Back to Basics CM300BR Cocoa-Latte Chrome 32-Ounce Hot-Drink Maker
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Back to Basics CM300BR Cocoa-Latte Chrome 32-Ounce Hot-Drink Maker
Customer Review: Not just for hot chocolate
Summary: 4 Stars
My sister has a habit of buying me kitchen gadgets as gifts that when I first open them I'm skeptical, but after using it for a while I'm a fan. It was that way with the "Back to Basics CM300BR Cocoa-Latte Hot Drink Maker." When I saw it I said to myself, "How often am I going to make hot chocolate that I needed a dedicated device?" After all, you put milk in a saucepan, add some ingredients, heat it up and you're done. Oh, but I didn't realize what lay in store for me.
First, as a hot chocolate maker, it's a real joy. Add the milk and the ingredients--either a mix or whatever recipe you like--and turn it on. Now walk away. That's it. For the next few minutes, the machine will get to work mixing the ingredients thoroughly and bringing it up to the perfect temperature--not too hot, but tepid. In this case it's about 180 degrees. When it hits that mark, the machine stops automatically.
That's key because when you make hot chocolate on the stovetop, you have to keep an eagle-eye on the milk. If you turn your back for a moment, you have the dreaded boil over and a big mess to clean up. But with the Cocoa Maker--to steal an informercial slogan--you just set it and forget it. When it's done heating the cocoa, you place your mug under the spigot, press the dispense button and let it fill your mug. The button spins the mixer blade but leaves the heating element off and froths up the cocoa for you.
Of course, it doesn't just make cocoa. Now, I'm not sure about the latte bit--I think I'd still prefer a cappuccino machine for that--but it makes great hot spiced cider, mulled wine, or other hot drinks. You can also heat up chicken or beef broth. When you're making risotto you need to keep a pot of hot stock nearby to incorporate into the rice. Keep the cocoa maker full of broth and keep turning it on every few minutes and you can dispense hot broth right into your saute pan or a ladle.
The mixing vessel detaches from the base for clean up, just remember to close the spigot before you start pouring in ingredients the next time you use it. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up with puddles of milk coming out the front of the machine.
[...]especially if you're not hot cocoa fans like us, but if you are or if you can imagine using it for other uses as well, I recommend it.
Customer Review: This IS NOT a coffee-latte maker!
Summary: 1 Stars
Mine shipped from cooking.com and I was charged nearly double.
They will refund only the product price, but not the $17 YES THAT IS CORRECT $17 shipping charge. I live a half hour from where it is located and they won't let me drop it off, I HAVE to pay to ship it back.
I won a $50 Amazon Cert and this place is giving Amazon a really bad name. This is NOT the way Amazon operates... EVER
I had a free shipping choice for starters.
Should have be ZERO shipping charge.
I paid something like $48 of my $50 prize, and now they think I'll spend another $10 on shipping to return it... They are insane.
So now I would have lost my entire gift certificate PLUS given them $10 of my own money.
This is not a coffee maker.
You have to make your own INSTANT coffee and cocoa.
It has a seriously weak motor, I would let a 3 year old play with it, that's how weak it is.
Mr Coffee gets your coffee really hot, this does NOT make it HOT!
After the motor 'blends' (not nearly as strong as a low setting on a blender... this is a joke) your instant coffee with the chocolate, there is another switch on the base (which is nothing more than a motor) to make froth LOL SURE it doesn't
You get maybe 100 teeny bubbles on top (nothing like what is shown in the picture) and by the time you have moved the cup, the bubbles are GONE.
Latte? Are they kidding me?
If you brew coffee in a cheap Mr Coffee and put instant cocoa in your mug and pour the brewed coffee on it and add a little milk or no fat Cool Whip, just stirring with a spoon gives a really nice froth on top.
If you wanna go all out, pour it all in your blender and voila! Just like Starbucks and you can use cheap coffee even, but who drinks instant coffee?
DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM, the description is a complete misrepresentation of the product.
Amazon will ALWAYS straighten out problems, who I eventually called after speaking to the thieves at cooking.com.
Thieves AND liars, they wrote the revue and descriptions.
Straight out lies
Oh yeah, the purchase price went from something like $27 to $48 AFTER they got their greedy hands on the order.
Customer Review: I use it everyday! Great for ready to drink temp - powdered drinks.
Summary: 4 Stars
Personally I use this everyday, and will purchase another if anything happens to this one!
This unit I have had for 2 years, and have never had any of the problems that are discussed by other reviewers here.
For the price, and for what I need it for it's a must have in my kitchen.
& with a 20 second clean after each use, and commmon sense usage- there are no problems!
