Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
if you like moka, this is the ticket, May 3, 2006
I have read so many negative reviews of this wonderful little moka machine, I must put in my 2 cents. First, this is a stream machine, meaning it makes moka not espresso. If you like Bialetti but want cappuccino instead of cafe latte, then this is perfect. The grind must be close to espresso, finer than for Bialetti, and you must tamp it down, but no tamper included. There is only 1 knob, yes it is stiff, but i don't have arthritis. The round design makes it easy to handle even though it is very light. It descales with...vinegar! How about that, actually a traditional machine. The panarello works, just put in extra "cup" of water for steaming. Make 2 "cups", not 1 or 4, and always start with cold machine, or use very, very cold water. Stop the brewing as soon as moka hits 2 "cups" or it starts to steam instead of brew, then switch the knob to steam for the milk. If you don't, coffee will taste slightly burned. I have owned espresso and moka machines from USD5 to USD1,000 over a period of 40 years. If you like moka, don't waste money on anything more expensive. But, like any machine, read the manual, and experiment if things don't work the way you want. Finally, garbage in garbage out. If you want great cappuccino, use good organic coffee and organic milk.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Watch your grind, June 3, 2005
I picked this product up at a local store for mid $20's after getting sick of making my coffee with a stove top espresso machine. I couldn't see spending $100+ for something conceptually as simple as an espresso machine. I know someone who got a simple Krupps machine for about $40 years ago and it still works just great. But since I couldn't find anything else in the sub $40 range, I settled on this one.
It makes a fine cup of coffee if you just want to use prepackaged coffee grinds or you use a basic coarse to medium grind. BUT, when I tried to use a very fine grained "espresso" grind on my beans, almost nothing came out. It seems that too fine a grind stops up the filter holes and the machine just doesn't have the oomph to force the water/steam through.
Also, it does suffer from
- a very difficult to turn knob (don't get this product if you have arthritis)
- a caraf lid that won't stay on let alone stay properly oriented
So basically, it's good for making a medium to fairly strong cup of coffee (by my subjective measure), but if you really want something strong and sludgy, this machine won't do the trick unless you want to wait for an hour for it to eventually push enough liquid through.
I guess now I understand why espresso machines aren't cheap. Years of using a really simple stovetop espresso maker led me to believe that they're really simple machines. But perhaps when you try to package it up as an appliance it isn't so straight forward.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pro and Con of this machine, August 29, 2007
I must confess that I spent a lot of time trying to get a good coffee maker, I had a Krups Single Serve My Cafe for about a year, I was never happy with it anyway. I am the only coffee drinker in my family, so I do not want to shop for a drip 10 cup type of coffee machine, so I bought this one.
Here is my review of this machine:
1. Build quality - Yes, the knob and top cover is a bit of hard to turn, build quality is so so, but I think the inards of this machine is ok, it generate steam quickly and appear to be built with no better or worse quality than many of the steam type espresso machines.
2. Coffee - Here is something that I am really surprise of, I think it makes great coffee, I run through it with three different kind of Ethiopian coffee, to my surprise, I can tell the subtle different among them, this machine produce very good coffee. Coffee is also hot enough contrary to some of the reviews mentioned.
3. Cost - I think this is a very good deal considering I spent more than $100 for a single serve machine but I do not get the enjoyment of coffee from that, I do now.
4. Design - it looks ok and do not occupy a lot of counter space. I actually think it has appeal of its own.
Be aware of the amount of water you pour in, I usually turn off the machine before the last drop get vaporized, otherwise, your coffee will taste a little bit overdone.
I think this is a good machine as long as you treat it gently, it may not have the best build quality but it gets the job done. I am happy.
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