The Best Coffee Machine (Braun Tassimo Hot Beverage System TA 1400)

Member Name: Smokindave

Product:	Braun Tassimo Hot Beverage System TA 1400
Date:	04/06/09 (445 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple, quick, clean, great coffee.

Disadvantages: Disc can be expensive for constant use.

I love coffee, my wife loves coffee. We have tried the usual old fashioned filter machines, the cafetieres and even those little one cup sieve things. All do the job fine, but the mess and effort, what a drag!

Okay so my wife wanted one of these new 'cleaner' pod coffee machines for Christmas. I said okay find the one you want and hey presto after many long hours of online reviews she plumps for the................ Dolce Gusto.

So I bought the thing on Amazon and she says she loves it. We try out all the different coffees but I keep thinking what is that strange after taste? After 3 months she finally confesses that she doesn't actually like the coffee as it has a strange after taste! So back to the drawing board.

After a not so quick but worth while ebay shuffle the Braun Tassimo enters our kitchen. We have never looked back.

First thing to note is it is quick to set up. I avoided the urge to just figure it out in that usual bloke way and actually read the quick set up guide. So after a few minutes we were enjoying top quality coffee with no after taste!!

Being new to the machine we bought just about every flavour of coffee you can get (and you can get loads), much more choice than the old Dolce Gusto. There is even a Starbucks disk. There are teas too, but somehow I never got the point of that one. Anyway they are available if that floats your boat.

Cleaning is a doddle, just a quick wipe around the obvious areas where coffee is dispensed. You can take most parts that need to be removed off for seperate washing if required. I guess we will venture into that world if anything starts to look a bit ugly. Apparantly there is a cleaning disc available too but our old ebay purchase fell short of that luxury, so I cannot comment on how much use it could be.

Costwise the discs are similar in price to the Dolce Gusto, perhaps a little cheaper at around £3 for 16 standard coffees or 8 Lattee or Cappuccinos (they have the milk discs too). I do find this a little expensive for every coffee I drink but for my morning start and weekend treat is just about right.

The only minor niggle I could find with the system is sometimes (rarely) when you load a disc and turn on, the hot water and coffee does not come through quite right and some will miss the cup and end up int he drip tray below. This could easily be operator error in the loading (as a man this is hard to admit) and it has not happened in weeks, but is worth mentioning.

Although I got this one on ebay, expect to pay between £75 and £100 for a new one. Do look out for special offers though.

All in all the Braun Tassimo is a great all round coffee machine, which makes fantastic coffee with little effort and virtually no mess. Buy it and never look back.

Summary: Great all rounder which prduces great coffee quickly and with no mess.

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