Bean to cup without the artistry

peasant

For years my wife and I have contended ourselves with Nestle's finest simply because it was quick & simple to get a cup of "coffee" that way without fuss. No messing with filters, levers, adjusting screws etc ...yes, we're lazy.:o

But after our last holiday where we celebrated a bit of real barista made coffe culture we simply couldn't stomach Nescafe any longer, Gold or otherwise.

So the decision was made to get some machine to provide us with proper coffe. We still didn't fancy doing any work though .
So it had to be a fully automated machine ...no adjustment levers, no messing with foam lances, no grinding, no tamping ...just a few buttons please, the less the better.

Some intensive internet research has lead us to this thing (on Amazon.de):

The Melitta Caffeo CI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlVsrQgE1I

It's bloody brilliant, so it is.
Fill in your beans & water, connect milk tube, place cup under spout, press coffe of choice (Espresso, Crema, Cappuchino, Latte Machiato) and off you go. No fuss, no mess, just great tasting coffe.

It even makes two cups at the same time if you want.
The best thing is though ...once you've found the perfect settings for your favourite cup and your personal taste, you can programme the machine (for up to four people) with your settings for the different types of coffe & milk (amount, strength, temperature, mix of coffe/milk) and from then on your perfect cup of coffe really is only the press of two buttons away (1. your name and 2. your coffe)

Cleaning is perfectly simple also. Most of it is automated and the rest is perfectly accessible and easily cleaned, even the brewing unit itself.


Oh and the coffe (made from Cubita beans) tastes great as well

Curry Addict

i have something similar a miele barista cm5100. it may not be as good as hand made coffee but its better than 99% of places that sell coffee. works well for convenience/price/quality trade off. only problem is we drink a lot more coffee since getting it

i recommend u get hasbean coffee, its great quality and gives great results.

lmmoonbeam1976

peasant wrote: »

For years my wife and I have contended ourselves with Nestle's finest simply because it was quick & simple to get a cup of "coffee" that way without fuss. No messing with filters, levers, adjusting screws etc ...yes, we're lazy.:o

But after our last holiday where we celebrated a bit of real barista made coffe culture we simply couldn't stomach Nescafe any longer, Gold or otherwise.

So the decision was made to get some machine to provide us with proper coffe. We still didn't fancy doing any work though .
So it had to be a fully automated machine ...no adjustment levers, no messing with foam lances, no grinding, no tamping ...just a few buttons please, the less the better.

Some intensive internet research has lead us to this thing (on Amazon.de):

The Melitta Caffeo CI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGlVsrQgE1I

It's bloody brilliant, so it is.
Fill in your beans & water, connect milk tube, place cup under spout, press coffe of choice (Espresso, Crema, Cappuchino, Latte Machiato) and off you go. No fuss, no mess, just great tasting coffe.

It even makes two cups at the same time if you want.
The best thing is though ...once you've found the perfect settings for your favourite cup and your personal taste, you can programme the machine (for up to four people) with your settings for the different types of coffe & milk (amount, strength, temperature, mix of coffe/milk) and from then on your perfect cup of coffe really is only the press of two buttons away (1. your name and 2. your coffe)

Cleaning is perfectly simple also. Most of it is automated and the rest is perfectly accessible and easily cleaned, even the brewing unit itself.


Oh and the coffe (made from Cubita beans) tastes great as well

how much is it and what costs to ship to dublin or can you buy it in dublin

zagmund

Pass the sugar please.
WHAT ?
PASS the SUGAR please.
WHAT ? YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP DEAR, THE COFFEE MACHINE IS ON AGAIN.

Man, that sounds loud from the video. I'm not sure I would like all that noise. We have a Gaggia Classic which doesn't require any real effort. Here's how a normal morning coffee plays out . . .
1) flip switch
2) empty yesterdays grinds out of portafliter using little tabletop knock box
3) add in two spoons of coffee, too lazy to tamp it
4) wait a few minutes
5) push button to dispense
5.1) done, if you're looking for an espresso
6) flip milk heating switch
7) wait a few minutes (yes, this extra wait is a pain)
8) pour milk into jug, open valve, heat milk
8.1) done, if you're looking for a latte, cortado or anything else milky

Note no cleaning required. Some health & safety namby pambies may suggest you need to clean the milk wand, but 10+ years of this haven't killed me yet. Once every 8-12 weeks I give the whole thing a good old clean, but general day to day cleaning is nil.

z

MagicMarker

I have an aeropress that cost me 20 quid, does the job pretty well.

lmmoonbeam1976

MagicMarker wrote: »

I have an aeropress that cost me 20 quid, does the job pretty well.

where could i get one of theses

Gran Hermano

lmmoonbeam1976 wrote: »

where could i get one of theses

http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Aerobie-AeroPress-Coffee-%26-Espresso-Maker.html

http://coffeeangel.com/shop/aeropress-coffee-maker/

mandarin

Badger and Dodo usually has Aeropresses for sale at his markets (if you're near one). Also online
http://www.badgeranddodo.ie/site/products/41/Aeropress
Mind you, I'm not sure that the Aeropress will satisfy someone considering a bean-to-cup machine.

peasant

lmmoonbeam1976 wrote: »

how much is it and what costs to ship to dublin or can you buy it in dublin

A shade over 900 € from amazon.de, including shipping

zagmund wrote: »

Man, that sounds loud from the video. I'm not sure I would like all that noise.

