Description
- BE YOUR OWN BARISTA: Enjoy beautiful café-quality beverages with next to no effort using a semi automatic espresso maker that does all the hard work. It’s as easy as grind, brew, and enjoy!
- CONICAL BURR GRINDER: Brew your favorite roast freshly ground every morning. This coffee maker with grinder has 30 customizable grind settings and dispenses directly into the portafilter.
- RICH, FLAVORFUL ESPRESSO: The 15-bar pump produces beautiful espresso, with customizable shot temperature and volume settings for your ideal morning cup. Monitor it all with the pressure gauge display on the user interface.
- BREW SINGLE OR DOUBLE SHOTS: The portafilter comes with single- and double-shot baskets so your espresso coffee machine can make as much as you want. Start your morning off right with a large latte or enjoy a single espresso with dessert.
- MAKE LATTES AND CAPPUCCINOS: The integrated milk steamer is perfect for versatile café drinks, meaning this coffee machine with grinder is also a cappuccino machine and a latte machine.
- 3-LITER WATER RESERVOIR: The large-capacity water tank holds enough to keep brewing for everyone around the brunch table. It’s also fully removable to easily fill in the sink.
- INCLUDED ACCESSORIES: The machine comes fully kitted with all the espresso accessories you need, including a milk pitcher, stainless-steel tamper, cleaning tools, and a grinding funnel. Store it all inside of the detachable drip tray.
- TRUSTED QUALITY: cETL approved with advanced safety technology for long-lasting durability plus a 1-year Chefman warranty. 1450 Watts/120 Volts – RJ54-G-SS
Daddy Bird –
I’m no barista, and definitely not up to par with espresso techniques of the other reviewers I’ve seen here, but that’s just it, you don’t have to be to operate this wonderful coffee/espresso machine from Chefman!
I have been drinking espresso for a very long time now, it’s what many do that are from Key West Florida, however most of us grab it to go.
For the past several years I have been making espresso at home since I have a little more time at home, and I use a $50 to $60 unit. It makes what I thought was decent espresso. I was using pre-ground Cafe Bustelo espresso and basically making macchiatos, what I call a Con Leche.
Boy have I been missing out!
First of all this machine is beautiful and sleek, and the design is very nice, what I would compare to a unit that cost more than double the price of this unit.
It is not overly large so it doesn’t take up a huge area on the counter. The large water tank on the back holds more than enough water to get many uses out of this unit before refilling, and the built-in bean grinder works flawlessly.
(I will never use preground again.)
The portafilter that comes with the unit is a professional feeling and durable quality portafilter.
I bought a tamper years ago that I thought was very nice and worked well however the temper that comes with this unit is three times the tamper that I purchased prior as it is a good heavyweight and solid sleek tamper that gets the job done.
The steamer is easy to use and is very nice as well and seems to be a very good quality steamer. I froth unsweetened almond milk with a third of half and half and I am able to get a nice froth from this unit.
I have read some reviews that speak about the unit being noisy however I don’t find it very noisy at all compared to many espresso machines at the same price point or higher.
The unit is very straightforward and easy to use Make sure to read the directions and Make a water run through the border filter as well as run hot water through the steamer, and finally ground a double shot of beans which is about an ounce of beans and discard them before making your first cup, This will clean any debris from the water lines and the system itself from original manufacturing.
If you think your unit may have shipped without the cleaning utensils make sure to take out the dip tray and look at the back left side as there is a container which contains your cleaning utensils and accessories.
I love it!!!!
My first cup was ground using 8:00 coffee dark Italian espresso, dark roast. This was an excellent tasting espresso, or con leche, I would say.
I’m anxious to try Lavazza Super Crema as it seems to be a highly recommended bean for espresso drinks.
If you are on the fence and are using a small, basic espresso machine and have an idea of what you’re doing, I say definitely go for it as it is definitely a game changer, and now that I am starting to look more deeply into the process, since I see how this has changed my experience for the better, I am starting to look into spring-loaded tampers, distributors, and puck screens.
