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Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:37 am  |
I'm an absolute espresso freak and always have been. I had a Pavoni that I lugged across Italy when I was a grad student for years and years. It made great espresso and cappucino, but you needed a graduate degree to use the damn thing!
Last year, after EXTENSIVE research, I bought 3 Saeco Digital Italia machines: one for my house, one for my place at the beach, and one for my bf's place on the West Coast, where we were spending alot of time (he's here now and that machine is in my office  ). Buying a machine that was NOT Italian wasn't easy for me (for a napolitana, it was kind of the equivalent of ordering pizza with pineapple and chicken as toppings  ).
They list for about $1200 each, but I bought them on ebay and paid about $350 a piece for them. They are simply INCREDIBLE. Once you program them to your liking, they do everything but you your morning shot in bed! You fill your machine with water and coffee beans from time to time. At the push of a button, the machine grinds the beans, taps down the result and will give you a single shot, a double shot, or a cup of what they call cafe americana, which, I can tell you, is unlike any american coffee, no matter how good a coffee maker you have.
The machine is self cleaning. All that it asks is that about once a week, you empty the used grinds and rinse out the receptacle.
It does a fantastic job of frothing milk and will also give you instant hot water if you want it for tea (yuck) or hot chocolate or instant cereal.
Saeco has a number of different models, and there are a few that are less costly than this one - all of them are quite good, but I definitely recommend that you choose one that is totally automatic - i.e. one that grinds, taps, and cleans at the touch of a button.
The machines that Starbucks sells, I believe they call it the Barista, are also made by Saeco. They make very good espresso, but they don't have the extra features and for a bit more money, it is well worth it.
Most of the machines on eBay are rebuilt models. I talked at length with a Saeco rep and also read alot about this. I concluded that buying a rebuilt machine might actually be preferable for more reasons than the huge reduction in cost. Apparently, such complex machines often have kinks that need correction. Saeco's customer service is flawless, and they'll do that for you, but who wants the hassle! The "rebuilt" machines are, more often than not, machines they are not actually "rebuilt", but machines that had adjustments, etc. that needed to be made, but owners who wouldn't wait and demanded replacement machines instead. They carry an unconditional warranty.
Can you tell that I'm in love with this thing?  |
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