Divine Deco Coffee/Espresso Maker

Author's Rating:

Pros: Handsome deco looking machine makes delicious coffee and thick froth.

Cons: Must clean filters right away. Coffee must be ground less fine than normal espresso.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a great bargain for home use, its small, priced right and produces amazing froth right into your coffee cup.

Author's Review
Need your morning jolt of coffee? Why not do it in sublime style with a lovely retro looking machine that is easy to use, versatile and makes the best tasting coffee I have had in my life.

The Espresso Pro is a pump machine that makes one or two cups of espresso at a time. It's got a unique milk frothing attachment that works flawlessly to create the creamiest cappuccino that I have ever tasted from a home machine. The secret of the frother is that one puts plain milk (skim is best) in the container provided and steam mixes with the milk for direct dispensing into your coffee cup. This creates a froth that stands up like meringue and is as hot as your coffee. The froth is literally thick enough to eat with a spoon.

But maybe you don't want coffee and frothed milk. The Espresso Pro makes the best cafe americana (also known as cafe creme) that I've ever tasted. It's hearty, never bitter and with a thick tan creme that delights the senses.

And maybe you don't want caffeine at all? Mix up skim milk, vanilla and some cardamom, ginger and cloves - put it in the frother and out comes a delicious thick spiced Indian Chai type drink in a jiffy. This machine even lets you use chocolate milk and turn it onto hot thick cocoa with thick foam on top. No more marshmallows ever again.

Cleaning the machine after use is a breeze. One can remove the frother attachment and rinse it in warm water or one can run water through it after you have used milk. One cleans the filter the old fashioned way: knock out the grounds and run water through the filter. This machine also makes this small hardly audible operation where after brewing a cup it takes the extra water in the machine itself and returns it to the reservoir, thus making sure water doesn't sit in the machine and hasten corrosion.

The machine comes with the frother attachment and extra plastic tube, three filter baskets (two cups, one cup and a pod filter), a tamper and a very easy to use instruction manual. The only drawback I have seen so far is if you wait to clean the filter basket until later, it's a little bit harder to get dry coffee grounds from the filter holes.

This machine also can't take very finely ground coffee, as the filter holes are tiny little slits. Finely ground coffee just flogs them and hardly any water can drip through. So what if you have to grind your coffee a little less fine? It's a small price to pay for great espresso. I also suggest you buy a few extra baskets because once guests taste your drinks they are going to be asking for refills and this will keep the assembly line going strong.

I also want to put in a word for the people at Whole Latte Love , where I bought this machine, the person I spoke with was friendly, knowledgeable and low key. I really appreciate that in a business transaction.

The price is right too; for under $300 you can have a top notch espresso machine that doesn't take up a whole ton of counter space. So give your self a treat and check this divine machine out.