Capresso 116.04 Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Machine EC100, Black and Stainless, 46 oz

I got this for a family member's birthday present. They have told me many times how much they love it and how good the lattes are but I finally got a chance to try it for myself when I visited recently and they were definitely not exaggerating. The espresso comes out looking and tasting just like at a cafe- rich, strong, dark, with lots of crema. The milk steams up with a smooth, creamy froth that is absolutely perfect. The coffee comes out quickly and the milk steams fast. All told, a latte takes maybe 5 minutes to make. I'm thinking of getting one for myself now!I read all the reviews before buying this and to respond to a couple criticisms: Yes, large mugs do not fit beneath it. But a teacup would. And, of course, small espresso cups that you can empty into a larger mug or glass if you want. You can usually find little espresso cups at thrift stores for super cheap if you want to save money on this. You do need to stay near the machine and watch as it makes your coffee because there doesn't appear to be an automatic shut off function. You need to switch it off when your cups are full or they will overflow, which is fine because it only takes a couple of minutes. Remove the cups quickly after you turn the dial to "off" because the machine will pump any extra water left in the "pipes" out and you don't want that in your coffee. It will fall into the little collection box underneath the metal grate that holds the cup. This box will need emptying and cleaning every two or three brew cycles or it will overflow onto your counter. This is the only drawback I can see to this machine, but it's not a big one.

I wanted to try a pump machine, after many years of using steam machines always with a more-or-less bitter tasting coffee. This Capresso sounded good in the descriptions, but I had some doubts because of other reviews, although several of them sounded like they might not have been running the machine properly - lots of "leaks" but never where the leak was coming from, etc. So I bought one to try it out, and have used it regularly for the past few weeks.I am VERY happy with it. It took several days of mess and experiment to understand how it works - and I actually read the manual, surprise surprise. It is well-wriiten, much easier to understand and much, much more complete than the usual foreign-languag-ey kind of thing. The machine makes excellent espresso, and its foamer works beautifully, makes a nice long-lasting foam - I don't know how it works, my experience with the old inexpensive steam machines was pretty bad. One of the best things about the Capresso is that you can make as many capuccinos as you want, one after another, without waiting for anything to re-heat or cool down or be cleaned and refilled!! They have some kind of internal hot-block and they pump the water through it in one way to make the espresso and in another way to make the steam for foaming - there's no "boiler", when you shut off the steam it just stops!! And that's where the "leak" review must have originated. Because there's no boiler (so you can keep making them one after another until you need to replenish the water tank!) what they do when you shut off the foaming is to release the steam pressure in the foaming pipe into the drip-tray - so you get the last puff of steam and hot water into the tray. After 2 or 3 capuccinos the tray is full. Since I have to put fresh coffee grounds in for each new cup (duh!), I just empty the tray at the same time - saves thinking about it.Anyhow, I don't know how sturdy it is, etc etc, but it doesn't seem to be fragile or flimsy, so I have hopes that it will last. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy the coffee!

I worked near a Blue Bottle coffee for several years and came to appreciate the "Gibraltar", which is basically a cortado. And I travel somewhat frequently to Europe and always come back thinking "I should get an espresso machine". This year I actually did it. After reading too many reddit posts, I chose this machine, and after a week have no regrets (yet!). I've still got a ways to go on latte art and dialing my shots, but so far the cortados I make are taste approximately vaguely in the ballpark of Blue Bottle ones, which is about as much as anyone with a used $65 machine (and a $10 basket, see below) should be able to hope for.I like the simple controls -- time your own shot, whether you like it or not; but I like it. Foamer works great. The only real upgrade I might want would be a temperature control but that's some advanced-level stuff.I got an Amazon returns one for approximately half-price; it was missing original packaging and had a few cosmetic scratches to the black under-tray. The delivery was also slow; it was three days later than estimated, and kept moving back ("your espresso machine will be there tomorrow . . . no, tomorrow . . . er, no, tomorrow"). But, for the discount, I'm not really complaining. It's here, and it works like new.This comes with pressurized baskets, which are forgiving of grind but produce mediocre-tasting shots. If you have a grinder that can dial in an espresso shot (deep rabbit hole there for you wander into; I'm using a Capresso Infinity with the burr screw slightly loosened, which works, but not sure I would recommend if you didn't already have one), you want to get yourself this unpressurized basket:  . Drops right in. The little holder thingy on the Capresso portafilter is helpful for holding it in while tamping and knocking it out.A metal tamp will work much better and they are strikingly cheap, I like this one:  One small failing of this machine is it seems like the shower head output is a bit uneven, so pucks end up with holes that might be causing channeling. I've been cutting out coffee filters stenciled with the tamp and putting them on top; it seems to help and also helps pucks fall out more easily. Cutting them out gets a bit wearying so I've also bought some 51mm filters:  A dosing funnel e.g.,   helps get grounds in.If you want more height to fit a larger cup in, I've taken off the metal plate on the drain and put in a platform Lego, works fine. You can also take the whole drain out and just stuff a rag next to the drain output.The main other one around this price point was the Casabrews one. The main thing that swayed me is that Capresso has been around for a while, my Capresso Infinity grinder is still going after what must be 10 years, and the discounted price from getting an Amazon returns one.

For the price this is an outstanding espresso machine!

Todo perfecto y funciona al 100%, Con todas las piezas ademas de que es muy fácil de utilizar y preparar café,

Todo salió bien. Mi novia la disfruta mucho. Es práctica, fácil de utilizar, fácil de lavar y de buen material.

The machine met my expectations. Makes excelent espresso, lots of crema. Deliverey was fast (3 days).I will recomend it to my friends.

Works great, no problem so far!We'll have to wait a few months to see if it keeps up!El producto es fantastico, hasta ahora no hay quejas, pero hace apenas 3 semanas que la estamos usando.