In this hustle-bustle of life, where finding keys on a groggy morning feels like a task, you surely don’t want to sip on Nespresso that is bitter or burnt, but that should not be making your day bad because we are going to give you quick fixes to this minor issue that can be frustrating. Still, you better not worry and consider the solutions for your burnt Nespresso.
How To Fix Nespresso Tasting Burnt Coffee
Nespresso promises quality coffee to every consumer and deals with its machine temperature cautiously to deliver the best coffee every time. However, after some use, your machine gives you coffee that tastes burnt.
There can be many reasons for this issue. Also, it varies upon the model you have, but the most common causes can be wrong machine settings, using expired or unsealed pods or using a third-party capsule, a dirty machine, over-extraction of coffee, damaged machine inside, or you’re using unfiltered water(hard water).
Let’s dig into some more details.
1. Using Expired Or Unsealed Pods
If your machine is brewing burnt or bitter coffee, the simple reason is that your pods have passed their expiration date or need to be tightly sealed.
Check it by pushing the seal, and if it does not come back, there might be a hole in the pod, and your coffee gets mixed with oxygen making coffee taste bitter and burnt.
Another reason you’re getting lousy coffee can be the use of third-party capsules; in Original Line Machines, there is a higher chance that you use third-party capsules that can be cheaper or of low quality or made up of biodegradable material, which means the seal is actually semi-permeable which can’t keep coffee fresh for a longer time.
You can look for an excellent third-party capsule that does work with your original machine.
2. You’re Using Hard Water
One of the reasons you’re machine is brewing bad coffee can be using unfiltered or hard water.
The difference between hard and soft water is that it has a balanced amount of good minerals for your health, and your machine wants it too.
Hard water has some toxic minerals and a high amount of calcium and magnesium that would cause you bitter-tasting coffee.
3. Wrong Machine Settings
Your Nespresso machine is brewing burnt or bitter coffee, and your impatience is understandable in solving this issue. Have you noticed your machine settings yet? If not, it’s the time that you should.
Check your machine settings and reset it to factory settings to continue making fantastic coffee. You can check our article on resetting your machine according to your model.
4. Over-Extraction Of Coffee
Your coffee might taste burnt because you over-extracted or overcooked it, so you took extra flavors than usual into your mug, making it taste hollow and bitter.
Let’s see how both machine Lines take differently on over-extraction of the coffee:
Vertuo Line machine
Vertuo machines are specially designed to give you perfect-tasting coffee with creamy and rich texture through its barcode reading technology; it reads the barcode on the pod and knows how much water is required to make your coffee; hence the risk of over-extraction is minimized.
However, if you change the cup size settings, there is a high chance that your coffee will taste burnt, and you will need to change the settings to default settings by the manufacturer.
Original Line machine
This line of machines makes two cups: espresso (short cup) and Lungo(larger cup).
Both types of cups can be made with their type of pod. You can not use Lungo pods if you want an espresso; usually, what happens is that people with less knowledge of pods mixes both cup size, which leads them to taste an awful cup of coffee.
Tip: if you want to make a Lungo cup, use pods with Lungo written on them.
5. Machine Needs Cleaning
Running a brew cycle(only water) would be best after every use.
For OriginalLine machines, take out the capsule, fill your water tank, place a 1-liter container under the outlet, and run a brew cycle.
For Vertuo machines:
- Take out an empty capsule.
- Fill the water reservoir.
- Place a larger cup on the drip tray.
- Press the cup button three times in two seconds.
- The orange light will flash, and the water cycle will be done within 5 minutes.
Advice: wash your machine’s accessories, like the drip tray and water reservoir, every now and then to get delicious coffee.
6. Descale Your Machine
Your Nespresso may be giving you a lousy coffee because it needs descaling. The mineral and coffee oil build-up is mixed with your fresh coffee. Hence, you end up having a burnt coffee.
Descale the machine with a descaling kit that Nespresso recommends to its customers.
7. Defected Machine
A defect in your machine can be the reason behind this issue. you should contact the Nespresso support team in case your machine needs repairing or a thorough maintenance session.
Conclusion
Everyone deserves a coffee that would wake them up not make them feel disappointed. Your machine needs thorough cleaning after every use and descaling once three months. And now that you know what to do when your Nespresso gives you Burnt tasting coffee, I hope you will be proactive and solve the problem. Happy brewing coffee!
