Back to Basics CL400BR Cocoa Grande 60-Ounce Hot-Cocoa Maker
by Back to Basics
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Our Price: $38.88
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Category: Kitchen
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: Back to BasicsBrand: Back to Basics
Model: CL400BR
Color: Off-white
Product features:
- Family-size hot-cocoa maker mixes, heats, and froths up to 60 ounces of hot cocoa or lattes
- Push-button controls--heat and high speed, heat and low speed, cancel, and froth/dispense
- Reheats beverages to ideal serving temperature before shutting off automatically
- Nondrip dispensing spout with on/off lever; cord storage; measuring scoop inside lid
- Measures approximately 8 by 9-1/2 by 14 inches
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Back to Basics CL400BR Cocoa Grande 60-Ounce Hot-Cocoa Maker
Customer Review: Promising, delivers yet fails to keep delivering
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the third purchase I've made on Amazon.com for a Back to Basics hot cocoa maker. I've purchased two of the smaller size models in both plastic and stainless steel. They enable me to heat and serve hot milk lattes, hot cocoa and even chai. All of these B2B products share one basic and fundamental design flaw--they do not have a non-stick surface and are impossible to keep clean after the milk burns and scalds onto the bottom metallic heating plate. Other than that they are quite perfect in a variety of ways:
1. quickly and thoroughly mixes your ingredients (if you are making hot cocoa or anything else you'd like to have hot and well mixed)
2. creates a nice rich frothy foam on top of the milk in the container that you can then spoon onto drinks and top off your beverages (lattes, hot cocoa, machiattos, etc.).
3. maintains a constant hot temperature of your beverage over time that is safe enough (~140 degrees) for extended holding periods when you choose to both mix and hold your hot cocoa, milk or other mixture in the pitcher itself and leave it sitting atop the heating motor...
However, you pay a steep price every time you use one of these to it's full potential--scraping burnt milk off the bottom of the container that has built up on and adhered onto the metal heating plate.
I've contemplated some ideas to get around this scalded milk issue: I called Focus Electrics Group LLC and talked to them about the problem, asking that they develop up a non-stick product line (they said they'd discuss it at their next design meeting) but they offered no solutions and asked me to tell them if I found one! The possible home fixes I've thought of but not yet tried so far are:
a. spray the heating plate with PAM or another odorless, tasteless non-stick application each time
b. immediately empty the container when the mixture is done and do not use it to dispense or hold any milk products (i.e. mixing only)
c. try to season the heating element with a non-stick coating, like a cast iron skillet (doubtful because you have to heat the element hotter than it currently goes when making hot chocolate and the plastic container it is set in would melt).
The simple facts are that using these B2B products requires quite a bit of ongoing cleaning effort for a very good result. It leaves you enjoying the fruits of your labor but then wishing for much better at cleanup.
I'm frustrated enough to write a review because I believe such a good product could be a great product. However, apparently the company doesn't care as much as I do, or maybe they've found it's just too expensive to put a non-stick coating onto their products (and of course fix the other durability issues cited by other reviewers). Unfortunately, I'm currently returning my 60 ounce unit to Amazon because it stopped heating milk... yes, the paddle still spins, but no hot anything anymore.
So this product gets three stars in a cursed / blessed existence--I still want the muddled value from it because I can't find anything else out there to do the job it can do and that I want done. I wish this company or a competitor would figure this out because I'd gladly pay double for a better unit that actually worked like a charm and lived up to the potential of what this product can do in fits and starts...
Description of Back to Basics CL400BR Cocoa Grande 60-Ounce Hot-Cocoa Maker
Invite the whole family for hot drinks in minutes. Mix, whip and froth your delicious instant cocoas and lattes in the new 60-ounce family size cocoa grande by back to basics.Drip Coffee Machines
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