Yes, the unit is made out of cheap materials, and will spill out if you fill it to full, and does get all gunky around the seals at the bottom if you don't clean it - but use a little common sense with this machine and it's great!
I use it for hot chocolate, but actually most of the time I put protein drink powder in it with water and it mixes it perfectly and heats it up to ready to drink hot - not burn your mouth hot, which I like.
Sure I could use hot water and good old wrist action to stir, but what a pain. I'm lazy and I just dump in the ingredients, hit on, and go about my business til it's ready which takes all of maybe 3 minutes.
I also am sure to use whatever mug I am drinking from to measure how much water I need, then pour it that amount. That way I do it one drink at a time, and it's the exact amount needed to fill my mug - and not to much in the machine so it doesn't spill out.
I am always sure to wash out the machine immediately after every use to avoid the gunk that builds up at the bottom. I don't even have to scrub. I simply put in a dab of liquid soap and swirl water around in it. If there's any gunk on the bottom I either take a paper towel and wipe around down there too, or use a sponge. If you quick clean it everytime it's all good and ready for your next use. It does get gunk around the bottom seal - but when I swirl the paper towel around the bottom I'm sure to use my fingernail to get whats under the little lip. Also, when cleaning it be sure to run clean water through the spigot too just to flush out anything that was trapped.
I've given it as gifts to several hot chocolate drinkers, and they all love it too.....
Customer Review: Beware: The plastic in this mixer melts into your hot chocolate
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved this for a while, even though I had complaints.
Silly complaints:
The milk would froth and spill out, so I quickly learned to only fill it a tad bit over half-way. It'd get too hot and burn the chocolate on the bottom so that it was nearly impossible to clean off completely. Also, the little spout would get clogged with the high percentage cacao I'd buy to melt in the mixer, and it was hard to clean without pipe-cleaners.
Major, health-risk complaint:
After a few months, I noticed the hot chocolate started tasting funny, kind of like plastic or burnt tires. Well, I noticed that every time I had to clean it, the bottom (of the mixer, not inside the tub where the hot chocolate would go) would have some gray liquid in it, but I just assumed that some milk was leaking through the screws that because it was new, some residue from manufacture was being cleaned off over time (so I'd tighten the screws and hope the problem would go away once it was all clean). Well, this continued and eventually got worse and worse. Eventually, I realized that the gray plastic spinner on the bottom that controlled the spinning motion inside of the mixer was melting because the hot chocolate mixer would get too hot. I like my hot chocolate hot, and I assumed others would, so I didn't think it was "too hot". Well, I guess leaving it on for the automated. set-in, standard time was "too hot" for the hot chocolate maker's little plastic mixer device, and it melted and was contaminating my beverages. I noticed one day when the hot chocolate I had made was too low---I saw little wisps of gray floating in the chocolate. I didn't think it was actually getting into my drink when I saw that stuff on the very bottom of the mixer... My logic was wrong.
I'm buying a different brand and hope I will not poison myself the same way I have with this defective hot chocolate maker. The melted plastic did make me feel sick to my stomach every time I drank my drink, and after my discovery I am glad it wasn't the milk or the chocolate.
Customer Review: Lovely froth
Summary: 4 Stars
We love this hot chocolate maker and dispenser. It is very easy to use and a little bit more fun because they added a spigot. (How tempting to put draft beer, but that will be too much fun!)
It is really basic but is priced accordingly. It says chrome on the description, but it isn't really chrome as chrome on your mag wheels. It is more of a rough silvery painted cheap plastic. The unit is light but not too light that it may likely to tip over. It is a tad wider than our old and demised chocolate maker, making it actually more stable. You can hide the cord under the base when it is not in used which to me is pretty neat. 2 toggle switches, one to turn on the heat and start the spinning, and the other is to make your chocolate frothy during serving. (The second switch works by spinning the chocolate while you are dispensing it through the tap.) Why not? It always attractive to have a mocha flavored moustache while sipping and enjoying the moment with your equally bemoustached wife. It reminds you of the famous milk commercial, only sweeter. What I love with these kind of hot chocolate mixers is that they heat the chocolate at just the right temperature, not fastfood scalding hot. I have one gripe about this product, it seems that the hot chocolate is not mixed thoroughly by the time it automatically stops. Not as satisfyingly creamy.
My son and I enjoy watching the chocolate and milk mix together during the spinning cycle, probably just like my excitement and enthusiasm when I used to enjoy watching my clothes tumbling in the coin-op dryer during the days. There is a special cove in front of the tap just perfect to accommodate a cup. The tap is very easy to operate. You just push it down to serve and push up to stop. Even my younger 5-yr-old son loves to push it down and push it up. He learned that trick quite early with our Pur water dispenser, but hopefully, not flooding the kitchen with hot chocolate this time.