Ever since I discovered fountain pens, my use of ballpoint pens has been minimal. I love my Retro 51’s, and an impressive collection of gel pens and fine liners, but I’m mostly done with ballpoints. When I saw the Caran d’Ache Nespresso (3rd edition, $45.00), I felt a pang of longing though. For starters, it’s PURPLE and I have developed a deep and abiding love of purple since 2019’s purple forays. Second, the pen is manufactured from recycled Nespresso cartridges. I love how Caran d’Ache has made a gorgeous pen with innovative recycled materials. What could be cooler than that?
However, I still held off purchasing because it was a ballpoint. So you can imagine how tickled I was to receive the Nespresso as a present this holiday season!
The aluminum barrel of the body is actually made of recycled ‘Arpeggio’ capsules, creating a purple body that is super smooth and sleek. The body is Caran d’Ache’s signature hexagonal shape. I should add that all of the packaging for the pen is made of 100% recycled materials as well!
The pen comes with Caran d’Ache’s signature Goliath ink cartridges which are available in 3 tip widths, and 4 colors (mine is in blue). According to Caran d’Ache, the Goliath will write up to 600 pages of A4. Although it writes fairly smoothly, I may be consulting the refill queen to find out if I can add a gel refill to this baby and make it all mine.
I will say that there are uses for ballpoints – sometimes a fountain pen just isn’t the best for every situation. I’m excited use my Nespresso at those times!
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I have this pen made from Nespresso capsules in blue. I need to replace the refill but I am not sure how to do this. Can you help me with this.
Robert
Unscrew the silver clicker mechanism and you’ll be able to access the refill inside. Check this video out for step-by-step instructions – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVo_k-hQ9BE
Thanks, Tom!
I just replaced the refill with a roller ball. The Kaweco sport gel rollerball works, as does the Parker Gel Pen Refill (Jet Pens.) For a finer point, I believe the Ohto Ray refill also works.
Oooo thank you! I’ll have to do some looking.
It’s quite obvious that this is an iconic design. But I have one thing. Are we really proud when buying that pen because it is made from Nespresso capsules?
I think that’s a wrong approach. Did we need Nespresso capsules in the first place? I don’t think so. There are lots of ways to make coffee without them. Which are also cheaper. So why did we not ban them in the first place? In addition it’s not even that particular. In Europe roughly 90% of aluminium is sourced from recycling. As a matter of fact aluminium cans have steel parts to make it easier to find them in garbage.
So maybe we should not fall for this and think we do a good deed when buying this pen. It is by no means making up for the wasteful habit of using Nespresso capsules.
Caran d’Ache is a Swiss company so the Nespresso pods they are using in these pens are coming from European recycling efforts. While Nespresso and other pod-based coffee systems are not the most inexpensive or efficient options, they exist and people use them so I appreciate when a large company uses their platform to bring attention to environmentalism.
I don’t disagree with you that coffee systems do produce a lot of waste. That said, people like and use coffee systems and I applaud a company that is creating something out of that waste. Also, Caran d’Ache is selling a reusable ballpoint pen (albeit in need of refill cartridges) as opposed a disposable pen that will be tossed after a short period of use. Everyone is doing what they can with the options they have.
I love Nespresso coffee. I will pay a little more just to have the quality of coffee’s and the convience of making them. Without getting into the various machines they have available I will say that it takes less time and effort to make this tasty beverage.
On the subject of recycling their aluminum capsules I will say that they have a program where you can save all of their used capsules, put them in a plastic supplied bag, and either mail them to the company or take them back to the store where you buy your Nespresso coffee. I have been doing this for a long time already. So yes, Nespresso is very conscious of recycling.
Don’t take away my Nespresso. I was supposed to give of coffee and caffeine because of my health, but I couldn’t do that. I did however cut back on how much I drink.
I have this pen. It’s beautiful, but, too slick to even hold on to. I’m wondering if there’s a way to make it more tacky without ruining it.