SINCE NESTLÉ began selling Nespresso in the 1990s, its little capsules have changed the way many in the West consume coffee. Thirty percent of Michelin-starred restaurants now serve Nespresso pods, and the machines sell all over the world, generating an estimated $4 billion in 2015. The capsule-co ee maker is part of kitchen geography, right there between the toaster and the kettle.
POD BLAST: Capsule coffee now has a huge audience, one that Difference Coffee Co. is hoping to take upmarket.
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The convenience, novelty, variety and perhaps even the pretty-colored capsules made a convert: Amir Gehl. Gehl, the 39-year-old son of a tobacco family, did his postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, followed by stints at Harvard Business School, the Kellogg School of Management and the London Business School. He spent the early part of his career as a consultant to the energy drink business; then, in 2014, his wife convinced him to buy a Nespresso machine. From that moment on, he was a pod convert—so much so that when he drank coffee after a restaurant meal, he felt that “a Nespresso [at home] was actually tastier.”