Nespresso’s coffee pod advent calendar has dropped – I had a sneak peek at what’s inside and the surprise behind door 24

by Furnishly | Nov 5, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Nespresso’s pod coffee advent calendar has made a return for 2025, with a shiny new design and limited edition festive flavours waiting behind the doors.

Now available for £43 for the Vertuo version or £39 for Original pods via Nespresso, these calendars make a great gift for anyone with one of the best Nespresso machines in their kitchen, as well as a serving as a practical way of topping up your loved one’s coffee supplies.

I’ve got my hands on the Nespresso offering for this year to check out how it compares to the other coffee advent calendars I’ve tried. Here’s what I thought of this year’s Vertuo design.

The breakdown of the Vertuo calendar (which is the one I’ve tried out) is as follows: 17 standard coffee pods, 4 flavoured pods and 3 decaffeinated pods. With 25 doors to open in total and (spoiler alert) a Nespresso mug thrown in for good measure, there’s plenty to unwrap here.

Within that selection, you’ll find a limited-edition black coffee and two new flavoured coffees as well as the porcelain mug designed by Kenyan artist Thandiwe Muriu.

After trying the calendar out for myself and trialling a few of the doors, I found this calendar to be high quality in the materials, with a Festive Double Espresso waiting for me behind one of the doors. The other festive flavours include Sweet Almond & Hibiscus and Cinnamon & Candied Tamarind.

For those with a Nespresso machine, this dedicated pod calendar would make a great gift. But there are plenty of other hot drink advent calendars on the market alongside this one if your gift recipient is more into speciality coffee, alternative drinks or one of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines. Here are the ones I’ve tried alongside this one.

If you’re a coffee lover, one of these advent calendars is the perfect way to get into the festive spirit without accumulating clutter that you’ll need to get rid of in January. Now all I need to do is wait for the 1st of December to come around…

If someone gave me this gorgeous coffee advent calendar as a gift I’d be so impressed – it features a different speciality coffee for every day of December

by Furnishly | Oct 16, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Pact Coffee has unveiled a new coffee advent calendar for 2025, with 25 portions of ground or whole bean coffee to unwrap every day in December for the price of £39.95 (via Pact Coffee).

I know what you’re thinking, it’s far too soo to be discussing advent calendars. But at the rate that these products sell out, it’s worth highlighting the ones that are actually worth your time.

And with an eye-catching, intricate gilded design and a focus on quality (with a range of origins, roasts and flavours on offer), this wouldn’t just make a fabulous countdown for yourself, but would also put you in good stead with whoever you gift it to, especially those with one of the best coffee machines. Here’s a full look at it.

I’m an advent calendar skeptic – most of the time it feels like brands take spare stock and shove them into a product with a much higher RRP for Christmastime, which doesn’t feel very festive to me.

That’s not the case with this, which has beans to last you throughout December with each parcel working out as about £1.60 in value. For that price, you don’t just get run of the mill coffee. You’re treated to exclusive limited edition coffees from the speciality coffee brand (I’m praying Pact’s Bourbon Cream Espresso blend is going to be in there), customer favourites and ‘rare micro-lots’ too.

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The thing that initially impressed me most with this calendar is the packaging. I opted for the wholebean version (to use with my beloved Ninja Luxe Café Pro machine) which comes in an emerald green with delicate gold accents, including illustrations of all of your standard coffee apparatus including a gilded mokka pot. I reckon it would make a very impressive gift.

This isn’t a traditional calendar design with pull-out drawers or doors, but it does mark each day with a pouch of coffee (of course) and a profile card which describes what you’re drinking and where it’s from, as well as giving tasting notes.

So if you’re more of an edible and drinkable advent calendar person or if you have a caffeine addict in your life that you need to tick off a Christmas gift for, I’m all in for this version from Pact. Now I just need to wait for December to roll around!

Cuisinart has a new small-kitchen-friendly collection of coffee machines to create a cosy café feel at home, with every budget covered

by Furnishly | Oct 15, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Cuisinart has unveiled a host of brand new coffee machines, including multiple bean-to-cup and espresso options, for those looking to create a cosy café feel at home.

This new collection, which includes a compact coffee grinder which will set you back just £24.99 (via Cuisinart), comes as a slew of rivals also attempt to create the best coffee machine for even the smallest kitchens – it’s hot on the heels of releases from Breville and Ninja just this month.

The most expensive machine in the range? That’ll be the Cuisinart Grind, Tamp and Brew Espresso Machine, which will set you back over £400 more than that small coffee grinder and promises to guide you through every step of the coffee-making process. Here’s a full look at this brand new collection.

The two bean-to-cup machines in this collection occupy very different spaces, with varying designs.

While the automatic version is designed for those who want to grab and go with their morning americano on their way to work, the more expensive Grind, Tamp and Brew offers more customisation and gives you that hands-on feel of being a barista in your own home. It will take a little longer to extract a coffee from it though.

