Two elements: why we started making coffee

We build chests for coffee machines. It took an embarrassingly long time to notice the obvious problem with that.

You can spend months on a chest — Nappa outside, Pepita across the face, Alcantara through the drawer, a fitted slot for the machine and another for the frother — and then the client fills it with whatever was on offer at the supermarket. The object is beautiful and the thing it produces is mediocre. Every time.

So: two elements, sealed in aluminium.

The dose is the whole argument

Here is the detail nobody puts on the front of a box.

A domestic Nespresso-compatible capsule typically carries around 5 g of coffee. The capsules used behind café counters — the Horeca professional format — carry more. Ours are filled to 5.2 g.

That difference sounds trivial and is not. Extraction is a ratio: the same volume of water pulled through more coffee produces a denser shot, a thicker and more persistent crema, and a finish that carries rather than thins out. It is the single largest variable between a capsule that tastes like a compromise and one that does not.

The second variable is the shell. Ours are aluminium, not plastic. Aluminium is the only barrier that completely blocks light, oxygen and moisture — the three things that flatten roasted coffee. Each capsule is nitrogen-flushed and sealed at filling, which is why a box opened eight months from now tastes like a box opened today.

Aluminium is also, straightforwardly, recyclable. Empty the grounds, rinse the shell, and it goes in with the household aluminium. A plastic pod does not have that ending.

Fuoco N°01 — Intenso Espresso

Intensity 10 / 12. The element that starts the day.

A dark roast built for density rather than brightness. Dark cocoa, roasted hazelnut and molasses, low acidity, a syrupy body and a crema that holds long enough to draw in. Pulled as a ristretto at 25 ml it is close to brutal, in the good sense; at 40 ml it is what most people mean when they say they want a real espresso.

It also survives milk, which is not the same as being good with milk. A cortado made with Fuoco still tastes of coffee at the end.

Terra N°02 — Brazil Single Origin

Intensity 7 / 12. The element you slow down for.

100% Brazilian Arabica, single origin. Brazil is the world's reference point for sweet, smooth, low-acid espresso, and this is that profile without apology: milk chocolate, toasted caramel, almond, and a finish that needs no sugar.

Terra is the 3pm capsule and the weekend flat white. It is also the one to give to somebody who has told you they do not really like espresso, because what they usually mean is that they do not like bitterness, and there is very little here.

What it costs

AED 1.70 a shot, in a box of ten.

We have thought about that number more than we have thought about most of our prices, because a capsule is the only thing we make that gets consumed. Everything else in the catalogue is bought once and kept. This is bought every week, and it has to be defensible every week.

The crema guarantee

If your first box does not pull a proper crema, tell us and we will refund it. Keep the capsules.

We are able to offer that because the dose and the seal make it a very safe bet, and because a coffee capsule is one of the few luxury-adjacent products where the claim can be tested in about thirty seconds by anyone.

What comes next

Two elements now. More later, numbered in the same series, each one a distinct profile rather than a variation on the last. If you want a say in which, the answer usually gets decided at The Edition Space, over a shot, with someone disagreeing with us.

Compatible with Nespresso® Original machines. Nespresso® is a registered trademark of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. Elemento Edition is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Nestlé Nespresso S.A.

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