If Your Nespresso's Lungo Setting Is Giving You A Bitter Brew, Do This Instead

There's nothing quite like a fresh cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Making your own coffee or espresso at home offers the chance to customize it to your liking and ensure that it comes out tasting the same each day. Not to mention, there are plenty of ways to save money by making coffee at home. If you have a Nespresso machine, you have a wide array of options when it comes to the type of coffee you can make, its strength, and even its flavor. This variety, however, can make for a learning curve as you adjust to using your Nespresso.

Making a bitter-tasting lungo coffee is a prime example of a common mishap that occurs when you use Nespresso's customization features. Using this Nespresso tip for personalizing your coffee can open up plenty of possibilities for experimentation with your morning brew, but it may take a little time to master. The key? It's all in the amount of water you use. 

The best way to make sure your lungo doesn't come out bitter and watered down is to use a shorter shot. This means holding down for less time on the button so you don't overbrew and end up with excess, dirty-tasting water in your cup. Making a shorter shot on the lungo setting of your Nespresso can prevent the coffee from coming out too bitter. If you program your machine to brew a lungo shot that is too long, you'll cause excess water to come out through the capsule, diluting the strength and creating a bitter taste from the brewed grounds inside.

Successfully brewing a smooth, delicious lungo coffee may take a little practice. The Vertuo line of Nespresso machines uses customized pods designed specifically for the Vertuo line, and they can't be used in any of the other models that require the smaller capsules. The Vertuo line is unique in that each pod has a barcode that tells the machine what type of coffee to make, including the shot size. If your machine uses capsules, however, you can actually program your machine to brew the exact size shot you want.

Programming your Nespresso machine is the best way to customize the exact amount of coffee you would like brewed in a lungo. The process is simple: Turn on your machine and wait until the two buttons stop blinking green. Open the lever on the front and place your capsule inside, and a cup under the spout. When you're ready to brew, hold down on the lungo button (which has the larger cup icon), and keep pressure on the button until the exact amount of coffee you want is in the cup. Once you lift your finger off the button, the machine will stop brewing.

You might want to practice this by starting on the shorter side, tasting the lungo, and deciding whether you want more or less water the next time you make one. Depending on your Nespresso model, you can always reset the lungo amount you first programmed — usually by holding down on both buttons until they blink to let you know they have reset and will need to be programmed again. If you aren't sure how to do this on your specific machine, refer to the user manual for guidance.