Eco Coffee Pod & Coffee FAQs

We offer both a standard and expedited delivery service within the United Kingdom and will soon offer Ireland, EU and international shipping options.

Meantime, here’s a summary of our delivery options and offerings:

• All orders are delivered via a tracked postal service, with updates available if you provide contact details at checkout.
• Order before 1pm (Mon-Fri) and your order will be packed and dispatched on the same day. Orders placed after 1pm will be dispatched the next working day.

FREE SHIPPING on all orders over £22:
Free delivery is available within the UK only and is sent via a tracked 48hr service. To qualify for this you must have spent £22 after any discount is applied; offer does not apply to gift subscriptions.

EXPEDITED SHIPPING options & services:
If your order is under £22 or you need your coffee fast (we know that feeling!) then please choose one of our expedited services:

> Standard: Tracked 48hr 0-2kg @ £2.99 – Your order will be handed to the courier who should deliver it within 2 working days of dispatch. (i.e. 2-3 working days).
> Expedited: Tracked 24hr 0-2kg @ £3.99 – Your order will be handed to the courier who should deliver it within 1 working day of dispatch. (i.e. 1-2 working days).

Once your order has been processed you’ll receive a confirmation message from us to say your order is complete together with your invoice. This means it’s been packed up and is on its way to you. You’ll then get a further email from our shipping partners

Many of our orders are despatched and delivered via Hermes. The tracking and delivery emails will be marked as coming from “Huboo Technologies” (our fulfilment house in Bristol) so if you have any parcel tracking queries or want to divert or have your order re-delivered then we would definitely recommend downloading the Hermes app via Google Play (Android phones) or the Apple App Store.

Here you can set preferences for all your parcel deliveries including your ‘safe place’ and any delivery instructions if you’re not going to be in. You can also choose a neighbour your courier should deliver to (or whether they should avoid any specific neighbours) so it’s super useful. You can also contact them via their website or by using their chatbot called Holly for 24/7 help.

Depending on what delivery service you chose at checkout, please allow up to 5 business days for your delivery to reach you. If you chose the expedited service then please allow at least 2 business days.

If after those times you have still not received your order please do get in contact with us.

If you have any issues with your order, whether it’s been damaged in transit or it has not turned up and it’s been at least 5 business days since you placed your order then please do contact us so our small team can help you and resolve any issues. Where appropriate we will of then arrange a replacement, return or refund.

All customers will receive an invoice once their order has been dispatched. This will come attached to the dispatch confirmation email you receive. If for any reason you don’t receive this or can’t locate it please get in contact and we can resupply you with it.

You can also create a customer account on checkout or via the My Account area and then all your invoices with be available via your Orders page.

While we currently just offer delivery within the UK, we will soon offer more extensive shipping options for Europe and the rest of the world. Thanks for your patience and we hope it won’t be long before we offer this solution!

If you’re asking yourself “how do I reprogram a Nespresso machine” then you’re in the right place!

Re-calibrating your Nespresso® machine is vital to get the very best from our Blue Goose eco coffee pods!

Your Nespresso® machine comes preprogrammed to deliver a Nespresso®-capsule-specific amount of water but our Organic Peruvian, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Organic Swiss Water® Decaf eco coffee pods are best enjoyed as a 25ml Ristretto or a 35ml Espresso. Our Lungo pod is best enjoyed as an 80ml shot length too (Nespresso® Lungo setting is normally 110ml) so you’ll want to reprogram your Nespresso® machine as the coffee to water ratio is key to achieving the best possible coffee from our eco capsule range.

We’d therefore heartily recommend you read our Nespresso® Hints & Tips blog post to achieve the best possible Nespresso® coffee each and every time!

If you need any Nespresso machine specific advice oe learn more about how to reprogram a Nespresso® machine then the Nespresso machine assistance page should help.

Should I descale my Nespresso® machine?

If you’r wondering “should I descale my Nespresso® machine” then depending on the Nespresso® machine model you own and the water hardness where you live, we’d recommend descaling every 6-12 months.

