For years now, more than five, my wife has been talking about buying an espresso machine for our home. We've always held off for one reason or another but last year she was a adamant that we would be buying one first thing when we returned home to Canada. We had been talking about it for so long that I really couldn't argue about it. I had grown accustomed to drinking rich European coffees for three years anyway, so at that point I was 100% on board for that reason alone. Recently we but the bullet and bought our espresso machine.
Unboxing
We do everything for the Hive, including opening packages of products. You know how it is, don't try and pretend that you wouldn't do exactly the same thing.
We decided on a Breville espresso machine and grinder combo because we did some research and narrowed it down to just a few models that we liked and this one happened to be on sale at the moment of purchase.
It came with everything we needed as well, including an extra filters and descaling tablets and little stuff like that. We didn't really have to buy anything extra though we did purchase a box to empty out the grounds from the portafilter. It wasn't necessary but it was inexpensive and we didn't want the portafilter touching our indoor green composting bin, which can get pretty disgusting at times.
The Grinder
There is nothing better than freshly ground coffee. I had been told for years by many different people that it makes a world of difference to your morning cup and now that I've been grinding at home, I would have to agree. Even a regular hand grinder would do wonders I'm sure.
This grinder has a lot of good features, like an easily adjustable grind size and grind duration, but we have also experienced a few issues with it as well. We have figured it all out now but to be honest I couldn't actually recommend it to others. One very small annoyance is that there is no off switch on the device, just an automatice shut off after 5 minutes of un-used. It takes only 15 seconds (literally) to grind the coffee though so to me that seems like a lot of unnecessary idle time. I know that the energy consumption of the device is negligible but an on/off switch just seems like an obvious "no brainer" to me.
The bigger issue that we've had with it is that it will not grind light roasted coffee. Apparently, light roasted beans are denser and less brittle than dark roasted and they have less moisture in them. As such, they jam up the machine whenever we try to grind them and make an awful sound as if we are breaking down the motor. They actually sound like they are going to destroy the device entirely so we have stopped trying to use them. We can grind them on the largest, most coarse setting, but not on the espresso setting which means that we can not really even use them in our espresso machine. It's not like the device is cheap either, so I would have expected it to grind whatever coffee beans we purchased. All that being said, the grinder will only grind dark roasted coffee beans.
The Espresso Machine
We had spoken to a few different people before buying the espresso machine and most suggested that we should get one with a dual broiler, meaning that the espresso machine and the steamer have their own separate heating elements.
This saves you from having to toggle between temperatures when using each of the devices and that seems simpler and more convenient to me, so I'm glad we took the advice in the end.
You can make just about any sort of coffee you want with the machine, from espresso to Americano and everything in between when using the steamer and the manual water spouts. There is a bit of a learning curve to figure it all out, but overall we've been pretty satisfied with the machine and the coffee it produces.
I typically drink Americano in the morning simply by doing a double espresso shot and then adding water to it manually. You can also mimick filtered coffee by adding even more water.
My wife uses the steamer nearly everyday to make herself a latte. It's why she wanted one so bad after all.
Creating textured milk seems like it would be super easy when you watch others do it but I'm pretty surprised at how hard that it's been for me. So far I've seriously sucked at it.
I can generally make some large bubbles in the milk, but not the microfoam that you need to make a proper cappuccino. The bubbles never seem to be incorporated together, so I mostly get liquid milk with loose foam on top. This makes for a cappuccino that drinks more like a coffee with a lot of milk.
I've watched a bunch of videos recently, after get super frustrated by it, so hopefully the next time I'll be able to do better. Maybe one day I'll even be able to make some coffee art in the mug.
Below is my wife's latte. She has mostly gotten the hang of texturing the milk but is still working on making it look pretty.
Concluding Remarks
Overall we are pretty satisfied with our purchase despite having issues with the grinder. On the plus side the coffees that it makes are quite good and the machine can make a wide variety of different coffee beverages by adjusting the water output or using the milk steamer. It's really quite versatile and customizable in that regard. On the slightly more negative side there is a bit of a learning curve to producing a consistent cup of coffee and with using the built in steamer. Its also a bit loud and rumbly and takes quite a while to heat up when it's first turned on. It takes 10 minutes to warm up so it's not the most convenient of devices. However, it does have a programable feature as well so you can set a specific time for it to come on in the morning. That's a nice touch in my opinion.
Like any machine, there are some negative features to it, but i think the pros definitely outweight the cons. Overall its been working great and I'm pretty pleased with the purchase.
