The coffee sold at most cafes and coffee shops is a luxury few can afford daily. At P150 to P200 a pop, it can and does add up.
Fortunately, there are dozens of tabletop coffee makers, depending on one’s budget, that can replicate the coffee-shop experience in the privacy of one’s home.
The newest one is Nescafe Red Mug, targeted at those who drink coffee regularly at home but aspire for the cafe experience, as well. Unlike other coffee makers or coffee presses that use individually sealed pods or freshly ground coffee, Red Mug uses regular Nescafe Classic and Nestle Coffee-Mate that are widely available.
In as short as two minutes, one can make foamy cappuccino, layered latte, cafe mocha or Americano. Creative types can also make their own coffee drinks, which is exactly what happened at the launch held recently.
Local celebrities and Red Mug machine ambassadors Raymond Gutierrez, Denise Laurel and Bianca King came up with their own concoctions. Because he prefers his coffee cold, Raymond had his iced, Denise added a dollop of cookie butter to hers, and Bianca made a mocha version by adding chocolate to her Nescafe Classic.
Easy to use
The most important thing to remember when using the Red Mug machine is to put only coffee into the receptacle; everything else—Coffee-Mate, sugar, cocoa powder, flavored syrups—goes into the cup that should be in place before the machine is turned on.
“With Red Mug, we’ve taken our heritage product, which is Nescafe Classic, and set it for success in the future,” said Gino Abano, Nescafe vice president-consumer marketing manager.
“Nescafe already sells the Dolce Gusto machine which is our premium coffee maker, while Red Mug is geared toward those who normally drink soluble or instant coffee at home,” Abano added.
Red Mug was first launched in Thailand last year; the Philippines is the second Asian country where it was rolled out.
“We purposely launched it in time for Christmas,” said Emma Chavarot, soluble system business development manager for Nestle Philippines. “We expect it to click with the market because you can really create the coffee that you like, complete with separate layers of coffee and foam.”
Red Mug is available at select SM, Robinsons, Landmark, Puregold and Merkado Supermarket branches in Metro Manila at the introductory price of P1,999 until the end of the year.
Each package will include a transparent glass mug,
100-gram pack of Nescafe Classic and 250-gram pack of Nestle Coffee-Mate. For details, log on to www.nescafe.com.ph.
Follow the author on Twitter @raoulcheekee and Instagram @raoulck
