On a recent cruise, one of the Italian Engineering Officers told us in no uncertain terms that Borbone espresso was the best. We had never heard of Borbone, but fortunately Amazon had. We have to concede that the Gold Blend flavor is excellent.Other reviewers have had trouble with the capsules. We have found that if we press the Espresso button on our machine, then the coffee flows out well. If we push the Lungo button, the coffee stream slows to a dribble once the machine has produced a normal shot of espresso. These capsules are plastic, not aluminum, and they are slightly shorter than an aluminum capsule. Our DeLonghi Essenza Mini machine works fine with the shorter Borbone capsules. Perhaps some machines do not work as well with shorter capsules. We have used quite a few of these capsules, but if we have trouble with them in the future, then I will update this review.Each of these capsules is packaged in a sealed bag to keep them fresh because these capsules appear to have some openings on the plastic end. Aluminum capsules do not need to be individually packaged because they are completely sealed. I prefer the aluminum capsules because they can be recycled, but these capsules do cost less and make very good espresso shots. (Lungo labeled capsules make the best Lungos.)I was tempted to take off a star because these are not aluminum, but they are a high quality product and the coffee is excellent so I felt they deserved 5 stars.
