Remarkable Price; Decent Product (Russell Hobbs Classic Espresso Cappuccino Maker)

Member Name: wulf

Product:	Russell Hobbs Classic Espresso Cappuccino Maker
Date:	12/01/02 (1485 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: inexpensive, real expresso, easy to use AND clean

Disadvantages: skimpy manual, not very good at frothing the milk

Coffee. Marvellous stuff. Over the past couple of years I've got into the habit of using a single cup cafetiere to start the morning and using my percolator to fill a flask which will last me through the working day. Recently I began to toy with the idea of getting an expresso machine - generally I like my coffee strong and black, and the only exception is when I choose to have a cappuccino. Then I looked at the prices and decided to wait a while...

Recently however, my wife and I were shopping in my local Sainsburys and found this device for all of £30. Since we had £25 of Sainsburys vouchers to use, it seemed like a pretty good deal and worth a shot. That was just under a week ago and, since then, I've I been engaging in extensive testing before venturing to write this review.

The machine is smartly finished in black, and constructed to a reasonably good standard of quality. I particularly like the space underneath for coiling up excess power lead (although at first I thought it was just fitted with a very short lead - that's how tidy it is!). I suspect I'll have many years of use out of it - although if something drops off, I'll come back and make a note. It's relatively small but you do need to put it somewhere with good access to minimise the risk of scalding yourself. As kenjohn mentioned in his review of the product, it comes with a metal filter, so cleaning is easy and the only ongoing expense is the coffee (and, obviously, the electricity, although I doubt it uses much more than boiling the kettle).

When you've set it up, as per the instructions, it heats the water in a strong container until it turns to steam and then forces that steam through the coffee, which extracts every last drop of flavour. You don't get a huge quantity at the end but it does have that distinctive 'expresso' taste and strength. If you want cappuccino, you make yourself a shot or two of expresso as normal but use a va
lve on the side to direct some of the steam into a cup of milk, causing it to become hot and foamy. The results are certainly very drinkable, and distinctive enough from my other coffee making methods for me to give it a thumbs up.

Rather than finishing there, let me run through the experiments I have tried out this week. There are one or two points where I felt the manual was not particularly clear, so I present the following observations to help:

1. Hot milk seems to froth up better than cold. Because the device is quite small, it doesn't have a lot of steam to spare, so I've found you get better results by warming the milk in the microwave first. However, it has to be said that you get better results still by warming the milk and then using one of those inexpensive little hand pumps. This may be due to the machine only having a pressure rating of 3.5 bar - more expensive devices quote 15 bar - but I don't think I've missed out by not making the extra £70 investment for what is really nothing more than a lot of froth...

2. If you fill the filter less than halfway, the steam seems to displace it and ends up dripping straight through and watering down the resulting brew. However, I have found that I still get a strong brew even if I use four measures of water against two measures of coffee.

3. You can also use non-expresso coffee. Again be generous with the amount you put it. The result is a little stronger and richer than you will have been used to. This morning, I had a very palatable cup of French blend (coffee and chicory) brewed in this manner.

4. Don't bother trying to reuse the coffee. When I first emptied the filter, I noticed that the coffee seemed almost dry. However, when I used the grounds in my percolator, it soon became apparent that most of the flavour had been leeched away.

5. I wouldn't recommend tea either. To finish off my experiments I tried using the machine with some
Turkish tea I've had for a while. I suppose the sharpness could be due the half lemon I squeezed into it, but there's a tang in there which is more redolent of overbrewed tea. Still, it had to be tried, in the interests of science and all that.

In summary then, I'd recommend it with a few reservations. I found the manual wasn't particularly thorough, and I'm not bowled over by the milk frothing function. On the other hand, it produces the expresso taste that I haven't been able to get in other ways in a quick, easy to use, and easy to clean fashion. If I'd paid £100, I would have been disappointed, but for £30, I think I've got my money's worth.

Summary: