I am now the proud owner of this lovely new bean-to-cup coffee machine, and I must say it does make a beautiful cup, but is it against ‘all things coffee’…?

Picked it up from a local shop as a ‘clearance’ item for an absolute steal – 60% off retail (the shop had it marked up for £330, I offered £220, they settled for £235….)….

I must say, I am going to miss the rigmarole of grinding the beans, pouring them out, tampering them down, then making the cup, but as far as I’ve tested so far (as in, I’m now jittery ‘cos of all the coffee) this machine does all that, perfectly, with no mess or fuss. The steam nozzle heats up in about 1/5th of the time of my old machine (Krups), and froths milk perfectly.

Is this the way forwards for coffee lovers, or a step backwards…??

DrP

convenience will make you use it more often, so therefore it is worth it 🙂

I would use mine more if it didn’t take 10 mins to make a cup.

£235? When you could have a kettle, a cafetiere, a single cup filter and a stove top espresso maker all for under £50? You was robbed.

Frothing milk? What for? Milkshakes?

Coffee is short, sharp and black. Nothing else. 😀

Coffee is short, sharp and black. Nothing else

I think you’ll find that short, sharp and black coffee is short, sharp and black. Other variants aren’t.

Yeah – what if my mum wants that world famous ‘frothy coffee’??
😉

DrP

Other variants are coffee flavoured milkshakes.

OK then, you win.
Who else likes coffee flavoured milkshakes????? I do……. My family do…. My friends do…….
Seems like my new milkshake machine will do me just fine.

DrP

Captain Flashheart, that’s strange cause most Italians (the people who make the best coffee in the world) start every day with a “coffee flavoured milkshake” I’ve had quite a few over there, they all had ‘frothy milk’ in and they were very strong and sharp indeed…

Other variants are coffee flavoured milkshakes

I prefer those :o)

Warton – The Italians may drink a “coffee flavoured milkshake” to start the day but when the ask for a coffee they mean a short, sharp and black coffee. Everything else is a variant and is not called coffee

DrP have they got any more?

It’s OK – I’ve wrenched the steam nozzle off now. Anal balance is restored in the world!! 😉

DrP

No more I’m afraid Pete! It was from a ‘Pro Cook’ shop (in Basingstoke) and they are getting rid of all ‘brand name’ items in favour of their own branded items. Maybe other shops may be getting rid of similar stock. The shop (in B’stoke) had lots of other machines (gaggia, nespresso) that they’d probably do a similar deal on, but no other automatic ones.

DrP

Can you mail me their contact details please?

pete click here…….

DrP

I hope that’s coffee “that makes your eyes bleed”

Thanks Ian

It’s too easy now – TOO MUCH COFFEE – i feel sick and am going to bed…..

DrP

How hard is it to get coffee machine like this properly clean? I dont mean bloke clean where a quick wipe down with a damp rag will do the trick, but destroy bacteria breeding grounds clean.
It has always been one of the reasons I have never looked seriously at what is other wise a cool gadget.

That was a good price – would have been tempted myself! My espresso machine is dying slowly, not sure if it will survive another move (in a few weeks) as these things seem to kill them 🙁

Stove top pots don’t make espresso btw, they are called mocha pots and make mocha 😉 I love both espresso/ristretto as well as the milkshake varieties – all for different occasions or times of day.

How easy to clean…
Not sure as (obviously!) not done it yet, but on reading the manual it seems you pop a tablet into the ‘coffee powder chute’ and put descaler liquid into the water vat, then press a few buttons (up down left right A B start type thing) and it does it all itself…..

DrP

How easy to clean…

I’ve got the Gaggia version and it rinses itself clean with hot water if you leave in unattended for an hour or so.

And the brew unit and other bits slide out for easy cleaning. I suspect it stays cleaner than most manual machines.

Stove top pot all the way for me…

It looks nice if that is what you want and it makes good coffee.

I will stick to my Gaggia Classic for now but then I am learning to be a barista.

“It’s too easy now – TOO MUCH COFFEE – i feel sick and am going to bed…..”

Heh – I’m remembering the episode of Black Books where Bernard gives Manny a coffeemaker and a boxed set of The Sweeney for his birthday. LOL

Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative topic.

[And thanks for trying to hawk your coffee machines on here: Mod] 😛

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

anyone recommend a readily available (i.e. Sainsburys/ Waitrose) strong and smooth coffee pod or ground coffee for my machine?

What happened there then?

This machine is well weapon. And 100% of thread resurrection AWESOME.

Stove top espresso maker? What's that?

"Picked it up from a local shop as a 'clearance' item for an absolute steal – 60% off retail (the shop had it marked up for £330, I offered £220, they settled for £235….)…."

Is that right?