You should find the specific Nespresso® machine troubleshooting advice for your model, where you can also see a whole section on descaling your Nespresso® machine.

As for a descaler to use, we’d recommend the organic certified Cafetto@Home eco pod/capsule coffee machine cleaner available on Amazon.

You can also find a further advice on our Nespresso Machine hints & tips blog.

Nespresso® machine cleaning, troubleshooting and solutions

If you’re looking for Nespresso® machine cleaning advice then our Tips & tricks for getting the most from your Nespresso machine & our compostable & biodegradable capsules blog post is well worth a read to get the very best performance from your Nespresso® machine, so we’d highly recommend a read.

Nespresso® also give some brief advice on their website that should help you to solve machine issues yourself at home, but should the problem persist you should visit the Nespresso® Club Assistance webpage, then just select your Nespresso\ machine model and you can then access Nespresso® instructions guides and videos as well as troubleshooting guides. You should also download the Nespresso® maintenance guide for your machine to get specific advice.

In the meantime here is a summary of common issues and solutions from Nespresso’s own website::

• The machine doesn’t switch on: check the power cord and fuses.
• The coffee isn’t warm enough: preheat your cups and descale machine.
• No coffee extraction: clean and descale if necessary.
• Leakage in capsule area: clean the capsule holder and ensure the capsule is inserted correctly.
• No hot water or steam: clean and descale if necessary.
• The milk doesn’t froth: clean the frothing device. We also recommend using semi-skimmed milk.
• No water flow: fill the tank and make sure it is correctly inserted.

How should I dispose of compostable coffee pods?

If you’re wondering how your should dispose of compostable coffee pods then read on!

Once you’ve ejected your eco coffee capsules from your Nespresso® machine, placing them in your council-run food waste collection bin means they will be processed into compost or liquid fertilizer depending on your local council’s food waste processing facilities. By avoiding landfill, you’ll also reduce the resulting methane emissions produced by coffee grounds in landfill.

Should capsules accidentally sneak into your black bin (er herm) then they will likely be sent to landfill or to an incinerator, where they will be burnt to create ‘energy from waste’. This is not ideal as burning the worlds resources is not exactly sustainable, but this is the reality of much of our houshold waste. Many companies cshout about ‘zero to landfill’, well this is what they mean. Instead of burying it they burn it. We’ll le you decide on what you think but nevertheless, if our eco compostable coffe pods make it into an incinerator then they won’t produce the volatile or toxic gases or residue that plastic and aluminium coffee capsules produce. Tests by the well known Vegware company have also shown that bio (natural) materials also burn at a higher temperature, therefore creating more enrgy per gram.

Ultimately, the incredibly diverse (bonkers!) recycling requirements and facilities provided by different UK councils means there is little consistency in how your food and garden waste is processed but this is thankfully something the Government is looking into as part of their Consultation on Consistency in Household and Business Recycling Collections in England.

Are your compostable coffee capsules home compostable?

Tests mean we know our capsules can be home-composted, but ONLY under ‘healthy’ compost conditions, where the heat and elements are sufficient enough. In the UK, these elements – in particular heat of course – are not always optimal so we would recommend home composting only if your are a pro home-composter. These different conditions from pile compost pile to pile means a the timeframe for them to breakdown is not consistent.

We could make shallow promises (like a few competitors do!) but we want to be transparent, so until we receive Vincotte / TUV Austria ‘home compost’ certification we will not be claiming ours are home compostable so you now exactly where we stand.

What if my council doesn’t collect food waste? 

If you don’t have council food waste collections, First Mile’s Coffee Pods RecycleBox service is perfect to ensure your capsules are processed correctly. It is the best and cheapest such service, where you fill a box you have to hand then book a collection or leave the box at any Hermes drop off point.

Whichever way you do it, the service costs just £10 and believe us you can store-up a whole bunch of capsules as the only stipulations are that it has to be “light enough for one person to lift and measures no more than 41 x 30 x 30 CM”! Please just ensure you pop a note in the box (and in the “Extra notes” section when booking your collection) confirming they are Blue Goose industrially compostable coffee capsules so the First Mile team know how to deal with them.

