Krups Essenza Mini Review: The Best Compact Pod Machine for Small Kitchens?

Coffee machines have a habit of taking over the kitchen. Take Bean-to-cup models for example; they can make excellent coffee, but they also claim a fairly large amount of worktop space.

You won’t find this problem with the Krups Essenza Mini. At just 8.4cm wide, it is genuinely tiny, narrow enough to squeeze beside a kettle, fit into a small flat kitchen or sit on a desk in a home office. Plus, despite that, it still uses Nespresso’s Original capsule system, offers 19-bar pressure and heats up in around 25 seconds.

So, is the Krups Essenza Mini actually a good compact coffee machine, or has Krups made one compromise too many in the name of saving space?

The quick answer

Best for: small kitchens, flats, offices and single or dual-person households.
Where it shines: tiny footprint and almost no learning curve.
Where it falls short: the 0.6-litre water tank needs refilling more often than larger machines.
Price: £116.99 on Amazon (subject to change)
Drinks: espresso and lungo.
Worth buying? Yes, if you want quick Nespresso coffee without giving up half your worktop.

Check out the Krups Essenza Mini on Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3U8pGiV

It really is small

“Compact” gets used pretty generously in appliance marketing, but the Essenza Mini earns it.

Krups lists the machine at 204mm high, 330mm deep and only 84mm wide, with a weight of around 2.3kg. Meaning it’ll take up less space than your average kettle.

For a small kitchen, that matters. It can fit into narrow gaps that would rule out most bean-to-cup machines, and at 2.3kg it is easy enough to move if you need the space back.

The design is equally stripped back and simple: two drink buttons, a removable 0.6-litre water tank, a drip tray and a container for around five or six used capsules. No touchscreen, no app and no endless settings.

In this case, that simplicity feels more like a feature than something missing.

What is it actually like to use?

The routines nice and easy: fill the tank, insert a Nespresso Original capsule and press either espresso or lungo.

Krups quotes a 25-second heat-up time, so this is very much a “coffee before leaving the house” machine rather than one aimed at people who enjoy spending ten minutes adjusting grinders and weighing beans. The two drink volumes can also be programmed if you prefer a slightly longer or shorter cup.

The 19-bar pump sounds impressive on a spec sheet, but the everyday advantage is consistency. There is no grinding, dosing or tamping, and very little chance of completely ruining a cup before work in the morning.

T3’s hands-on review reached a similar conclusion, praising the Essenza Mini for its straightforward operation and consistent espresso, while also finding it relatively quiet compared with some larger machines.

Will it beat freshly ground beans from a good bean-to-cup machine? Probably not. But that isn’t really the point. The Essenza Mini trades some of that potential quality for speed, convenience and a footprint that is hard to beat.

If you’re still deciding which type of machine suits you best, our Tassimo vs Nespresso vs bean-to-cup comparison breaks down the difference in costs, quality, and convenience.

The small tank is the main compromise

There had to be one.

The 0.6-litre water tank is perfectly reasonable for one or two people making a couple of coffees, but larger households will notice it quickly. The used-capsule container is also small, holding roughly five or six capsules before it needs emptying.

That makes the Essenza Mini a poor fit for making coffee for a queue of people. If you have plenty of kitchen space and regularly make four or five drinks back-to-back, a larger machine will probably be more convenient.

In a flat, office or smaller household, though, the compromise makes much more sense.

And that’s really the theme of this Essenza Mini review: almost every limitation comes back to the fact that the machine is tiny. The tank is small because the machine is small. The capsule bin is small because the machine is small. Whether those are genuine problems depends entirely on how many coffees you’re expecting it to make.

What about cappuccinos and lattes?

This is probably the clearest reason not to buy it.

There’s no built-in milk frother. The machine itself offers espresso and lungo, so cappuccinos, flat whites and lattes need milk to be heated and frothed separately.

That’s hardly a problem if you mostly drink espresso or black coffee, but if your default order is a latte every morning, its going to remove some of the one-button convenience.

There’s also a quirky side effect: buy a separate milk frother and place it beside the Essenza Mini, and you immediately start eating into some of the worktop space you saved by buying such a tiny machine in the first place.

Running costs are worth thinking about

For £116.99, the machine itself is relatively simple, but pod costs are something worth considering before buying.

Every cup uses an individual capsule, which is certainly convenient but will generally cost more over time than buying loose beans or ground coffee.

The upside is choice. Nespresso’s Original range covers numerous espresso and lungo styles, while the machine can also work with compatible Original-format capsules.

Then there’s the waste question. Nespresso does operate a free UK recycling system for used aluminium capsules, including drop-off points and collection options, but it still relies on actually saving and returning the capsules rather than putting them straight in the bin.

Who should actually buy the Krups Essenza Mini?

Buy it if:

Worktop space is genuinely limited.
You mainly make coffee for one or two people.
You want simplicity in your coffee making
You already like the Nespresso Original system.

Skip it if:

You regularly make several coffees back-to-back.
You want one-touch cappuccinos or lattes.
You’re looking for the lowest possible cost per cup.
Freshly ground coffee matters more to you than convenience.

The verdict

The Krups Essenza Mini is easy to underestimate because there simply isn’t much to it — and that’s exactly why it works.

It doesn’t try to compete with a £500 bean-to-cup machine or turn you into a home barista. It makes espresso and lungo quickly, consistently and with very little mess, while occupying an almost comically small amount of kitchen space.

For a large household, the little tank and capsule container could become annoying fairly quickly. For one or two people in a flat or smaller kitchen, those compromises are much easier to accept.

If what you actually want is a small pod coffee maker that can sit quietly in the corner and produce a decent coffee in under a minute, the Krups Essenza Mini remains a very sensible choice.

At the time of writing, the machine is available through Amazon UK at £116.99, although the price, colour and individual seller can change.

Check out the Krups Essenza Mini on Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3U8pGiV

Quick FAQ

Does the Krups Essenza Mini use Nespresso Original pods?
Yes. The Essenza Mini uses Nespresso Original capsules rather than the larger Vertuo capsule system.

How big is the water tank?
The removable water tank holds 0.6 litres.

Can the Essenza Mini make lattes?
Yes, but not by itself. You’ll need a separate milk frother and can then use an Essenza Mini espresso as the base for a latte, cappuccino or flat white.

Is the Krups Essenza Mini good for a small kitchen?
That’s arguably where it makes the most sense. At only 8.4cm wide, its footprint is considerably smaller than most full-sized coffee machines.