Reviews related to : Coffee

There was a time not that long back where coffee at home was either of the instant variety or involved lots of ground coffee, a filter machine or a cafeteria. The range you could produce was limited and there was no way you'd get that coffee shop cappuccino effect! In the age of convenience this has all changed with a huge variety of pod and capsule based devices that look like works of art on your kitchen work top. All the major brand from Krups to Nescaf to Braun and Kenwood have products to tempt you!

Freshly ground coffee then gives your coffee machine machine the best chance to give you that excellent feeling normally only achievable from a first rate coffee shop. While it is advantageous to have freshly cooked beans, it is more important to have freshly ground beans, hence the coffee shop grinds while you wait.
This is a small machine at 19x9x8cm and it weighs 894 grams. There is a 44 page operating instruction guide which is in 12 languages. The mains lead is to my mind a little short at 50cm long and the only other item in the box is a 12cm long brush to clean out the inside of the machine.
This is a ground coffee machine that has the huge advantage of a built in timer so that your first cup of coffee can be ready to drink either when you wake up or arrive at your work first thing in the morning all you need to do is prime the machine with water and your favourite ground coffee before you leave the night before or before you go to bed. Even if you forget I found around six minutes was enough to be getting that high from the coffee smell.
The measures 35cm tall, 24cm wide and 21cm deep. This works in a slightly different way in that all the water in the talk is turned into coffee so working out the amount of ground coffee to inset in the top is important as otherwise the coffee you get with not be to your taste.
While I am sure we all enjoy good Coffee Shop coffee, sad to say even those with far deeper pockets than mine are starting to see where savings can be made. Sadly one of these is the coffee shop, while some instant offering are tolerable what if you could have coffee grounded and brewed in your home of office, you can with this latest offering from Melitta the Purista Series 300 Jubilee Edition.
Perhaps the first step is to find out what coffee you favourite coffee shop uses and where they get it from. There are plenty of online places that roast beans and despatch them the same day. If you have beans then what you do not want is them to be ground and not used immediately as fresh ground is even more important than how long ago – within reason – they were roasted. Now all you need is a machine to grind and prepare your coffee.
This is filter coffee machine, simple in design but works well with easy to use controls. Perhaps best of all very it is easy to clean so if your tipple is filter coffee then this offering from Melitta should certainly be on your short list.
The 'epour' from Melitta has a total footprint of 32x37x16cm. Cold water is placed into the rear of the machine at the top by removing the lid, this can store up to 1litre of water. It comes with a 70cm long hard wired mains lead. There are just three buttons on the area below the coffee pot at the front, Pre-Brew, Brew and Control. The front of the machine at the top has the area that you place a filter in and then add coffee to your taste.
Nescafe produce a large number of two pod solutions for those liking a coffee with milk, Cappuccino, Latte and most other possible combinations. Until now there has only been a single offering in one pod Flat White. In the last five years there has been a 400% increase in Veganism so to help those who do not partake of dairy items, three plant based offerings have been produced, Coconut, Almond and Oat and while I was checking these out along with the original Flat White I found Starbucks had produced a single Pod Café Latte.
So let’s deal with the Starbucks Latte first, all recent pods have slashes on the front of the box to denote the desired setting on an automated machine, and I noticed that this like the other samples I was sent all come in a brown pod. To my taste it was a less enjoyable drink than those made with a coffee and a milk and mainly because there was no real coffee aroma while making which for anyway always start me wanting to enjoy it.
This looks outwardly rather similar to the Krups Piccolo XS machine published in December 2019 but that was a manual machine and this one is automatic in that all Nescafe Pods now have a number of strokes to represent the amount of water to make the perfect drink. You adjust the dial on the machine and the correct amount of hot or cold water is then dispensed.
The Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio S measures 26x28x9.5cm with the head where you insert the pod being 6cm taller than the rest of the machine.
This is a filter coffee machine that has a timer built in so you can set it up before you leave the office or in the home before you go to bed. The timer delay means the coffee will be ready to drink when you wake up or arrive at the office.
The full title is Melitta LOOK Therm Timer, the last three words do not seem to be related but when use the machine they start to make sense. It is 36cm tall, 23cm wide and 20cm from front to back. The water tank can hold enough water for up to 10 large cups of coffee (or 15 smaller ones) the scale on the front of the tank is divided into two sides showing both measurements.   The amount of filter coffee you place in the filter will depend on the way you like your coffee.
If you use coffee beans then you know that while it’s important to have them reasonably freshly roasted. Far more important is to have them freshly ground so while the ability to roast your own coffee is beyond most of us it is not that difficult to grind the beans as you need it. This grinder from Melitta gives you coffee shop taste without the coffee shop cost per cup.
I am sure we would all prefer to have a machine to do it all and indeed Melitta do several, there are two major drawbacks the space required and the cost. The grinder has a footprint of only 22x7cm and is 37cm tall. It is fitted with a one metre hard wired lead to 13amp plug that emerges from the back base in the middle. The bean hopper is removable and raises the whole by 13cm from the all-important grinder unit.
It’s the nations favourite Pod coffee brand often known as Nescafe Dolce Gusto, for those who like Starbucks coffee it now includes Starbucks brand coffee to work in their Pods. So what does this ‘XS’ machine offer well first it is rather small with a water tank to match. So probably the ideal unit for a single user or just maybe a couple.
The Krups Piccolo XS measures 28cm tall, 24cm deep and 13cm wide so any other Krups machine dwarfs it. The only instructions are on the outside of the box but as everything is assembled all you need to do is insert the mains plug, put water in the clear container at the back and lift the preparation lid an insert a capsule.
