16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
"Completely digging it..."
Date of Review: Jan 7, 2003
The Bottom Line: FAST, friendly*, GREAT: styling, espresso, coffee, crema, froth *read and do what the directions say
This is the coolest thing I've ever bought... er.. you get the idea. The first weekend I had it, I had a dinner party of 8. I rapid fired cappuccino ALL AFTERNOON! It performed flawlessly and consistently. I had cause to call Capresso™ customer service and was helped quickly, professionally and completely (minor issue). The only advise I could offer to the Manufacture would be an increase to the quality of the mechanicals. I'm thinking a couple of years down the road, with the way this thing can pump out espresso, it might get kinda sloppy.
The reason I suggest reading the manual completely is to familiarize yourself with the operations, lights and switches.
There is the, rather obvious, lever at the top that "spins" around. There is a "trigger" that you engage to lift the lever. This is not daunting, folks. It needs to spin ONLY counter-clockwise.
Let me take you through a cup... Power it up (top switch) the yellow light comes on (heating). Spin the coffee grounds opening forward (doing this just emptied the previous grounds), scoop in 2 (for me) scoops of grounds (espresso...whatever). Spin the top (lever forward), engage and lower the lever (tamps grounds), hit the pump switch (second one down, make sure the yellow "heating" light is off. Mine heats up completely in around a minute) and *KA
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POW* Instant (well 50-80 seconds) Espresso with MAXIMUM crema! I put half & half (breva) and some DaVinci syrup in a small pitcher (yes I steam them together, but only for when not being a purist ;-) stick it under the nozzle, rotate the forward switch to the "up for steam" position and, again, everything goes as planned. It took WAY longer to type this than it took to make the cappuccino. When you've completed this you just spin the lever and repeat (FAST!)
I love that you can adjust the spout up or down and get a full size mug under it to make the espresso right into the cup you'll use for the milk/froth. NO crema loss! I made some crema coffee using regular coffee. We ran about 8-10 ozs. through for a cup and the results were amazing when compared against our drip machine (Krups). Wonderful crema from our daily coffee! Clean up is a breeze with NO hot, nasty grounds anywhere. I emptied the containers, rinsed the "carousel", cleaned the froth nozzle and slid it back against the wall. That's it...
Some people, I read, thought it was a bit big. I personally liked the size. It makes a nice counter-top ornament.
I'm lovin this thing...