Another highlight of the Grind, Tamp and Brew machine is its cold extraction setting, which gives customers access to cold brew at home which takes only a short time to dispense. It also has assisted tamping, just like the newer Ninja Luxe Café Pro series machine (which I recently awarded 5 stars to in my review).

The most affordable option is the brand’s Slim Espresso machine, which has 15-bar pressure and cold brew capability (just like Smeg’s much more expensive release), setting you back £179.99. It’s also a serious space saver at just 15.5cm wide.

With Black Friday just around the corner, it’s worth keeping an eye on the price of all of these brand new coffee releases as you might just be able to bag a bargain in November. I’d definitely decide which of these machines you want to bookmark for the sales!

Smeg’s slim coffee machine can fit perfectly into smaller kitchens – plus it has a brand new cold brew setting

by Furnishly | Sep 25, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Italian appliance brand Smeg has unveiled a brand new espresso machine, this time with cold brew functionality built-in.

The ECF03 Manual Espresso & Cold Brew Coffee Machine is available to buy now from Smeg’s website for £499.95 and is available in a lovely palette of four different colours: Black, White, Cream and Pastel Blue.

Smeg already has a reputation for making some of the best-looking coffee machines on the market. And for those with small kitchens, the slim profile of this machine will definitely appeal. I tried this machine out prior to its general release to see how it shapes up. Here’s what I learned.

The USP of this machine is the cold brew setting, which Smeg says can dispense fresh cold brew espresso in two minutes for a single shot and four minutes for a double shot.

Another quirk of this machine is the opportunity to set the temperature of the shot that you pull with it. The brand say that while lower temperatures are perfect for light roasts, higher temperatures suit darker roasts well.

When I had a coffee from this machine this week pre-launch, the barista was keen to stress the importance of the Thermoblock heating system with this machine. When you use the cold brew function, the machine will bypass the heating system and use ambient water for a smoother-tasting drink.

It’s hard to deny the quality of this Smeg machine after seeing it up close too. It takes up a small footprint on a worktop, comes with a weighty 58mm portafilter and is finished with the classic lettering along the front. The pressure gauge is also great for when pulling those aforementioned espressos.

There’s a milk frother too, located on the front right, which Smeg calls the Professional Steam Wand. It’s not automatic, as with machines like the Ninja Luxe Café, so you’ll have to perfect your latte art skills yourself.

This cold-brew-capable machine is very pricey, at almost £500, but it’s still a step down in RRP from Smeg’s more expensive bean-to-cup offering, the EGF03, which we reviewed and added to our list of the best bean to cup coffee machines.

If you love the idea of barista-style coffee at home but you can’t picture yourself picking up the skills needed to pull an espresso shot or froth milk, Smeg also has automatic options. We reviewed one, the BCC13BLMUK, which our expert awarded four stars to.

How do you think this new espresso machine shapes up? Would you invest in it for the price?

A brand new Ninja coffee machine has dropped and it’s £300 cheaper than the sellout Luxe Café – here’s everything it can do

by Furnishly | Sep 24, 2025 | Design Inspiration

Ninja has unveiled a brand new coffee machine, the Prestige DualBrew System (£249.99 via Ninja) which combines filter coffee and pods for those looking for more versatility in their kitchen.

After the huge success of the Ninja Luxe Café, which I reckon is the best coffee machine for most people as per my five-star review, it’s no surprise to see Ninja branching out into the realm of filter coffee.

And there are plenty of features to get excited about with this machine as well as the much lower RRP compared to the Luxe Café – there’s a £300 difference. So if you’re less of an espresso drinker and more into coffee you can keep sipping all day, here’s what the DualBrew can do.

First, let’s talk about the filter coffee capabilities of this machine. Filter coffee is nowhere near as popular in the UK as it is in the US, but there’s a growing interest with machines like the Moccamaster (which we’ve reviewed) wowing customers.

Luckily, as with all Ninja appliances, this machine looks so straightforward to use, so even if you are new to filter coffee, it should be easy to get into.

The system comes with a ‘Smart Scoop’, which you use to add your ground coffee. From there, you can choose between three brew styles – Classic, Rich and Over Ice and pick from 10 different drink sizes, all the way up to a 1.8 litre carafe.

This machine is kitted out with Thermal Flavour Extraction technology, according to Ninja, as well as an XL shower head for infusing your filter coffee. There’s also a Keep Warm setting, which you can adjust, which you can use to keep your carafe at an optimal temperature while you work from home or host.

The other draw with this machine is the choice to use pods, if you still want the simple convenience of slotting one in and pressing one button. And as this machine is compatible with Nespresso original capsules, it means you can buy cheaper supermarket alternatives and still have them fit.

And if you thought that was it, then you’re mistaken as this machine has a secret weapon – a pull out milk frother on the left hand side which you can use to whisk milk for hot or cold drinks. That seems like great value to me for the price tag of this machine.

What do you think of this brand new Ninja machine? Does the price make it more appealing than the Luxe Café?