I once shared a flat with a friend who brought her traditional espresso machine to live with us. She was messy, and her machine was even messier. Hot milk spluttered everywhere and coffee grounds sat in drifts around my kitchen - it put me right off such machines. Now, many years later, my heart has been quite won over by this machine. It's tiny, wee, sits right next to my kettle and the whole time I'm out walking the dog each morning I think longingly about the coffee I'll have when I get home. Only trouble is I'm starting to have two coffees a day, sometimes even three.... and they are delicious.
You just switch the power button on and it heats up in a minute or two, ready to go. Then you pop in a pod of ready-ground coffee, slip a cup under the spout and press go. With a little practice you'll know which of the many Nespresso coffees you prefer, how much water, whether you want milk and so on. Yes the pod system is a little pretentious - you join the Nespresso Club and order pods 50 at a time which are delivered to your home (so you have to have somewhere to store the boxes). But it does taste really fresh and it's hugely cheaper than a Starbucks habit. No mess, the aeroccino makes great latte or capuccino when you're in the mood, and it's hot but not too hot to drink straight away.
I use the water from my water filter which (a) makes delicious coffee (London water is too hard to make really nice coffee) and (b) means I don't have to descale my machine. It's incredibly easy to refill the water supply and clean out the old coffee pods - I just wish I could find an easy way to recycle them.
I spent a couple of months deciding whether or not to buy it and then got it in January. Four months later I'm even more pleased with it than when I first bought it. A great product.