DeLonghi BCO70 Caffe Nabucco Espresso, Cappuccino, and Coffee Bar
|
List Price: Category: Kitchen See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of DeLonghi BCO70 Caffe Nabucco Espresso, Cappuccino, and Coffee Bar
Customer Review: tolerable
Summary: 3 Stars
We have never had an actual modern coffee pot of sorts in my family... so I decided to get this one. At the price, I decided that it seemed reasonable, given the functions. I have some major complaints, while there are some good things about it...Pros:
*Really good coffee... appropriate strength.
*Really good cappucino/espresso.
*Easy coffee brewing functions.
*More than adequate capacity in carafe.
Cons:
*Counterintuitive design which allows for incredibly easy spills of water, coffee, coffeegrounds, and especially milk
*Cheap design (feels like i could break the entire machine in half with my hand)
*Milk frother feels incredibly flimsy and has a totally counterintuitive shape & rotation (it should be able to rotate more, and it should be longer and more dynamic)
*Coordination of steam system & cappucino brewing is totally arbitrary and impossible to understand (even for someone who considers himself tech-savvy)
*Coffee isn't at all hot (i like coffee from which steam rises, not coffee from which steam could have been rising ten minutes prior to being poured into a cup)... maybe a 1500 watt appliance could heat more than just the water.
To make matters worse, the manual absolutely sucks. Also printed on cheap paper, the step-by-step instructions are vague at best-- they refer to the steps by numbers when the steps are designated by bullets.
Steaming the milk must be done somehow coordinated with making the espresso/cappucino, but I can't understand how-- last time I attempted this, it ended up only steaming the milk and not making the actual coffee. It can only make two cups of cappucino, and I think that the assumption is that it actually makes less than you put in since some of the water is used to make steam. (There is also a compartment above the milk frother which serves no discernable purpose....)
A conclusion to the consumer : Read into this very carefully before buying. I have been satisfied with DeLonghi products before, but I feel screwed on this one. Supposedly, this device can steam milk, brew coffee and cappucino. One shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand a commercially avialable machine...
Customer Review: Great but has a few flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me start off with, I love the lattes and coffee from this machine.What I do not enjoy are the carafes, the water fills for both the coffee and the espresso maker, and the coffee filter basket.
Let's start with;
The carafes
If you pour either the coffee pot or the espresso pot too fast you will end up with coffee all over the counter or floor. You need to pour it s-l-o-w. (If you're like me, that first cup of coffee can't come soon enough so a little restraint is in order!)
The water fills
Both water fills are accessed from the top. If you have the unit placed on the counter and there is a cabinet above, you need to move the unit out from under the counter in order to fill it with water. Not a big deal but it is a bit of a pain to move the whole unit out, fill it, then push it back.
The coffee filter holder
The holder is easily swung out for ease of adding a filter and the coffee. The difficulty comes when, and if, you want to take the holder out and give it a rinse or to clean it. It is a real challenge to get it back in. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a little easier but still it's a struggle.
Overall the unit looks nice. I enjoy the feature that allows me to take the carafe and pour a cup of coffee while the unit is still in process of making the coffee. It has made 100+ lattes by now and they taste as good, if not better, than the $4.00 ones at the local coffee chain. The coffee comes out plenty hot and tastes great. While this one was given to me as a gift I wouldn't hesitate to buy one, even with the few minor inconveniences. Enjoy your coffee and lattes!
Customer Review: I started out cheap and learned the hard way.
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this coffee maker from amazon a couple years ago and am getting ready to replace it since I bought a high-end espresso machine.
I've been reading through the reviews and I'm shocked so many people have so many negative things to say; I never had issues with this machine. It did everything it claimed to do, and it did it well-enough, but then I had previously owned several lower rung machines that I considered to be far worse.
One reviewer said the frothing wand was counter-intuitive... he's right. It's on an odd arch that makes it difficult to swivel. But it's hardly impossible to work with. The frother on this machine actually works remarkably well. You'll get good foam.
And no, you can't make espresso and steam milk at the same time.
If there is one legitimate complaint to make about the design of this machine it's that it contains a flap for something that isn't used on this model; literally, there's a lid that opens up right over the espresso portion of the machine & it serves no purpose. Maybe you store stuff in there? I don't know, but whatever you do, don't pour water in.
Lastly, the only other "complaint" I can make is the espresso itself. You are not going to get barista quality espresso from a machine like this. Depending on what your tastebuds find tolerable, you will get an espresso that's drinkable, but there are far too many factors that contribute to flavor. The beans themselves, the quality of the grind, the amount of pressure -- all of these are of the utmost importance when talking flavorful espresso.
Customer Review: Worth $100 but not worth $150
Summary: 4 Stars
We are happy with this machine for the ($$) price we paid. If we had paid ($$) we probably would have been OK but not completely satisfied for the price.Coffee taste is great - no complaint there. But here are the flaws in our opinion: 1. doesn't make much foam - at least with whole milk - we havn't tried cream. So you end up with a half capuccino and half latte. Which again for ($$) we are OK with - it is a satisfying drink. 2. The decanters - especially the large one - seem to be designed to spill coffee all over the place. If you remove the cover on the large one and you are very careful you might be able to pour the coffee without spilling. Most of the time it spills. No crying over spilled coffee however - again for the price we are still happy with the end result of the brew we enjoy from this machine.
We would recommend it if you can't afford the ones that promise lots of froth. We hope the company redesigns the decanters! They are pretty ones but not functional re spilling every time. Perhaps the company can figure out how to make more cream (there is plenty of steam but once you get a little foam that is all you can make the rest becomes hot milk underneath) from whole milk - then they'd have an unbeatable machine in its price category.
We give it 4 stars within its price category but if you included up to the ($$$) machines it would come down to 3 stars.
Customer Review: I wish I liked this baby more. . .
Summary: 2 Stars
but alas, I do not.
I got this as a gift, and all I can say is "gimme the gift receipt!"
First some pluses:
I really (really really really) like the removable water tank that feeds the coffee maker. You can pick up the tank like a basket, take it to the water cooler, and fill it right up.
I also like the fact that I can make espresso pretty easily. No major learning curve.
Now for the negatives:
Within three months of one-pot-a-day use, the coffee maker was spewing water all over the place. And I do mean water. Not coffee. I'd fill the tank with 10 cups of water and only get six. The rest would spill out or evaporate. And while it was spewing and evapping? Oh, yeah--enough noise to startle people passing by in the hallway (I use this coffee maker at work). One other problem is that the coffee had a very plastic taste to it for the first 10 pots or so. Yuk. Also, the espresso maker does a great job with the espresso itself, but if you want cappuccino? Good luck getting the milk the way you like it. Talk about a learning curve. I got every result from watery milk to all-froth-no-liquid, neither of which is my preferred outcome.
All in all, I'd much rather have a separate espresso maker of better quality AND my old Melitta coffee maker. Now THAT baby makes some killer coffee.