It does sound loud on the video ...in reality it's not too bad. At its noisiest (during grinding) it's no louder than an ordinary kettle just before it switches off.

From first switching on in the morning to completed cappuchino it's under 3 minutes, including heating up, rinsing, brewing and heating up for the milk again.

The only thing that is a bit annoying is that it rinses on switching off and after switching on again ...which means it uses a fair bit of water and you have to re-fill the tank / empty the drip tray a bit more often than is desirable...especially when you have it on the automatic switch off after 15 mins to save energy.

But all in all ...after two weeks and our first kg of beans ...I wouldn't want to be without it anymore, the coffee is just too good.

digitaldolf

I'm with Magicmarker on this one. An Aeropress, bought from Badger and Dodo.
I also have a Moca machine.
I use a hand birr grinder for the beans. When the electricity fails, I can still make myself a decent cup of coffee. (gas cooker to boil the water if necessary)
The hand grinder makes sure I get a bit of a work-out too.

RTT

I've just ordered one of these myself.
Spend a lot of time in Germany and we were originally going to get a Jura machine but decided on this instead. A little tip I picked up from friends in Germany.....Rather than having to empty the drip tray every time the machine cleans itself, Just pop a small glass underneath (an empty nutella jar/glass works well) when it is cleaning, and then just empty the jar in the sink.

peasant

RTT wrote: »

I've just ordered one of these myself.

I think you'll be happy with it.

In just under 4 months ours now has dispensed close to 2000 portions :eek:

Ok ..that includes a lot of hot water (the simplest way to pre-heat the cup) and quite a few doubles (I loves my big mug ) bit still ...that's an awful lot of coffee between two people in four months and should speak for the quality of the coffee and the ease of use of the machine

Marcusm

peasant wrote: »

A shade over 900 € from amazon.de, including shipping
.

Wow, peasant prices for watches but landed gentry prices for coffee machines!

RTT

peasant wrote: »

I think you'll be happy with it.

In just under 4 months ours now has dispensed close to 2000 portions :eek:

Ok ..that includes a lot of hot water (the simplest way to pre-heat the cup) and quite a few doubles (I loves my big mug ) bit still ...that's an awful lot of coffee between two people in four months and should speak for the quality of the coffee and the ease of use of the machine

Melitta machine arrived this morning. Have tried all the different coffees that it can make and I must say I'm very impressed with it. Well worth the money!

peasant

Almost one year on ...time for an update:

Units dispensed ...5017; complaints ...none *

Once we had a bit of a scare when I tried to remove the brewing unit for cleaning while the machine was powering up. I pulled it off its axle while it was still moving with the end result that the machine would neither work nor could I get the damn thing out ...a clearcut case of user error

Had to dismantle the brewing unit in situ to peel it out of the machine and order a replacement off the internet as the dismantling had to be rather brutal


Other than that, the machine brews cup after cup of great tasting coffee, gets a thorough clean of the brewing unit and its insides once a week and other cleaning (descaling, cleaning of the milk unit, cleaning with solvent tablet) when it asks for it ...which isn't actually all that often, certainly not excessive.

The fact that it rinses so often (as complained about before) actually helps in ensuring that you always get fresh water and that the remains of the last brew are removed which ultimately improves the coffee experience as every cup is really fresh.


* my only complaint is the built in clock (which isn't really needed anyway as there is no timer function) which doesn't seem able to keep the correct time for love nor money and has given me a few scares in the morning in my pre-coffee drowsy state

Curry Addict

peasant wrote: »

Once we had a bit of a scare when I tried to remove the brewing unit for cleaning while the machine was powering up. I pulled it off its axle while it was still moving with the end result that the machine would neither work nor could I get the damn thing out ...a clearcut case of user error

Had to dismantle the brewing unit in situ to peel it out of the machine and order a replacement off the internet as the dismantling had to be rather brutal

i had a similar issue with mine. I checked the manual and found i could simply reset the brew unit motor by pressing a couple of buttons. It was scary and i just did it and it reset everything back into position and worked grand since.

peasant

Yes, I tried the reset too ...but somehow I had managed to jam the brewing unit mid cycle. It would not engage with the gearbox again, never mind reset ...but also it wouldn't come out because it was in a different shape than the opening .

Thankfully some of the screws of the brewing unit were accessible so I could undo them and dismantle the brewing unit in the machine and then (with the help of brute force and ignorance) pull it out in pieces.

Molzer2

Very short notice but for anyone in the same boat as myself it’s available at £450 on Amazon for another few hours. I have gone for it!