Now In Nespresso News: Another Day, Another Single-Cup Brewing System Makes Its Debut

Beep boop bop, we’re robots. (Nestle)

Sitting high atop the lofty Green Mountain — made entirely of coffee beans, natch — sits Old Man Keurig on his Green Mountain Coffee Roasters throne. He surveys his coffee kingdom with satisfaction, after all, it’s 3/4 of the single-serving brewer market. But what’s that, on the horizon? A challenger is riding in from Europe — Nespresso.

Fairy tales of bearded old men aside, Nespresso is making its move to grab a piece of the single-serve brewing system bonanza in the U.S., and it knows that size is the way to our hearts: The company’s new brewer — the VertuoLine — makes larger, American-sized portions as well as the smaller espressos favored in Europe. It goes on sale this week in the U.S. and Canada.

This points its parent company Nestle in direct competition with the reigning leaders at Green Mountain. And while Nespresso does well enough, with a 35% share of the global market, it’s got its work cut out for it challenging Green Mountain, which controls more than three-quarters of the market here, reports Reuters.

It sounds like Green Mountain is game for a little competition, though.

“We’ll watch it like we watch all of them,” Green Mountain Chief Executive Brian Kelley told Reuters. Oooh, stone cold, guy. Stone cold.

Green Mountain isn’t just sitting back and enjoying its position — it’s pushing out new products as ewll, including the new Keurig 2.0 due in fall, which uses both single-serve “K-Cups” and larger-sized “K-Carafe” packs that brew 28 ounces of coffee.

“We want a brewer on every counter and we want a beverage for every occasion of the day,” said Kelley, before turning back to his cool coffee castle on the mountain in the sky.

Previously in single-serve brewing news: Soda In A Pod? Coke Buys Stake In Green Mountain Coffee To Make Its Dreams Come True

Nespresso takes aim at Green Mountain’s Keurig with big-cup brewer [Reuters]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist