Once upon a time, if your friend offered you a coffee you were 100% guaranteed to end up with an instant coffee and hot water combo, possibly with milk that’s in date depending on the quality of your friends (I have been given squirty cream as a milk substitute before and this says a lot about my friendship group). These days you don’t have to rely on some soulless high street chain for your flat white or espresso doppio, you can make it in your own home where it is much more acceptable to drink coffee in your pants and you won’t look pretentious for working on your screen play.
The Melitta Barista TS Smart can whip you up a latte without you needing to heave your backside off your sofa, you can impress your guests by using your phone to place your order (as long as you only require two drinks, oh and make sure the cups are already in place or you will be drinking from a drip tray). This clever machine can make 21 different speciality coffees including the right coffee beans, according to the original recipe or your own creation, four drinks can be prepared with one touch of a button, Espresso, Café Crème, Cappuccino and Latte macchiato as well as separate hot water creations for different types of tea, the recipe book shows you how to the create 17 further coffees including flat white (does anyone know what this really is?), americano or ristretto. The Melitta Connect app is free to download and it’s here you can manage your appliance settings and program and save the My Coffee Profiles. There are also tutorials to assist you with cleaning and maintaining the appliance and create your own coffee specialities by selecting the order in which the ingredients are poured into the cup, the amount of coffee, frothed milk, hot water and other coffee settings can be individually tweaked.
The TS Smart offers Automatic Bean Select to get the right beans for your coffee or change the bean chamber yourself, it will also tell you when the grinders need topping up with beans. There is also the IntenseAroma feature with gives coffees a more intense flavour (without making it stronger), the My Coffee Memory lets you save your creations and preference for up to eight people. The Italian Preparation Process helps to produce an authentic flavour by ensuring each step is followed in the correct order, the grinder grinds empty each time to make sure your coffee is never tainted with old ground coffee residues. There is a seal on the Aromasafe lid of the two-chamber bean container and the dark tinted design helps preserve the beans for longer. The Quiet as a Whisper Grinder (which was awarded the prestigious Quiet Mark) – especially for quiet grinding with five different settings, the TFT colour display and One Touch buttons make for easy use, the Touch and Slide feature lets you use your machine by gently touching the sensor panels.
The Double Cup Mode lets you make two cups of different coffee at the same time, and separate nozzles for coffee, milk and hot water means you don’t have to move the cup when making your drink, it also has integrated LED illumination and is height adjustable up to 140mm, for those tall latte glasses. The brewing unit can be removed for easy cleaning and the Plug-in milk system is removeable to pop it in the fridge when you are done (it is also dishwasher safe), there is an automatic cleaning and descaling programme to keep everything in tip top condition. We loved this coffee machine, it produces a huge variety of coffees that taste amazing, it is quick and easy to use with loads of features to make you feel like you are a coffee wizard. The app is a great touch, I loved sending our orders to the machine, so it was ready by the time I got out of the bath, or finished off a piece of work. RRP £1199
5 out of 5
Pros
21 coffee creations
Melitta Connect App
Tasty coffee
Automatic Bean Select, IntenseAroma and My Coffee Memory function
Quiet grinder
Easy to clean
Four automatic touch screen buttons
Detachable milk container
Two bean compartments (can be used for different varieties)
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