flavoured cappuccinos tend to have everything in one capsule. Italian roasters solve it by blending the milk powder and the coffee together — one capsule, one drink. With any given pack, though, it is the product description that confirms it, because some makers also do two-capsule sets and label them as “16 pcs (8+8)”.

Anyone who misses that difference is comparing apples with pears. A pack of Nescafé milk capsules looks half as expensive as it turns out to be in the cup. The Tassimo system has a similar trap, except there the number of drinks is usually stated in the product name itself.

What to buy for a Dolce Gusto

The range of Dolce Gusto capsules is the most varied of the home systems, precisely because milk and flavour can be put inside the capsule. It pays to take it group by group.

Milk drinks

The basic three from Nescafé Dolce Gusto: Latte Macchiato at $9.15 a pack, Flat White at $8.92 and Macchiato Caramel at $8.92. All three follow the rule of two capsules per drink. What differs between them is the ratio of milk to coffee: flat white has the stronger coffee component and less foam, latte macchiato has the most milk, and the caramel version is the sweetest of the three.

Black coffee

Nescafé Dolce Gusto Lungo at $9.15 is the most sensible choice if you drink your coffee without milk. It is one capsule per drink, so the price per cup works out far better than with the milk versions. Anyone after a short Italian espresso should reckon with Dolce Gusto making one — but with less body and a different crema than a portafilter machine, because extraction from a plastic capsule is flatter.

Flavoured cappuccinos from Italian roasters

This is where Dolce Gusto is at its most entertaining, and it is the part of the range Nescafé does not have. Dolce Vita capsules from Italfoods are flavoured cappuccinos: Cappuccino with Irish cream at $6.68 or Pistachio Cappuccino at $5.93. The packs hold fewer capsules than Nescafé, but thanks to one capsule per serving the price per drink is lower.

Non-coffee drinks and drinks for children

The same machine will serve anyone who does not drink coffee. Dolce Vita White Chocolate at $5.93 or Nescafé Dolce Gusto Nesquik at $8.92 are cocoa drinks with no caffeine from coffee. Also in this group are drinks for children, chai latte and iced drinks for summer refreshment. What else besides coffee will go into a capsule machine we have written up in our article on what else besides coffee goes in a capsule machine.

Decaf and capsules with something added

A decaffeinated version exists here as well — you will find it among the decaf Dolce Gusto capsules. A group of their own are FoodNess capsules, where a further ingredient is added to the drink, collagen, ginger or plant milk for instance. In taste terms these are not coffees for purists, but they have their following.

What a single drink works out at

With Dolce Gusto the price of a pack tells you almost nothing, because packs hold different numbers of capsules and take a different number of capsules per drink. The table below therefore shows both separately.

The last column is the one that decides. With the Nescafé milk drinks the price per drink is double the price per capsule, so one latte macchiato comes to roughly twice what the “per capsule” column shows. A flavoured cappuccino from an Italian roaster, on the other hand, costs exactly the price per capsule. The difference in price per drink between those two rows is therefore substantially bigger than the difference in the price of the pack — and it is the only comparison worth making.

The second thing you can read off the table: black coffee in a Dolce Gusto is markedly cheaper than the milk drinks. That holds across systems, because the milk component in a capsule costs something. Anyone who wants to push the price per cup down buys lungo and adds their own milk.

Nescafé or compatible capsules

Dolce Gusto is an open system in the sense that the machine does not check the capsule at all. It reads no code, has no chip and cannot tell who made the capsule — unlike Tassimo, which will not start a drink without a barcode. You can therefore put anything of the right shape into a Dolce Gusto.

In practice you are choosing between three groups:

• Original Nescafé. The widest range of milk drinks and the most consistent result, because the milk and coffee capsules are designed as a pair. What you pay for it is two capsules per drink.
• Licensed brands in the Dolce Gusto shape. Starbucks belongs here, for example. In taste terms it is a roast of its own; the mechanics of the pack are the same as with Nescafé.
• Compatible capsules from roasters. Italian roasters such as Kimbo, Caffè Borbone or Italfoods. This is where you will find Italian-style espresso and flavoured cappuccinos in a single capsule, the things the original line does not have.

The system has one weak spot and it is worth knowing about: with very cheap unbranded capsules it happens that they do not sit precisely in the holder and the water escapes around them instead of through. The plastic half-dome has a larger diameter than the small Nespresso capsule, so a deviation shows up sooner. With capsules from established roasters this is no problem; with the cheapest goods off the pile it occasionally happens.

If you are not sure which roaster you want, start with a small pack. Capsules hold their aroma for a long time because they are sealed away from oxygen, so nothing spoils — but buying five boxes of one taste that does not suit you is money wasted. If price matters to you most of all, keep an eye on Dolce Gusto capsules on offer, because with goods that keep this long, stocking up pays.

Who the system suits and who it does not

Dolce Gusto is a system with a clear profile. If you fit it, nothing competes. If you do not, you will be disappointed whatever capsules you buy.

It suits

• Households where everyone drinks something different. One machine makes espresso, latte macchiato, cocoa for the children and chai latte, with nothing to swap over in between.
• Places where milk is not to hand. Offices, holiday cottages, caravans — a milk drink comes out of water and a capsule.
• Anyone who wants zero operation. No grinding, no dosing, no cleaning of a milk system.