How should I dispose of your coffee capsule box packaging ?

Printed using vegetable ink and secured with plastic-free glue, please recycle our sustainably sourced FSC certified coffee capsule boxes to continue their lifecycle and help the very real fight against global deforestation. This also applies to our outer postal box, which is FSC certified too…we’ve not stopped short when it comes to investing in doing the very best we can for our planet.

Are your capsules best for an Espresso or Lungo?

To fully appreciate all the complex, and intense flavours our capsule coffees deliver, we’d recommend you first drink them without adding any milk, so as black Espresso or Lungo coffees.

Shock horror for those who love a milky coffee, but once you try it you’ll soon see why so many people are getting more into their coffee these days as they discover what coffee really should taste like!

You see, to achieve a consistent taste many (most!) capsule companies simply dark roast their beans as it’s the only way they can ensure their coffee tastes the same each time. But that means the coffee generally doesn’t taste, well…good.

Enjoy an eco-espresso!

If you love a good espresso, then try our Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee capsules. Fragrant and clean, you’ll love the subtle notes of fruity spice with hints of chocolate. This espresso is more about enjoying a complex mix of flavours than a bitter, dark hit of coffee.

For lungo lovers and milk fans

If you like a long coffee or a good bit of steamed and frothy milk in your coffee, then our Lungo eco pods or our Swiss Water decaf pods or  our Peruvian eco coffee capsules are for you (although our Ethiopian capsules also taste great with a splash!).

Don’t put too much milk in there though, or you’ll mask the more subtle flavours and it’ll be more akin to high street coffee, aka warmed milk with a weak coffee flavour (if you get one at all…but maybe we’re just biased?!).

Our Peruvian will give a smooth lungo style drink with hints of cocoa. Weird to think you’ll taste all of these flavours in a coffee isn’t it…but that’s what a lighter roast and quality coffee bean will bring to the table, versus overly-roasted beans.

Our Swiss Water Decaff coffee capsules will give you a slightly indulgent lungo without the caffeine kick.

Whichever you choose, have a lovely guilt-free mug of the good stuff!

What’s the difference between compostable and biodegradable?!

This can be tricky to get one’s head around, but in short Biodegradable refers to any material that will disintegrate in water, soil or air over time with the help of organisms like bacteria and enzymes.

Compostable also refers to a material that breaks down and returns to nature, but it has to turn into something that improves the nutrient levels of the soil – or rather it has to turn into a non-toxic organic material. It also has to do so relatively quickly, at the same rate as the materials with which it is being composted, like food waste, to be classed as compostable.

Getting technical, our capsules are compliant with EN13432 standard, which means they will be “bio-assimilated” by micro-organisms naturally occurring in an industrial compost without any biological additive. Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen in our capsules will essentially be biologically transformed into H2O, CO2 and biomass i.e. new micro-organisms.

Don’t be fooled by the EN13432 claims of other compostable coffee capsule capsule manufacturers though, as technically a company can still meet EN13432 requirements even if their product contains plastic or other non-natural materials. The key is that they don’t contain over a certain percentage of these nasties, so there’s a work-around. However, our capsules are proven to be made from 100% bio-based vegetable material. So if your compost pile is healthy, then they should break down within 18-24 months. Or as soon as 6 weeks if put into your food waste collection bin!

What is the Swiss Water decaffeinated process?

The Swiss Water® Process uses the elements of water, temperature and time to create decaff coffee. In their own words: “Swiss Water® is the innovative craft of using pure water to gently remove caffeine. Our 100% chemical free process decaffeinates coffee in small batches. This means we can remove caffeine from very select amounts of Speciality Coffee. Coffee that is grown and harvested with the utmost care. Coffee that we’re excited to taste. Coffee that once decaffeinated, will still taste every bit as delicious as it did before we got our hands on it!”. What this means is that you are helping minimise the use of industrial chemicals in the coffee decaffeination process, and thanks to our environmentally friendly Decaff capsules you are minimising the waste that goes into landfill or the energy and emissions used to get your used capsules back to Nespresso® for recycling. Not a bad argument to make the switch…