Sometime when you give a company your email address, all you get is a bunch of ads for things that aren’t really discounts. Illy hasn’t been abusing our relationship by filling up the inbox with fluff. Today they surprised us with a bit if yummy info by including their recipe for a Cappuccino Viennese. Off to fire up the machine!
Not long ago, we mentioned that NESCAFE’ was producing a very stylish line of ‘capsule’ based coffee makers (NESCAFE’ has coffee makers and they need to be on my counter!). These where labeled as Krups on the devices but are referred to as the Dolce Gusto line.
The word must have gotten out because a relative put one under the Christmas tree for us, the Circolo model. Winner of the International Forum Design award & Red Dot Design honorable mention. Like pictured below, with the satin red finish!
What is interesting about this particular coffee maker from the Dolce Gusto line is the lack of modern automation. Keurig and Tassimo go more and more automate where other than choosing which coffee capsule and keeping the machines full with water, the rest of the brewing is figured out for you. In the case of the Tassimo, it even changes it’s brewing and steeping time based on the unique barcode on the coffee puck.
The Circolo also has capsules and a water container to fill… but with the exception of the on/off button changing color to say when the water is ready, there isn’t much automation going on.
The chrome flip top front lever raisses to release the pull out drawer for the coffee capsule. When you insert your flavor choice, return the drawer, the lowering of the leverl pokes a hole in the top of the capsule much like the other makers. Then, it is up to you to choose cold or hot water from the knobbed lever at the back upper edge. Sliding the arm in either direction starts the water flowing and will continue till you either return it to it’s centered position or the machine runs out of water.
How… How… uh, increadably great!! Since we make so much coffee with the other machines, we know of their tendancies to put out less water than we were expecting from time to time. Resulting in a cup half full. Or, the times where there is an issue and you can see grounds flowing in the water, normally you wait for the process to end. With the Circolo, you just move the lever back to the center postion.
This does mean that you have to be aware of what coffee capsule you put in the machine and not try to make a 16 oz cup of coffee out of a espresso capsule.
The machine sits solid on the counter and feels very well made. It is actually smaller than you would think it would be, but all variety of cups we have fit in the center opening. The nicest size surprise was how thin it is. Sitting on the kitchen counter, it leave much more room on the counter available than when we have the Keurig or Tassimo in the same location.
Coffee capsules come in a large variety of coffee drink types. All from the single source of coffee manufacture currently though. The drinks requiring milk come with ‘milk’ (contains sweetened, hormone-free whole milk) capsules and instructions on how much of the cup to fill with it versus the coffee capsule. We have never been fans of the ‘milk’ pucks in our Tassimo machine, the NESCAFE’ options are not any better. One ‘feature’ we have seen mentioned with these capsules is that the coffee never touches anything other than the container it’s self – other machines push coffee through channels after it leaves the capsules.
To wrap up, we really like the look and feel of the Dolce Gusto Circolo. And, we love the fact that with all of our need for automation, we have a bit (outside of our true Espresso Machine) of coffee creation we can control.
…AND Coffee Brands Simultaneously
Making the switch from my morning Starbucks Breakfast Blend coffee to Coffee People’s Donut Shop K-Cup for Keurig was much easier than I anticipated.
I remember the day I bought my Keurig B70 single-cup coffee maker at Costco. I had been thinking about making the switch from my automatic coffee maker to the Keurig for some time, and with the discount Costco had on the machines at the time made it almost impossible to pass up.
I was excited to load the Keurig machine into my cart, but as I approached the checkout counter, I hesitated. Would I be turning my back on the brand I had been loyal to for over ten years? Did convenience finally win out over quality? I didn’t know it at the time, but after trying about eight different brands of K-Cups, I eventually found a couple brands that matched the quality of the Breakfast Blend coffee from Starbucks that I had been drinking for years.
It’s hard to change your routine, especially a morning routine that you have been accustomed to for many years. Waking up in the morning to your favorite cup of coffee is like waking up to an old friend. The first morning I came downstairs to make my first cup of coffee with my Keurig felt like I was going behind a lover’s back (OK, maybe an exaggeration), but I did feel plenty guilty.
