Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Update 6 July 2011: I've downgraded my rating from five stars to four stars because my frother ceased to froth about three days ago. It still heats, but does not froth; it appears as if the stick is stuck. It had been making noises sporadically for a while. I suspect I just got a dud, so I still give the company the benefit of the doubt, but it still takes some of the fun away from the package. I'm sure there will be a warranty with the package once it is released to the public.
THE FROTHER:
The manufacturer does themselves no favors by not showing off the frother and its features. The frother is awesome. I'm quite confident giving it five stars, and this is one of the key factors in pushing the entire package up to five stars.
The cord wraps nicely inside the base for storage or for that correct length on your counter top, and exits a cutout to leave the cord at 7, 18, or 30" (they should have added another cutout on the other side to double the options). The base is basically a 1cm thick disc with protruding, covered electrical contacts in the middle, and the weight of the frother mug makes those contacts nicely with no need for twisting or turning or other fuss.
Another set of contacts is in the lid and made solidly with the mug with a single twist that seals the milk inside the mug. Press the water-resistant power button on the side, and in 90 seconds, you have warm frothed or just heated milk, and it turns itself off.
There is a frothing stick inside the lid, which I wasn't sure about until I had the item in hand. The only thing I don't like is that you remove a plastic piece from there if you want just heated milk. I'll use it for frothing 99.9% of the time, but if you and a friend switch back and forth every day, I see it being annoying and having the potential to break.
The mug is cast iron (I guess) coated nicely with non-stick material and clearly marked (via engraving) min, max (for frothing), and max (for heating). It also has a pour spout.
For quite some time, I had been frothing milk (w/ a little cream) in a saucepan with a stick blender. That takes a lot longer to heat up and requires more cleanup, not to mention remembering to turn the stove off. I didn't know a system like this existed, but it is great. Heck, with the seal (not watertight, but keeps liquid from sloshing out in regular circumstances), you could take the mug filled with milk back and forth to work every day if you were so inclined.
Now I see that other manufacturers make a similar product, but I can't imagine much that could make this one better. I will use this with AND without the Kaldi.
THE KALDI:
The coffee maker itself gets four stars for some imperfections. The most obvious is that you must tip a regular sized coffee mug slightly to get it to fit on the tray under the nozzle. A larger coffee mug - or a travel mug - is out of the question. Well, if you remove the drip tray, you can squeeze a ~10-12 oz. travel mug under there. That's annoying, but at least it's possible.
Generally, you won't want to remove the drip try, though, because it does drip even after it cycles through.
That said, being a fairly compact machine is a good thing because counter space is a premium no matter the size of your kitchen. Per the manufacturer, it is 17 cm W x 29.6 H x 26 D.
The drip tray flips to raise your height about 2cm for espresso cups. This is not as cool as the Tassimo's rising platform, but this machine's general operation is better overall. Actually, it's extremely similar to a Nespresso machine I had for about a month (in a hotel). You raise a lever to insert the cartridge, and when you raise it again, it ejects the spent cartridge into the storage compartment. In this case, the compartment comes out of the front easily with the drip tray.
Despite supposedly being so easy and intuitive to use, I wasted quite a few Nespresso cartridges that first week trying to get the thing to work. I had learned my lesson before getting this machine - wait until everything stops blinking, so you know it's warmed up and ready to go.
Once you know that, it is pretty easy to use, but there is a variety of blinking and beeping sequences you may come across when the machine needs descaled or filled up or whatever else. For that, you may want to keep the manual around, at least for the first couple months.
The "espresso" and the "coffee" buttons are basically for an espresso or a café lungo, which is just a bit more water run through an espresso cartridge, making it slightly longer and weaker. The bottom button is for "brewed coffee" giving you UP TO 8.5 oz. All of these buttons can be reprogrammed to make them as long or short as you want, which is a great feature, although the manual says nothing about setting them back to factory presets.
This definitely does NOT look cheap, but it's also not a 3000 Euro machine. If you look close, you'll see miniscule plastic malformations and minor scuffing on what appears to me as a "plastic veneer". Honestly, probably no one would notice unless they're as totally anal as me. And even to me, it looks good sitting in the kitchen.
The water reservoir holds about 40oz, is removable, but can also be filled without removal, which is nice. It comes with a protective filter screen, which seemed thrown in as an afterthought and wasn't mentioned in the manual, but snaps on easily (I managed to get my huge hand in there, so I don't know what the other reviewer was talking about), and it does not include a water filter. That is a good thing, because I use filtered water anyway, and don't need something else to buy and change.
The plastic parts are not dishwasher safe.
THE DRINK:
My rating is dependent on the assumption that these guys are going to get good distribution for their capsules, the capsules I haven't tried yet are going to be at least the same quality as the ones I've tried, and that hopefully they allow other brands to make additional drinks for their machine. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, which is reasonable since they're just starting out (over here).
I will update this section regularly as I try each type of drink (I promise). It wouldn't be fair to rush and numb my taste buds. But I want to get this review out there, give these guys a chance.
I consider this a supplementary system. Frankly, I'm such a food and drink snob that I have the coffee I like daily (Trung Nguyen), and I'm used to great tea on the rare occasions I indulge. But I need an espresso maker, so that is key and the rest is icing on the cake. So far I'm impressed, but we'll see how my feelings change over time.
All my capsules expire in about a year, so it's nice to be able to keep a variety of drinks around for company.
-Espresso
Key to a good café correto, this is all that was ever missing from a perfect Italian dinner/drink menu at home.
Italian: This is pretty much on par with an Illy espresso (capsule) maker I lived with for about a year in Italy. I got the idea that the average person had that machine and that's what was good at home. This was the right temperature and had the right creaminess. It was actually a tad more bitter than I'm used to, but that's not a bad thing since this is supposed to be the strongest of the three non-decaf espressos available to date.
Update 31 May: Continental: Very solid, standard espresso slightly lighter than the Italian. Actually closer to what I would think of as an Italian espresso.
Decaffeinated: This is basically inconsequential to me, but it tastes fine. Certainly good to have around if my mom's ever visiting.
-Tea
All are real teas, none of this "herbal" stuff. The first two teas I had were surprisingly good, especially considering they are not seeped. However, I'm seriously skeptical how well these will taste after a couple hundred coffees have run through the system. You know how coffee tends to permeate everything? I've already gotten myself in the habit of running an extra shot of water through the system after making a drink to leave it as fresh as possible for the next time. And I think this is wise - some stray tea leaves and coffee do come out during the process. Again, I'll update after a few hundred coffees.
Mint: I usually just drink green tea (which should be their next flavor), but this is green tea with mint. It's definitely good green tea, so I'm already impressed. But the mint is done well - very subtle. It's a nice drink.
English Breakfast Tea: An experienced friend tells me this is a good tea. Tastes good to my tongue as well, but I can't think of any crazy adjectives to use on it at the moment.
-Coffee
You know even the best machines that make espresso based drinks just tend to make an awkward coffee if you're used to something percolated. I don't have the highest hopes, but I'm thinking it might impress me.
Update 27 May: Continental: It's pretty much what I expected - it tastes better than some crap they'd brew at a Gov't office for the masses, but it's a little burnt tasting, and obviously not percolated. Decent, but I'd rather have my Trung Nguyen. Easy, though. Let's check the other flavors...
Update 29 Jun: French and Vienese: The first sip of both tasted slightly burnt as always seems to be the case with coffee made from espresso machines. But a little cream and a good setting, I enjoyed both thoroughly.
-Flavor Packets
I'm not much of a sucker for gimmicks, but this actually...Read more›
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