U & Me and Padma

Nespresso is launching a new machine – the U with the help of Top Chef host and Nespresso Brand Ambassador Padma Lakshmi.

I love coffee – and I especially love the coffee made for me by my husband first thing in the morning using our ‘vintage’ Nespresso D250 machine. It’s one of the original versions – no automatic loading here but a manual load and lock – like on a traditional espresso machine. Here’s the thing – if it’s not broken why change it? Plus it makes very good cups of coffee – consistently for 8 plus years – day in day out, with only a little routine maintenance. However, now I’ve seen the U machine I’m tempted – not only will it take up a lot less counter space but it will also do everything for me at the touch of  a button – hardest part will be deciding which color to get. Don’t you just love the orange one that matches Padma’s dress, although I don’t see it for sale on the Nespresso site.

There’s one thing that’s always niggled me about drinking Nespresso – the impact on the environment with all those little aluminum capsules. Well it turns out I can re-cycle them and Nespresso uses the aluminum as the casing for its Pixie machines. All I have to do is save up the used capsules and take them to a Nespresso collection point [Here in LA there’s the Nespresso Boutique at Bloomingdales in Century City and Sur La Table at the Grove].

As well as learning about the recycling program I also learned that the coffee bean is a misnomer for the seed of the coffee plant – now you know!

Padma created a really tasty spicy variation on a regular Nespresso that is perfect for Fall using cardamom. “It will impress your dinner party guests,” Padma told us as she quickly stirred up her cardamom cappuccino. Now I’ve always thought of coffee as a little like dessert and I’m thinking this cardamom cappuccino would make the perfect base for a coffee cardamom panna cotta – will get back to you with a recipe soon. In the meantime enjoy the warm coffee.

Cardamom Cappuccino

1 teaspoon ground almonds, plus more to garnish
1/4 teaspoon powdered green cardamom (more if like Padma you like more spice)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
pinch of nutmeg to garnish

Stir all the ingredients into the Nespresso cappuccino (Padma likes to use an Indriya capsule) and garnish with some more almonds and a pinch of nutmeg.

Nespresso With Padma Lakshmi from Lucy Lean on Vimeo.