Nespresso Owners Say Lighter Capsules Brew Weaker Coffee

Some Nespresso owners say their capsules now hold less coffee for the same price, and that the cup tastes thinner for it, Money.ca reports. The complaints are coming from Reddit and Facebook, and Nespresso Canada hasn’t publicly acknowledged any change.

According to Money.ca, a Canadian poster in the Nespresso subreddit said the company told them it had heard no feedback about the taste changing, and other posters said customer service suggested their machine was the problem. One owner who compared an old pod with a new one side by side said they got refunds on two big orders. Money.ca also points to a Facebook post, first covered by Tasting Table, showing two boxes of Maple Pecan pods: the newer box lists 108 grams of coffee, the older one 125.

The clearest paper trail is in Israel. Per Money.ca, the daily Israel Hayom reported cuts of up to 0.6 grams per pod there starting in August 2024, and Nespresso’s own Israeli site says the new Original Maple Pecan recipe uses 0.4 grams less coffee per capsule. Nestlé’s Israeli arm called it a global “optimization” that keeps the flavor. A reviewer also published what he says is an internal memo about a 2026 Vertuo recipe change with slightly less coffee per capsule; Money.ca says it hasn’t verified the memo, and Nespresso didn’t answer its request for comment.

Money.ca does the math on the Maple Pecan box: about 14% less coffee, which works out to roughly 16% more per gram if the price holds.

Our take: check the net weight on the sleeve before you reorder, and compare cost per gram, not per pod. Original machine owners can shorten the cup size, which we covered in how to reprogram an Original machine, and they have plenty of compatible pods to switch to. Vertuo owners can only stop the brew early.