The die is cast

Coffee capsules are widely used these days, and consumers primarily associate them with Nespresso, a member of the Nestlé Group. Thanks to the popularity of this Swiss group – which it owes, among others, to its brand ambassador and actor George Clooney – quite a few other companies have now jumped on the capsule bandwagon and developed their own type. Many of them can also be used in Nespresso machines. After seven years of development, a major coffee company – Tchibo – has now developed a totally new system for apportioning coffee. It is called Qbo, and – as the name suggests – each capsule is cuboid in shape, while the second half of the name clearly associates it with Tchibo.

Unfortunately, this tagline is already in use by another company. Otherwise,it would have fitted Tchibo’s innovation perfectly, as their capsules are shaped very differently from all previous types. Instead of being cylindrical, Tchibo’s coffee capsules are small, colourful cubes. This has clear benefits for storage and transportation. Another fundamental difference is that Qbo cubes are made from plastic instead of aluminium and are therefore 100 per cent recyclable. This means that Tchibo needn’t worry about possible discussions on waste disposal. Moreover, says Tchibo, Qbo saves 85 per cent packaging material compared with competitors’ products. Like Nespresso capsules, Tchibo cubes are colourful and of a high quality in their design.

The special attraction of Tchibo’s new portioning system is the Qbo app which enables each member of the fan community to create their own special coffee on their smartphones or tablets and then to have it made by the coffee machine. Furthermore, users can share their recipes with friends and other members of the Qbo Community, and they can save their favourite compositions straight to the machine.