Hot ground coffee in under 30 secs! (Krups Dolce Gusto KP200040)

Member Name: fayp

Product:	Krups Dolce Gusto KP200040
Date:	20/08/07 (2091 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very easy to use and clean.

Disadvantages: Plastic sugary milk!

I love coffee and so do my family. In fact I fear that we might be addicts!!!
Our kitchen contains two Senseo machines which are in constant use! We love the coffee and variety they produce, however it doesn’t do espresso, hot choc, iced drinks or lattes…….so we recently decided to add an 3rd coffee machine…..Dolce and Gusto by Krups!

On opening the box, set up is very easy, a few bits of plastic to peel off (phew for a moment I thought I had a bright blue drip tray!), very easy to fit everything together, then fill with water and rinse through. I’d even read the instructions online before it came, which saves time too!!!

So 5 mins out of the box and you are ready to make your first drink. You pop in a pod, pierce the lid with the pod holder, clip it in, slide a button and your drink begins to appear. For milky drinks you add one milk capsule then coffee/chocolate. The back of each box shows how much of each to put in and in what order, even what size they recommend. Unlike other systems this system is entirely manual, that mean you decide when to stop the hot water flowing, takes a bit of getting used to after an automatic system, but has the advantage of you having your coffee, exactly how you like it, after all we all like different strengths of coffee. The drink brews inside the pod so no washing up, other than rinsing the pod holder briefly if you’ve used milk!

Unlike the other systems (Tassimmo etc) Dolce and Gusto comes with a very nice welcome pack, several of each type of coffee, plus a latte and cappuccino cup. You also get a free bin to throw your used pods until they cool. There is also a voucher to send off, which is your registration, and in return you get a voucher for a free pack of coffee.

The pods are now available in all my local supermarkets, and also online from the Dolce Gusto website. They are priced £2.99 for 16 pods in supermarkets, and £3.19 on the website but includes P+P. Supermarkets often have 4 for £10 offers so worth stocking up then! It works out apx 17p a cup for black, 34p for milky drinks (as you use 2 pods), so quite expensive but cheaper than the coffee chains! At the moment the pods are dearer on eBay than in supermarkets which I find weird!?

So the most important question…what can you make, and what does it taste like?

Cappuccino:
Sadly the powdered milk contains sugar, so this one is a bit sweet and vending machine like for my tastes if you make it as they recommend it. However by experimenting you can add less milk and more coffee and make a very nice drink. After all, when you have a cappuccino out they vary vastly, I personally can’t drink the Starbuck’s weak offering and my Mum can’t stand the Costa’s strong one!

Latte Machiato:
Again a bit weak a sickly for me in it’s proper form, but looks beautiful, with layers in it’s very own glass! Again experiment and you’ll get the taste you like.

Lungo:
Described as a long espresso, and wow! Hot, delicious coffee in under 30 secs!

Espresso:
Wow again! Strong, hot and perfect! Or you can use a bigger mug and more hot water to make an Americano.

Hot Chocolate:
Again let down by the milk if you make it as advised on the box. Adding more choc and less milk makes a drink made in heaven! Certainly as nice as the Costa hot choc!

Iced Cappucino:
The latest pod to be added to the range. This is one of the few machines that makes cold drinks as well as hot, although they recommend using two ice cubes too. This is a lovely summer drink at a fraction of the cost of the chains. Again, go light on the milk!

The machine is a pretty, futuristic gadget for your kitchen, coming in ivory, red or black. It retails for £89.99 most places, but Amazon currently does the black version for £79.99. When you think how much a coffee out can cost these days, it seems quite good value to me.

Hopefully in time Nescafe will address the question of sugary, plastic milk and come up with something better (and more diabetic friendly too). Decaff would be nice too if I’m not to stay awake for ever more.

For me this machine is nice alongside my Senseo but would never replace it. If I only has space for one machine, my Senseo would win! But wow, go on, get both, they look so cool sitting side by side!

Summary: Easy to use but need to experiment to get taste you like!

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