This appliance is something a little out of left field for most fans of this site since it’s not really from a terribly well-known brand. On top of that, it’s hasn’t got a high build quality, and the appliance itself is a really unique, and quite strange, concoction.
However, while I was doing a little research for the site, i stumbled across this unique thing – an appliance that’s capable of managing all manner of different forms of coffee brewing without missing a step. It can brew all sorts of pods, as well as plain ground coffee. On top of that, it can do both of those things either hot or cold! So, with that said, what’s going on with this unique creature?
What does it do well?
Well, there are a few things that it does well! Firstly, we have to mention the sheer functionality of a machine like this one. To have one appliance in your kitchen that’s so multi-purpose is almost unheard of in the world of coffee, since we’re so used to having a standalone kettle, a standalone grinder, and a standalone piece of brewing equipment.
Instead, we’ve got a 5-in-1 compatible machine! The machine is confident that it is capable of handling Kcups, Nespresso pods, dolce gusto pods, coffee bags, and ground coffee itself. Of course, there’s something of a tradeoff here, which we’ll get into in the next segment.
For now, though let’s focus on the functionality. This machine is capable of all of these different tasks through the use of a modular drawer system. Essentially, the machine has a small hole through which hot water is dispensed, and then a drawer in which you would place your coffee.
This drawer is changeable depending on how you want to brew your coffee, with the following being a straightforward, if a little busy, diagram explaining things.
The final good thing that we want to note about this machine is the price point. If you’re as much of a cheapskate as me, then you might want to consider the astonishingly low price that this machine offers – just under a hundred and fifty dollars at the time of writing!
That price is so low it’s almost unheard of in the coffee world, meaning that it’s a real shock to see it here, where the machine is apparently capable in so many ways.
What does it do poorly?
This is perhaps the dispiriting part of the article – there’s a reason why so many things about this machine seem to be a little too good to be true: they are.
One of the main reasons why there are so many different machines that take different pods on the market today is really very simple: all the machines do slightly different things. Whether this involves brewing at a slightly different temperature or pressure might be quite hard to say. Beyond that, some of the more modern Nespresso machines scan barcodes on the coffee, and all sorts of similarly complex operations.
This means that while this machine might have been calibrated to do one of the operations it carries out flawlessly, it’s exceptionally unlikely that it would be able to carry them all out flawlessly, since they all require such different technical specifications.
To use a very poor analogy, this coffee machine would be like picking Mario in a video game. You know what you’re getting, but it’s middle of the road in every possible way.
Quickly, we want to mention a small thing that the listing of the product very nearly skims over – you can’t fit most mugs onto this coffee machine!
With the specific shape and size of the machine, most mugs won’t really fit onto the machine to enable you to make your drink. This is quite a common thing in cheaper coffee machines, as it prevents you from using a whole suite of different cups to make elaborate drinks. Instead, you’re boxed in to making specifically what the company making the machine might prefer you make.
This isn’t a dealbreaker, of course, since it’s perfectly easy in our modern world to buy a mug or a cup of any size. However, this small bugbear is precisely the kind of thing that might stop someone from using the coffee machine how they would prefer to. In the long term, this can be exceptionally frustrating!
What is the verdict?
The verdict for this one is a little complex, since it’s hard to say how great this machine is without testing it in the long run. In short, I would happily buy this machine and bring it into my home if I had the knowledge that I could return it should I find fault with it.
However, the fact that, to some degree, I expect to find a level of fault with it shows that I don’t really trust it. If I had the luxury of spending around a hundred and fifty dollars on a whim, then I might buy this. If I had less money, then this relatively luxurious purchase would be much less appealing to me. In truth, I might totally avoid it.
This is yet another product that we’ve spoken about without any true conclusion about what we might do with it. If you’re looking to make a foray into the world of unique coffee machines that have a lot going for them, this would likely be a great choice.
If you do purchase this machine, please do leave a comment and let us know what you thought of it – I’d be really interested to know!