KrupsEA894T40 Evidence Plus Bean to Cup, Coffee Machine, Automatic, Espresso, 1450 W, 2.3 liters, Titanium

The media could not be loaded.  This is a coffee machine for coffee lovers. It makes excellent coffee, whether espresso, doppio, cappucino, latte etc.On the other hand it is a very cumbersome beast to use. Yes in principle it can be a one touch operation to make your coffee but if you add the host of options it offers it rapidly becomes more than just that. Having selected your coffee this then embarks upon such a cacophony of noise and rattling that it begs the question of just what on earth it is doing. The answer is obvious, it is cleaning and rinsing itself before then making coffee from scratch and that is the noise you would expect from fresh grinding beans and all the mechanics associated with that. For the purpose of this review I made and timed making a capuccino (extra dark, with extra shot) from power off to drink ready (see the video) - four and a half minutes. That is not too bad for one drink but if you need a few coffees for several people this is going to be annoyingly slow.The manual is sparse and reads like it has been written by someone who already knew how to use coffee machines so wrote a brief guide and then it was translated from Italian. There are a lot of comments in there without explanation so a bit of common sense or experience is needed to make sense of this.All of which sounds like a serious criticism but despite any of that I will give this five stars for one major reason - it does make very nice coffee! Just don't be in a rush!

I’ve used a lot of Bean to Cup machines. Yes they are worth it. Yes you’ll be less inclined to pay extortionate prices in coffee shops as you needn’t hanker for a caffeine fix. However what’s in this brand and this model?It’s a very design conscious machine with a touch sensitive display that only lights up when it is on.SITING: You have to insert the water reservoir from above at the back. The coffee grounds get emptied from the left hand side. The drip tray from the front. It’s not going to be easy to place if you have low wall cupboards.TEMPERATURE: After a fair bit of searching, you can lower the coffee temperature (some beans need this so they don’t produce a bitter brew).. You get a choice of 3 dots- no precise temperatures. There is also a hot water function for tea, including green tea, which also has to have water at a lower temperature.CAPPUCCINOS: to me it looks a bit of a faff. Every session you have to wash the siphon tube linked to the metal milk jug, remove a metal clip from the drink dispenser and rinse the two halves of the rubbery frother unit under the tap. I currently have another brand with the frother as part of the jug which you can put through a hot rinse function and give it a deeper clean every few days as you change the milk.MAINTENANCE: Krups require you to use descaler, coffee cleaner and milk cleaner products. You can’t get access to the brew unit directly, so you have to hope the machine doesn’t clog up inside and is kept in a warm dry atmosphere. You have to make sure the coffee rinse system is switched to automatically come on to prevent build ups of oils. I use the pre brew rinse on my other machine to warm the coffee cup, and I don’t seem to be able to do that here.ADJUSTMENTS: The manual goes through setting up water volumes and grinding fineness. You be well over caffeinated after the initial set up. Note, you sometimes have to search a while for the right bean for a specific brand machine that matches your tastes.And it’s beans only, not ground coffee in the machine.My coffee preference varies. This is a great machine for a large family or someone who drinks a lot of coffee during the day. I’m not sure I would use it if I just wanted a pre work cappuccino due to the post froth cleaning routine. You have to work out if it suits you.The manual goes into detail

If you are into your coffee, then most will agree there is nothing quite like the aroma & taste of freshly ground coffee beans. However, also for most coffee lovers, the hassle of grinding beans and brewing is too much like hard work when the coffee shop is just up the road. So an all in one machine like this is probably an interesting proposition, sure it’s a pricey outlay, but when you add up all those drinks you pick up on the way to work, it would soon pay for itself.The machine is very modern and stylish in its gloss black and mix of brushed & polished stainless steel. You will be wiping that front panel regularly though. Filling with water and beans is easy, once you get the knack of the water tank, it needs to dropped into place from higher than you would expect, so putting under a low cupboard wouldn’t be advised. The hopper holds a decent amount of beans, with an integral dial for coarseness of the grind.Operation is a very intuitive touch screen affair, once the initial start up routine of rinsing and pre heating has finished, you are presented with an array of icons depicting most of the popular selections - americano, cappuccino, latte, macchiato etc. - all you do is simply select what you desire and the machine quite noisily kicks into barista mode.When I say simply, that’s not exactly the case for milky drinks. These do require the attachment of the supplied milk siphon - there is no integrated milk delivery. It’s not exactly difficult, you just fill the separate stainless container and attach a rubber hose to the side of the height adjustable nozzle section. It looks a bit of an afterthought in comparison to the rest of the machine if I’m honest, but it seems to work very well. The downside to all this, is having to remove and clean it all afterwards. The container I guess could be put in the fridge for future use, but the hose needs to be rinsed and a milk rinse cycle run on the machine to prevent clogging. The whole process will probably eat up 10-15 mins, so maybe not so great if you’re on a tight schedule in the morning.The results of all the ‘popular’ drinks I have tried on this machine, have all been comparable to well known high street vendors - so for that alone I highly recommend this machine.It’s not perfect, it’s quite chunky, some of the noises it makes are quite disturbing & as described above, milk drinks are a bit of a faff. For me the best use i get is a double cycle of a long coffee in my travel mug, gorgeous freshly brewed coffee, done in a couple of minutes! All the other options & features are obviously an added bonus - love it!