The Keurig machine I bought came with lots of K-Cups to try. When I tried my first K-Cup cup of coffee, I was hugely disappointed. I thought I had made a big mistake purchasing this machine. The coffee was bitter and metallic tasting. Would Costco take this machine back after it had been used? After pouring the first cup out and trying another brand of K-Cup, I felt no better. It was on the third try that I was in heaven. I found Coffee People’s Donut Shop. That was it; I was hooked.
Am I happy I purchased the Keurig? You bet! I look forward to coming downstairs in the morning to greet my new old friend. However, I do get a bit nostalgic during the Holidays when Starbucks releases their “only for a limited time” Christmas Blend coffee. Not to worry though–my local Starbucks is just a short drive from home.
My first thoughts on Starbucks’ new flavored Via coffee (Caramel, in this case) are that it’s sweet. Really, really sweet. Sweet like watching a toddler playing in a room full of puppies and kittens. You don’t even need to add the water and start drinking to experience this; the pre-brewed blend itself assaults your nose with a caramel/sugar aroma as soon as the packet is opened. I am surprised that there are only 60 calories in a serving, because it sure seems like the entire output of the U.S. sugar industry is distilled into each individual package.
I’m not saying that it isn’t tasty, once you’ve quickly and easily mixed 8 ounces of hot water with the coffee. I have become so used to the over-roasted taste of Starbucks’ drip coffee that this was a welcome change. It may also be that I’ve been taking my coffee black for close to a year, and that this is too great of a contrast to not mention it.
That sweet flavor does capture the hint of a caramel macchiato (my previous “regular” drink at Starbucks, before I switched to dry cappuccinos). As I love all things caramel, it goes without saying that I enjoy the taste. I dare say that if you’re not a huge fan of coffee, but do like flavored espresso drinks, you’ll probably like the new flavored Via. It’s certainly easy to make, and for coffee junkies like me it’s perhaps a bit less like the punch in the face that is the regular office coffee/swill and more like drinking the milk left behind from a sugary cereal. It’s an efficacious caffeine-delivery system.
Furthermore, with Via, you don’t have to worry about making the communal coffee or being ostracized for taking the last cup without replenishing the carafe. Overall, I recommend it unless you are the kind of person who thinks that a tablespoon of half-and-half and packet of sugar makes coffee too unbearably sweet.
Coffee makers using open filters and your coffee grounds have always been available. Ten years ago, coffee makers that used pucks of prepackaged coffee broke onto the market. There was a couple that stood out and lasted the tests of time. Of course, a few where here and gone. Interesting to us was how few options there really has been.
We started talking about this the other day when at a Crate and Barrel. We noticed that while the coffee makers using pucks and cups of coffee flavors took a while to get started, that isn’t the case with Espresso makers. Home espresso machines have been around for a long time (remember James Bond had one built into his kitchen?) in their current form of adding fresh grounds and managing the pour and steam… plenty of options. The introduction of puck and cup style Espresso machines when from non to many options in what seems like over night.
This picture of one from Nespresso… cool looking, good pressure, lots of ‘instant’ features, a variety of coffee cups flavors and not very inexpensive. It shows a price of just under $350. The ‘artsy’ versions of NESCAFE we posted up a couple days ago where half this price. When shopping, keep an eye our for a few important points: pressure and availability of quality coffee. We went down one path and found that the pressure was good but the coffee options where many and low quality.
Nespresso’s fast, convenient espresso machine combines Thermobloc heating, 19 bars of pressure and automatic pump priming for the purest, subtlest coffee aromas and flavors and richest crema. Slim, retro-modern countertop presence in black; automatic capsule ejection, and removable water tank and drip tray. Use the two pre-sets or program your own cup volume. Integrated Aeroccino frother preps milk for cappuccino or lattes.
It would appear that the puck Coffee makers where sort of test for the Espresso machines. Let’s see if the Espresso machine options continue to grow or the market heads back to the Coffee versions.