After looking all over the internet on the Nespresso website, forums, reviews, comments etc… I found out, it’s actually kind of hard to find the amount of caffeine in Nespresso pods.
Nespresso doesn’t do a great job of listing this information all in one place for us. Down below there are tables for both the OriginalLine and VertuoLine pods that show: caffeine, intensity, acidity, bitterness, roast, and brew size.
The Sizes of Nespresso Pods & Table Guide
- Ristretto – 24.8ml/0.84oz
- Espresso – 40ml/1.35oz
- Double Espresso – 80ml/2.7oz
- Lungo – 109.4ml/3.7oz
- Gran Lungo – 150ml/5.07oz
- Mug Size – 230ml/7.77oz
- Alto – 414ml/14oz
- Pour Over – 532ml/18oz
Down below you’ll see R/E under the size column, that stands for Ristretto or Espresso.
Nespresso OriginalLine Pods
This table down below is up to date with all the pods currently listed on Nespresso. All the information on this table I had to get from the Nespresso Taiwan website. Most Nespresso websites do not list the caffeine content for any of their pods.
I’ll link it here if you wanted to check it out for yourself: https://www.nespresso.com/tw/en/
| Pod Name | Caffeine | Intensity | Acidity | Bitterness | Roast | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ispirazione Palermo Kazaar | 120mg | 12 | 1 | 5 | 5 | R/E |
| Ispirazione Napoli | 110mg | 13 | 1 | 5 | 5 | R/E |
| Cape Town Envivo | 110mg | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | Lungo |
| India | 105mg | 11 | 1 | 5 | 5 | R/E |
| Buenos Aires | 104mg | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Lungo |
| Corto | 103mg | 11 | 1 | 5 | 5 | Ristretto |
| Shenghai | 82mg | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Lungo |
| Stockholm Fortissio | 80mg | 8 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Lungo |
| Venezia | 80mg | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | R/E |
| Tokyo Vivalto | 77mg | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Lungo |
| Ispirazione Ristretto Italiano | 75mg | 10 | 3 | 4 | 4 | R/E |
| Ispirazione Roma | 73mg | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | R/E |
| Scuro | 73mg | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Ristretto |
| Volluto | 72mg | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | R/E |
| Vienna Linzio | 72mg | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Lungo |
| Indonesia | 72mg | 8 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R/E |
| Capriccio | 70mg | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Espresso |
| Cicoattino | 68mg | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Espresso |
| Vanilla Éclair | 68mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Espresso |
| Nicaragua | 65mg | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | R/E |
| Ethiopia | 65mg | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | R/E |
| Ispirazione Genova Livanto | 64mg | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | Espresso |
| Columbia | 64mg | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | R/E |
| Ispirazione Firenze Arpeggio | 63mg | 9 | 2 | 4 | 4 | Espresso |
| Cocoa Truffle | 62mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | R/E |
| Caramel Crème Brulee | 62mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | R/E |
| Cosi | 59mg | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Espresso |
| Chiaro | 49mg | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Ristretto |
Nespresso VertuoLine Pods
The VertuoLine was even more difficult to find information on, as the caffeine content isn’t listed on any official Nespresso websites from any country that I looked at. Most of this I found from direct replies from the company to customers, reddit threads, and smaller compilations made from other people.
Some of the boxes are missing information. I would appreciate it if you could comment down below, if you know any missing or wrongly written information!
You’ll also notice that some of them have a * next to the caffeine. These are my estimations on caffeine amount. I used several factors to consider how much caffeine these have, but the main two were: average mg of caffeine per shot and the types of coffee used in the pod.
The average espresso shot has around 63 – 65mg.
Coffee is usually either Arabica or Robusta. Arabica is known to taste better than Robusta, while Robusta having more caffeine than Arabica.
With those two things taken in to account, is how I placed those with a * next to them.
| Pod Name | Caffeine | Intensity | Acidity | Bitterness | Roast | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pour-Over Style | 200mg | 1 | 3 | 3 | 18 ounce | |
| Fortado | 200mg | 8 | 1 | 4 | 4 | Gran Lungo |
| Intenso XL | 190mg | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Alto |
| Dolce XL | 190mg | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Alto |
| Hazelino Muffin | 170-200mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Mug Size |
| Caramel Cookie | 170-200mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Mug Size |
| Vanilla Custard Pie | 170-200mg | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Mug Size |
| Chocolate Fudge | 170-200mg | 6 | Mug Size | |||
| Intenso | 165mg | 9 | 1 | 4 | 5 | Mug Size |
| Stormio | 165mg | 8 | 1 | 4 | 4 | Mug Size |
| Odacio | 165mg | 7 | 2 | 4 | 4 | Mug Size |
| Melozio | 165mg | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Mug Size |
| Elvazio | 165mg | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Mug Size |
| Giornio | 165mg | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Mug Size |
| Solelio | 165mg | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Mug Size |
| Mexico | 165mg* | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | Mug Size |
| Costa Rica | 165mg* | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 | Gran Lungo |
| Double Espresso Scuro | 150mg* | 8 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Double Espresso |
| Double Espresso Chiaro | 150mg* | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Double Espresso |
| Bianco Leggero | 150*mg | 3 | 1 | 1 | Double Espresso | |
| Ice Leggero | 150*mg | 3 | 1 | 1 | Double Espresso | |
| Diavolitto | 150mg | 11 | 1 | 4 | 4 | Espresso |
| Arondio | 135mg | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | Gran Lungo |
| Aflorzio | 135mg | 4 | ||||
| Vanizio | 130mg | 6 | ||||
| Colombia | 130mg* | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Mug Size |
| Altissio | 125mg | 9 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Espresso |
| Ethiopia | 120mg* | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Gran Lungo |
| Bianco Forte | 120*mg | 2 | 4 | 5 | Mug Size | |
| Ice Forte | 120*mg | 2 | 4 | 5 | Mug Size | |
| Voltesso | 85mg | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Espresso |
| Half Caffeinato | 70 mg | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Mug Size |
| Decaffeinato | 2mg or less | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | Mug Size |
Intensity
Nespresso decided to use this term “intensity” to characterize the pods. The Nespresso website says, there are 3 characteristics that define intensity: roast, body, and bitterness. My interpretation of this, based on the tables below, is that intensity is how strongly bitter the coffee is in flavor.
Although intensity doesn’t directly relate to caffeine, I think caffeine does play a part. Caffeine itself is naturally bitter, which does add to the bitterness characteristic of the pods.
The darker the roast of the coffee usually means that it’s going to be more bitter in flavor also.
So if you take caffeine, the roast, and the size you are brewing for coffee, it gives you the intensity of the coffee.
Here’s an example of how I think it works:
| Pod Name | Caffeine | Intensity | Acidity | Bitterness | Roast | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palermo Kazaar | 120mg | 12 | 1 | 5 | 5 | R/E |
| Fortado | 200mg | 8 | 1 | 4 | 4 | Lungo |
As you can see Palermo Kazaar has a higher intensity than the Fortado although it has less caffeine. It does have a darker roast, which means it’ll be more bitter than the medium-dark roast the Fortado has. But it’s also brewed in a smaller size at .84oz or 1.35oz, while Fortado is much larger at 5.07oz.
The bitter flavor is overall more concentrated in the Palermo, which leads to it having a higher “intensity.”