A Cafetiere Graveyard (Rowenta Milano C 363)

Member Name: lamorna

Product:	Rowenta Milano C 363
Date:	25/06/03 (688 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Value, Good Coffee, Easy to Clean

Disadvantages: The Cartoons, Might Break the Glass Jug!, Old Fashioned

The top cupboard in my galley kitchen looked like a graveyard for Cafetieres. Quite a wide representation of prices too. Expensive cracked glass jugs, smeared plastic jugs, gold topped plungers, black plungers, clogged up filters, cork heat resistant mats, special cups with plastic handles, measuring spoons and even including a dinky tray designed to transport the brewed Cafetiere coffee and cups onto the terrace for the ideal coffee break. What a collection I had of abandoned Cafetieres! What’s that tucked at the back? One of those Italian jobbies made of stainless steel that you put on the gas or electric burner with the water in the bottom and the freshly ground coffee in the centre. You screw the two parts together and when the water boils it rushes up through the coffee and back down again into the base which then contains the perfectly brewed cup of coffee. Oh no it doesn’t! The last time I used it I couldn’t unscrew the top as it was too scalding hot, burnt my hand and burnt a hole in my worktop.

Oooh! What’s this in another box? I remember! A scaled down domestic Espresso coffee machine, complete with steamer nozzle to heat and froth the cold milk for an excellent cappuccino. Oh no it didn’t! I had to redecorate the kitchen after just one attempt at using this appalling coffee machine as both the coffee and the steamy, frothy milk sprayed all the walls. I had put it back in the box in disgust and forgot all about it.

All I want is a good cup of fresh coffee-not instant as I prefer real coffee. This selection of useless coffee makers represented a small fortune spent by me over the years in my quest for the perfect cup of coffee.

That’s how an eager shopper, me, and a reluctant shopper, Morty, came to be gazing in awe at the huge range of coffee machines in the Kitchen Shop in Bath. The awe was more inspired by the range of gleaming aluminium and stainless steel coffee machines with prices as h
igh as £500. Anyone else have difficulty in distinguishing the purpose of some of these ultra-modern machines? We couldn’t tell the difference between the juicers, toasters or coffee makers as they were so high-tech in appearance and all looked more suitable for loft living than my antiquated old cottage!

I just wanted a simple machine that brewed hot, freshly made coffee to suit my taste. I wanted easy to clean, simple to operate with no need for a degree in technology in order to make it function. Then I saw exactly what I was looking for, the old fashioned electric coffee making filter machine. The Rowenta was on sale for the very affordable price of £25.00. I was aware of the reason why the filter coffee machines fell out of favour. Freshly brewed coffee is great but stewed coffee is ghastly. I recall with horror the many times in the past when I have been served disgusting filter coffee in cafes, bars and restaurants when it’s been kept hot on the hotplate for several hours or even worse, been heated up from cold from the previous day.

I knew the principles of the filter machine. Plug it in, switch on the hot plate, put measured freshly ground coffee into the central filter, measure the cold water accordingly and pour into the top container. Within seconds the water reaches the correct temperature, flows through the filter and pours into the glass jug on the hotplate underneath. There was one machine on display, a simple design of black plastic and glass, and another still in the box. The box was very dusty proving that filter coffee machines don’t offer much in the way of designer-cred in Bath. Much to my surprise Morty negotiated a 10% discount on the boxed machine as our salesperson couldn’t find another one on the shelves that wasn’t dusty. I put Morty’s boldness down to our Moroccan holiday and the much enjoyed shopping and bargaining in the Souks!

I couldn’t wait to get home and make a
jug of fresh, hot and flavoursome coffee, but it wasn’t as simple as that. The operating instructions came in the form of eighteen cartoon type drawings on a leaflet inside the box. Exactly as I remembered, water in the top, coffee in the centre and jug with lid open on the hotplate. Take note of the phrase ‘With Lid Open’ for future reference!.

The written instructions on the Rowenta advised running plain water through the machine to flush the system through. So why, after all the hissing, glugging and trickling sounds did I only have an inch of water in the jug and a filter full of hot water that refused to pass through into the jug? I decided that perhaps the addition of real coffee would make a difference. By this time Morty was laughing at my frustration and being no help at all. I repeated the process, this time with freshly ground coffee, but still ended up with an inch of weak coffee in the jug and the filter full of the strong stuff. Still no good!

At this point Morty suggested that although the Rowenta comes with a permanent nylon filter it didn’t come with a packet of paper filters so perhaps that was the reason why the coffee didn’t filter through properly. Next day, another run at it, this time with paper filter and exactly the same thing happened. And then, the penny finally dropped. In the years since I’ve used a filter coffee machine they’ve changed the rules. The lid on the jug has to be closed and not left open as in the past models because the filter has to make contact with the lid of the glass jug and it pours straight through a matching hole in the lid! This is an improvement as this also prevents drips as allegedly it’s possible to pour coffee from the jug while the filter is still pouring as once the contact is broken with the lid, the filter stops working. That explains it. I’ve looked through those eighteen carton pictures since and this isn’t made very clear a
t all.

Success at last. A jug of delicious coffee, and it really is good. It seemed to take seconds for the water in the top container to reach the correct temperature and flow through the filter and into the jug. The Rowenta has a lined measure on the side of the top water reservoir claiming a maximum of fifteen demitasses or ten cups of coffee. Using the measuring spoon provided I am able to make a two cup measure which exactly fills my large French style coffee cup that I need to drink to kick start me in the mornings. The machine looks good enough in my old fashioned kitchen unlike the space age equipment would and fits neatly onto my limited worktop space. For that price I only expect black plastic and glass. Most importantly it makes an excellent cup of coffee in record time, the glass jug is easy to wash, the nylon filter rinses through nicely and the machine just needs a wipe down with a damp cloth. The instructions recommend a de-scaling once a month either with a de-scaling product or with white wine vinegar. Overall the Rowenta is a good value coffee maker at a very reasonable price.

Now all I have to do whilst sipping my excellent coffee is to decide what to put in my empty cupboard now that I’ve binned my Cafetiere Graveyard.

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