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A pod machine with no decaf beside it tends to sit idle once lunchtime has passed. This box stretches its working day, giving a full mug of black coffee from every capsule for the hours when you would rather skip the caffeine.
One capsule, one full mug
Much of the Dolce Gusto range runs on two capsules per drink, a coffee pod and a milk pod, which is why a sixteen-capsule box of those makes eight. This one is a single-capsule long black, so sixteen capsules make sixteen mugs. Drop one in, choose the long-cup setting or the marked volume, and you get a mugful, not a small espresso.
That long pour is designed in rather than improvised. The capsule is filled with a long mug in mind from the outset, which is why it avoids the thin, papery taste you get when an espresso capsule is stretched with extra water. In the mug it is medium-bodied and mild in bitterness, with a light crema and a clean finish that does not hang about, which suits a cup after dinner.
What decaffeinated does and does not mean
Decaffeination is carried out on the green coffee before roasting, and it takes out most of the caffeine, not all of it. A small residue always stays behind, so decaf is not the same as caffeine-free. If you want a hot drink with none at all, choose a herbal infusion, which never had any to begin with; if you need an exact figure, the current pack is the reference.
The process also costs a little aroma, because the compounds that give coffee its lift sit in the same part of the bean as the caffeine. Roasting rebuilds much of what is lost, so the capsule still smells of coffee when the machine pierces it. It is simply a touch quieter on the nose than a caffeinated long black, and a shade softer in the middle without tasting hollow.
Who it suits, and which machine
It suits the house where one person stops caffeine at lunchtime and another does not. A box of this beside the caffeinated Americano serves both without anyone settling for a compromise, and the decaf is the one that keeps the machine in use after six in the evening. The fair test of any decaf is if you forget it is one, and in our view this passes.
The capsules are Nescafé Dolce Gusto only. They will not fit a Nespresso or a Tassimo, and no adaptor changes that; a brewer built for little aluminium cylinders needs different capsules altogether. The Italian name simply describes the drink, a decaffeinated Americano, and what comes out is the plain mug of black coffee most people drink at home.
The packs we stock
- Nescafe Dolce Gusto Americano Decaffeinato Coffee (16 Servings), 16 Pods (barcode 8445290310286)
What to eat with it
- Thomas Fudge's 6 Dark Chocolate Florentines: An after-dinner cup deserves an after-dinner biscuit, and dark chocolate florentines give a mild black coffee some richness.
- Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies, 340g: A tin of butter cookies suits an evening coffee passed round the table.
- McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: A milk chocolate digestive rounds off a black mug and takes a quick dunk without fuss.
Elsewhere in the Nescafé range
- Nescafe Azera Americano Decaff Instant Coffee, 90g
- Nescafe Azera Americano Instant Coffee, 140g
- Nescafe Azera Americano Intense Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 140g
- Nescafe Azera Decaf Americano Instant Coffee with Finely Ground Beans, 135g
- Nescafe Cappuccino Decaf Unsweetened Taste Instant Coffee Sachets, 7 Sachets 105g
- Nescafe Cappuccino Instant Coffee, 7 Sachets
The full range is on the Nescafé brand page.
FAQ
How many cups does a box of Americano Decaffeinato make? Sixteen. It is a single-capsule drink, so each pod makes one mug.
Is decaf coffee caffeine-free? No. Decaffeination removes most of the caffeine, but a trace always remains in the cup.
Does it taste weaker than the ordinary Americano? A little softer in the middle and a little quieter on aroma, but not hollow. It is built to fill a mug, so expect mug strength, not espresso strength.
Which setting should I use? The long-cup setting or the marked volume. The capsule is already dosed for a long drink, so there is no need to stretch it further.
Will it fit my Nespresso machine? No. It is made for Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines only, and there is no adaptor that bridges the two.
Curator's note: Keep this next to the caffeinated box and the machine earns its worktop space after supper as well. Stop at the mark; that is where it tastes fullest. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.
In short: Nescafé Dolce Gusto Americano Decaffeinato: The After-Six Pod
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Brand | Nescafé |
| Packs we stock | 16 Pods |
| Category | Decaffeinated Coffee |
| Caffeine | decaffeinated |
| Caffeine | Decaffeinated, not caffeine-free |
| Occasion | After dinner and later in the evening |
| Best with | Dark chocolate florentines or butter cookies |
More from the tea wiki
- Nescafé: The Instant Coffee Benchmark
- Tea vs Coffee: Taste, Caffeine and Switching
- Caffeine in Tea
- Tea vs Coffee
- Tea for Coffee Drinkers: Where to Start
- Chai vs Coffee
- Decaf Tea
- Chai Without the Caffeine
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