Nescafé Dolce Gusto Café au Lait Intenso: More Coffee in the Milk

The usual complaint about all-in-one milk pods is that they taste weak, because the coffee has to share the capsule with the milk. Intenso answers that with a darker roast, which packs more coffee character into the same small space.

Why a darker roast in a milk pod

A single pod that holds both coffee and milk has a fixed amount of room, and the milk takes a good share of it. Roasting the coffee darker is how Intenso gives it enough presence to come through: more roast character per gram, so what you taste first is coffee, with the milk in support. Expect a roasty, darker profile rather than a sugary one; it is the pod to try if the ordinary café au lait tasted thin to you.

The milk is there to give the mug some substance, but it stays in a supporting role so the roast remains audible. Sweetness is modest. It is not sold as unsweetened, yet it sits well away from the flavoured boxes and does not turn sickly by the bottom of the mug. Expect a medium, clean body under a thin crema rather than the stacked look of a two-capsule drink.

Café au lait or latte?

A latte is an Italian idea: milk steamed to a texture, built up in the glass and meant to be looked at. The French café au lait is different: strong coffee topped up with hot milk, taken from a bowl alongside bread, and made for warmth and volume rather than presentation. That is why a café au lait suits a single pod so well, because there are no layers to keep apart.

So if you want a layered look, a two-capsule latte or cappuccino is the box to buy. If you want a full mug of white coffee in the morning without opening the fridge, this is the one. The milk comes from the pod rather than a jug, and it will never taste quite like fresh milk, but it gives a generous cup from one capsule.

Sixteen cups and one control

Nearly every other milk drink for the Dolce Gusto needs two capsules for each cup, one of coffee and one of milk, so sixteen of them give eight. Here the coffee and milk share a pod, and sixteen pods make sixteen cups. In practice you can count it like a box of black coffee even though it makes a milky one, which makes stock easy to keep track of.

Because milk and coffee leave the same pod together, water volume is your only control. Keep to the mark printed on the capsule instead of topping up the mug, since a longer pour dilutes both at once. The pods fit Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines only; a Nespresso or a Tassimo will not take them, and no adaptor makes them fit.

The packs we stock

• Nescafe Dolce Gusto 16 x Café Au Lait Intenso Coffee (barcode 7613036069786)

What to eat with it

• Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies, 340g: Butter cookies stand in for the bread of a French breakfast and take a dip into a wide cup well.
• Thomas Fudge's 6 Dark Chocolate Florentines: Dark chocolate florentines match the darker roast and make a richer partner for a weekend mid-morning cup.
• Lu Le Petit Cookie with Chunky Rich Chocolate Chips, 184g: Chunky chocolate chips give the darker roast something rich to meet, and a cookie is easy to dip into a broad breakfast mug.

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

What does Intenso mean on a café au lait pod? It marks the stronger, darker-roasted version of the two café au lait pods, so the coffee reads through the milk.

Is it sixteen drinks or eight? Sixteen. The coffee and milk are in one pod, so each pod makes one cup.

What is the difference between a café au lait and a latte? A latte is Italian, textured steamed milk built to be admired; a café au lait is French, strong coffee opened out with hot milk and drunk from a bowl.

Is it sweet? Only a little. The sweetness is low and well short of the flavoured boxes, though it is not sold as unsweetened.

Which machine does it fit? Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines only. A Nespresso or Tassimo cannot take it.

Curator's note: If milky pods have always tasted weak to you, start with this one. Keep to the line and have something ready to dip in it. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Nescafé Dolce Gusto Café au Lait Intenso: More Coffee in the Milk

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

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