Now, you can finally bring Nespresso home
Raise a glass: Nespresso officially comes to Manila with a launch at Peninsula’s Old Manila. Shown (from left) are Philippines Vending Corp. CEO Herwin See, Nespresso regional head of B2C Asia Lai Ching Kok, Novateur Coffee Concepts marketing head Millet Valdez and Novateur Coffee Concepts managing director Patrick Pesengco. Photos by WALTER BOLLOZOS
Anyone who travels even a little bit knows that Nespresso, the Swiss coffee maker, is the beverage of choice in hotels around the world in 69 countries.
And now, Manila is bringing it home.
At a special launch in Manila Peninsula’s Old Manila, Nespresso revealed plans to open a Nespresso boutique here by this December (the Makati location is still a secret), and rolled out its snazzy line of home Nespresso machines — available at Rustan’s Makati, Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza as well as Abenson BGC — that will definitely make the morning caffeine ritual a whole lot brighter.
With models ranging from the ultra-cute Essenza Mini (retailing at about P6,500) to the fancier Latissima Touch with built-in frother and temperature control (about P26,000), Nespresso now sees enough coffee culture potential in Manila to bring those iconic pod/capsule-based machines to your very own kitchen.
With a new website that allows you to order pods and accessories for home delivery (www.nespresso.ph), the Lausanne, Switzerland company, locally distributed by Novateur Coffee Concepts Inc., plans to transform the in-home market with its singular coffee experience.
To underscore how special Nespresso’s arrival is, chef Sunshine Puey prepared a special Nespresso drink, blending Capriccio Grand Cru with a Filipino touch — toasted coconut — as the media sampled the goods. Open the pod bay doors, Hal, because we’re about to take a coffee odyssey through 24 variants of Nespresso flavor.
Says Patrick Pesengco, managing director of Novateur Coffee Concepts Inc., “It’s a milestone for Manila. Nespresso is not just known as a luxury, premium brand — it’s also the infrastructure behind the machine, the level of service.”
That service, aided by the local website, ensures you can now register online to purchase pods, machines and other items and have them home-delivered. Not only that, but Novateur marketing head Millet Valdez promises Nespresso’s online Customer Relations Center will not only troubleshoot and service your Nespresso machine, “They’ll pick up your unit from your home, and while it’s being serviced, you get a ‘loaner’ so you won’t be without your Nespresso for a day!” (She calls this “uninterrupted coffee experience.”)
Lai Ching Kok, Nespresso regional head of B2C Asia, added: “We ride on a great track record with Patrick’s out-of-home Nespresso market; now we’re happy to grow the B2C, in-home category.” She notes the Essenza Mini — available in red, silver and black designs — is being launched here even before Singapore.
Valdez raised a toast to Nespresso’s official launch, saying, “It’s pleasant news for those who take coffee seriously, who see coffee as not just a habit, but as a moment and experience in everyday life.”
Chef Puey also capped off a terrific lunch with her own dessert creation: mocha ganache and coffee crumble with coffee-fig ice cream. (Seriously, you didn’t need to order additional coffee with this dessert.)
It’s worth noting that before Nespresso, there was no capsule premium coffee maker on the market. Formed in 1986, the company works with 70,000 farmers in 12 countries to source the top 1-2 percent of world coffee beans for its Grand Cru blends.
Those aluminum capsules seal in the freshness of coffee, but here’s something else you’ll be happy to know: in Manila, you can soon recycle your used capsules at the Nespresso boutique. Aluminum is ideal for recycling, and the boutique will have bags available to place your spent pods (even the used coffee grounds will be recycled for fertilizer).
Pesengco says the time is right for Manila to bring Nespresso into their homes: “Nespresso is a premium lifestyle brand, and now, it’s ready. We have the third wave of coffee culture.” The focus on the website to order and style your personal flavor profiles speaks for a growing market in the under-30s. And really, with the Essenza Mini starting at P6,500, they may not be able to resist.
As we enjoyed the Old Manila lunch, the coffee and chef Puey’s handcrafted dessert, the latest Nespresso ad by longtime celeb endorser George Clooney aired on the website (it features him in a typically roguish-comic role, literally taken for a ride for smiling at tough guy Ian McShane’s wife at a Nespresso bar). “We hope he can come here someday,” says Rashmi Leano, Novateur e-commerce specialist. No doubt he’ll order an espresso.
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In the Philippines, Nespresso is exclusively distributed by Novateur Coffee Concepts Inc. and is available at Rustan’s Makati, Rustan’s Shangri-La Plaza and Abenson BGC.