It does not suit

• Anyone after espresso the way a coffee bar makes it. The dose and the grind are fixed, extraction from a plastic capsule is flatter and the crema finer. Anyone who wants to work with their coffee needs a grinder and a different machine.
• Anyone after the taste of real milk. Dried milk has a flavour of its own and the sweet versions contain sugar.
• Anyone counting the cost of every single cup. Two capsules per milk drink make Dolce Gusto one of the pricier systems for a latte macchiato.
• Anyone who cares about recycling. A plastic capsule with foil and grounds is multi-material, and without emptying it the sorting line will not split it apart.

If you are only now choosing a machine and want to set the systems against each other, you will find the comparison in our article on which capsule machine to choose. The machines themselves are then in capsule machines.

Maintenance and what to do when the coffee will not run

Maintenance on a Dolce Gusto is minimal, but there are two things you cannot let slide.

Descaling

Limescale is the commonest reason a machine stops giving full flow after a year or two, or starts getting noisier. In hard water descale roughly every three months, in soft water twice a year. Newer models will flag it up with a light of their own. Do not use salt or vinegar, they will damage the seals.

Flushing and milk residue

The capsule holder and the drip grid only need rinsing under water. After a milk drink, run one cycle of clean water through the machine so that milk powder does not settle in the nozzles — it has more effect on the taste of the next coffee than you would expect.

When the drink will not run, or runs around the capsule

Go through three things in this order. First, whether the holder is genuinely closed all the way — a holder that is not fully shut builds no pressure and the water escapes around the capsule. Second, whether the piercing needle is blocked, which you only need to clear out carefully. Third, whether it is time to descale. Only after that does it make sense to suspect the capsule itself.

Storing capsules

Capsules need nothing special, because the coffee in them is sealed away from oxygen and will keep for years. The only practical trouble is clutter in the kitchen, which is what capsule holders are for — with two-capsule drinks it pays to keep the milk and coffee capsules side by side, so that nothing daft gets paired up.

Frequently asked questions

How does Dolce Gusto work?

The pump forces hot water under pressure into a pierced capsule. Pressure builds up inside the capsule, the outlet membrane gives way and the drink runs into the cup. The capsule is also the brewing chamber, so nothing silts up inside the machine and after the drink you simply throw it away. With milk drinks the milk sits in a capsule of its own as a dried powder, which the hot water dissolves and froths.

How many capsules does one latte macchiato need?

With the milk drinks from Nescafé, two — one milk and one coffee, which you load one after the other. A pack of sixteen capsules is therefore a pack for eight drinks. Compatible flavoured cappuccinos tend to have both in a single capsule, and there one capsule makes one drink.

Do Nespresso capsules fit a Dolce Gusto?

No. The holder has a single shape, and Nespresso capsules, Tassimo T-Discs and paper pods will not go into it. There is no adapter for this system that would get around it.

Are compatible Dolce Gusto capsules as good as the original?

With capsules from established roasters, yes; the difference is in the price per drink and in the breadth of tastes. The machine does not check the capsule in any way, so nothing stands in the way of using them. With the very cheapest unbranded goods it does occasionally happen that a capsule does not sit precisely in the holder and the water escapes around it.

How many bar does Dolce Gusto have, and does it matter?

The maker quotes up to 15 bar. The number on its own says almost nothing about the quality of the drink — what decides is the capsule, meaning the dose of coffee, the grind and the roast. The pressure only makes sure the membrane opens and the drink flows through.

Will anything other than coffee go into a Dolce Gusto?

Yes, and it is one of the main advantages of the system. Besides coffee, cocoa, hot chocolate, chai latte, tea and iced drinks all belong here. In a household with children it means one machine for everybody.

Can you use your own milk in a Dolce Gusto?

Not in the machine, which works with water only. Nothing stops you making a black coffee from one capsule and adding your own milk, though — with a lungo that tends to be the better result in taste terms than a milk capsule, and considerably cheaper.

How often should the machine be descaled?

In hard water roughly every three months, in soft water twice a year. Newer models have an indicator for it. Descaling left undone shows up as weaker flow and a noisier pump.

Summary and recommendations

Dolce Gusto rests on a single idea: everything a drink needs, milk included, is inside the capsule. From that comes its greatest strength — one machine serves coffee, milk drinks and cocoa with no fridge and no cleaning — and also its main limitation, namely dried milk instead of steamed, and a dose of coffee that is fixed.

When you buy, stick to two rules. First, count drinks, not capsules: the Nescafé milk drinks need two capsules, so a pack of sixteen capsules gives you eight drinks. Second, compare the price per drink, and do it between lines within the system as well — a flavoured cappuccino in one capsule works out cheaper than a two-capsule latte macchiato, even though its pack holds fewer capsules.

For black coffee the most sensible choice is lungo, for milk drinks without compromise Latte Macchiato from Nescafé, and for taste experiments the Italian flavoured cappuccinos. The whole range of Dolce Gusto capsules is in one place, so once you have picked the system all you are deciding is taste. And if you are not sure Dolce Gusto really is your system, go back first to our comparison of capsule systems.