In the morning there are two stimulants to get you out of bed one you will know about as you reach older age -your bladder - and the second the smell of a fresh brewed cup of coffee, even the sound of the beans being ground could do it.
As Bean to Cup coffee machines go this is thin at 19.5cm wide, it is 48cm deep and 35cm tall. Setup is just a matter of putting beans in the hopper on top of the unit and putting water in its container that shares the back part of the unit with the bean hopper. Next flush some water through and test the steam from the milk frother. Now place a cup under the coffee outlet and in less than two minutes you can be drinking your first cup of black or white coffee.
Being able to make a coffee shop coffee at home or in the office needs a machine that can grind beans and dispense the coffee and if a Latte is your choice then a device that can froth with steam from fresh milk this offering from Melitta does both.
The Melitta CaffeO measures 47cm deep, 32cm tall and 20cm wide, these are maximum dimensions. Unlike a lot of home coffee machines here there are only a few controls, these are for the number of cups – one or two – the size of the cup 30ml to 220ml, the strength of the brew and addition of milk for a Latte. When you unpack the box you only need to find a place for the machine – as the hard wired power lead is only one metre long – within a metre of a power point.
While I have a Nespresso machine I like the taste of Cappuccinos and Dolce Gusto machines do one as good as a decent Barista can make but of course there are two great advantages, you make them at Home and they are a quarter of coffee shop price.
It is 37cm tall, 26cm from back to front and 12cm wide. A rather modernistic design it can hold up to two pints of water. Unlike other machines this come fully assembled and once you have removed the plastic covering the shiny finish you just need to run some water through in case there are impurities from the production line.
For those who already have a coffee machine of choice this unit can give you the froth you sometimes want to get the perfect Latte or Cappuccino or even should you want it - cold frothed milk - it is quick and easy to use and works even with semi-skimmed milk.
It is a round jug with a push fitting clear Perspex lid, the whole unit fits into same size base which means that the jug – minus the base – is able to be fully washed in whatever way you normally do. It is 10cm across and 17cm tall. The inside is impressed with Min and Max fill markers. There is a handle connected to the top so you can pour and or spoon the contents once creamed into the cup or cups.
My two favourite things are ‘food and drink’ and ‘music’ both recorded and even better when live. Here I get a chance to try good quality coffee in my home and even listen to my music while relaxing with a great cup of coffee.
This is the largest coffee machine that has crossed my kitchen but possibly also the best and certainly the nearest to a coffee shop offering. The Melitta Barista Smart measures 37x47x25cm and weighs over 10kilos. Dependant on the type of coffee you want – there are two bean containers – it grinds just the right amount for one cup and then makes it, this can take less than a minute, longer if you are having a fresh milk element in your drink.
Coffee machines are always a hit especially ones which you can approach and know your coffee is ready to pour. Of course that often means the coffee may not be freshly ground unless of course you live in your local coffee shop.
This is a bean machine and providing it has water and beans it can have your hot coffee waiting when you get into the office even if its 6AM. While this unit works perfectly well with you at its side it can also work by Wi-Fi once you have set it up and as the process takes around eight minutes from start to finish it might be just the thing unless you have a servant to do everything for you.
Prime membership from Amazon brings certain benefits including guaranteed one day delivery and extra substantial reductions on certain items; this coffee machine from Nespresso was £30 cheaper as a Prime member than for everyone else.
As a reviewer when you see various good quality coffee in a range of machines by Nespresso and others you miss it when they go away. While my normal instant coffee is one of the best out there I admit that I have become ‘hooked’ by better quality such as that supplied by two decent recent Nespresso review units.
A Nespresso coffee machine called ‘Expert’ & milk. So if you like black coffee there are cheaper options, but even if you only like a frothy coffee once in a while then this offering from Magimix could well be just the thing.
The work ‘Expert’ here means you have choices as to the size of the cup and even to the heat of the water both things that you do not directly have in most other machines. Yes you can always stop the flow early or even add more over the used pod but you certainly only have one water temperature, with the ‘Expert’ you can choose both. It is 36.5cm wide, 21cm deep and 28cm tall. Both the milk unit and the water tank sit on the right side of the unit.
Unlike the recent pod machine I reviewed from Lavazza this unit requires a single power lead as the creamer unit takes power from the coffee machine as is integral on its right side. The last two months have taught me one thing my top of the range instant coffee is not a match for quality coffee pods.
This Nespresso Machine measures 35x27x12cm, the exception is where the milk frother joins the unit two thirds of the way down the right side and then the width increases by 10cm to 22cm. While people who make ‘good’ coffee at home are in two camps the ‘bean’ and the ‘pod’. This machine is from the ‘pod’ arena and Nespresso are one of the leading players.
As my trips to various venues around London for Xmas in July comes to an end I smell the inviting coffee from Lavazza and here in the form of a tiny machine for your Expresso or other black offering as well as a separate machine for those who prefer their coffee white with a coffee shop head.
Always popular with Gadgetspeak readers are coffee machines of all types no matter if they are pod or bean machines and if they have good coffee with them then this reviewer gets his fill of extra nice coffee as his reviewers perk. While the quality of the coffee is the most important factor, for those who love a cappuccino then being able to foam the milk is also important and the kit as supplied to me does that. Few will disagree that the Italians know about coffee.
These look in dimension terms identical, the coffee in them is manufactured in the UK so they should taste almost the same. The difference is that both the base of the container and the lid are compostable and therefore unlike the pods made by Nespresso especially their foil lids are not recyclable.
While I do possess a Nespresso machine and as regular readers will know my day runs on the amount of coffee I consume I have not used it for a while whilst I have tried the delights of Tassimo pods and Krups offerings. I dusted it off – not literally as it resides in its box but once fired up and ready that’s the way it stayed.