This is a great unit at a very affordable price for someone wanting to take a step up and enjoy professional grade coffee drinks right in the comfort of their own home without stepping out of the house!
Thank you Chefman!!
Makes a great gift for coffee/espresso lovers!
5 of 5 overall.
Joe –
I worked as a barista for 7 long years. I can’t say that I know the mechanical ins and outs of how espresso machines work, I do know that in essence, the best ones push the right amount of hot water over the right amount of coffee grinds with the right amount of pressure. Having a built-in steamer and grinder (as this device does) are essential, but not required.
This device reminds me of the big, behemoth espresso machines I’ve worked with over the years, the ones you rarely ever turn off, but clean daily… but in a package that can fit under my mounted kitchen cabinets, and one that doesn’t require that I hook up to a water or drainage line. I’ve pulled about 20 shots since installing this machine and, they have all been great quality and quite tasty, you’ve got a great crema and time it takes to separate is on par with any of the “professional” devices/shops out there. Overall, I’m kind of enamored with this machine and it just looks great in the kitchen.
Setting up was fairly easy, hand wash all the things, grind up a few beans and throw them away, pull some water, and test the steamer. The portafilter, espresso tamp, and steam pitcher are all exactly what a busy coffee shop would use (the pitcher being a bit smaller, big enough for about 1 latte’s worth), hefty, made of stainless steel, and of a quality that can be used for hundreds, if not thousands of times.
The bean grinder and hopper are pretty intuitive to use, but it will take some tinkering, just like with any espresso grinder / pulling process, to get the grind to the right coarseness setting, for an espresso pull that’s in the ideal range of 18-26 seconds – at least that was the standard for our shop back in the day. The hopper both holds the beans and acts as an adjustment dial for the grind setting. Personally, I’m a fan of the “lungio” long pull using a fine grind, it makes for a stronger shot to really kick me awake. You can push the portafilter further into the grind deposit slot to manually add espresso to your portafilter, or you can tap the “single” or “double” button for the machine to give you preset amounts. Just remember where your bean hopper dial is set to!
Tamp it all down and then slot it into the right side for the hot water to run through it (takes a bit of force). Pulling the hot water is intuitive, with single and double shot buttons, and a nice looking pressure gauge on the front of the machine to help indicate if water is taking too long to run through, indicating too fine of an espresso grind, or the opposite.
The steamer is excellent. With just a little bit of technique, one can craft cappuccino / macchiato level foam, (mostly) regardless of milk type. You can even make foam art with this type of foam, with a little bit of practice. Also note that this is a proper steamer, not a “frother”, so you can make yourself a $10 latte (in this economy) exactly like what you’d get down the street at your local coffee shop.
A couple of very small gripes that may just be due to the newness of the device and my relative rustiness. Tinkering to get the right grind setting can be a little confusing and takes some patience. If you remove the bean hopper, it’s easy to forget to “reset” the grind setting back to your default. If it’s too prohibitive, i.e. you keep getting shots that take too long or too short to pull, the instructions recommend you throw away all of the already ground espresso, and start over. Doing this is standard practice if you’re looking for perfection.
The biggest gripe, while still relatively small, is that the machine will indicate that the hot water is ready, but the first pull after those buttons light up won’t give you the ideal hot water temperature. The instruction manual recommends pulling one round of just water first, which helps it warm up for when you then add the portafilter and espresso grinds next.
These are very minor gripes. Overall, this is a really lovely espresso machine, made from seemingly very durable largely metal materials, and has an adequate level of precision. The portability of the machine is not sacrificed for quality, as the quality of espresso and steamer foam you’d get here is among any of the larger, multi-thousand dollar machines on the market. That there’s a high quality grinder and steamer included in the machine makes this a space saver. One can also purchase a smaller, cheaper device without these features, and still get decent espresso as I’ve done in the past, but then you’re grinding your beans with a different device, and you may not have the proper steam wand for the true latte experience.
If any unreasonable / unnecessary reliability issues arise over an expected useful life and regular cleaning / maintenance of this device, will update this review. But for now, I wholeheartedly recommend!