CASABREWS 20 Bar Coffee Machine

J'ai longtemps hésité à commander cette machine à espresso, cherchant à avoir un bon café de qualité sans trop y mettre d'argent. J'ai finalement passée ma commande et reçu la machine le lendemain. Je pensais sérieusement que j'allais devoir faire des essais-erreurs avant de réussir à avoir un bon espresso. J'ai préchauffé la machine comme recommandé par la marque, en faisant couler un 2 tasses, sans y mettre d'espresso, avant de faire une vraie tasse. Hé bien, mon tout premier espresso était vraiment excellent. J'ai choisi un sac de café Lavazza "crema e gusto" moulu finement que j'ai trouvé au supermarché, j'ai mis 11-13g dans mon portafilter, et dès ma première gorgée j'ai été grandement surprise. Aucun arrière-goût, aucune amertume. Un café très doux, mais fort en même temps. Points importants à noter: - Le mousseur à lait prend parfois un peu de temps à être bien chaud et je n'ai pas réussi à faire mousser mon lait au complet, mais ce n'était pas ma priorité. - Le mousseur est aussi très bruyant, au point de faire siler mes oreilles. - J'utilise l'eau chaude du mousseur à lait (sans mettre l'option steam) pour allonger mon espresso, mais parfois l'eau n'est pas aussi chaude que j'aimerais qu'elle le soit. Je suis très contente de mon achat, et après une semaine à me faire des café régulièrement je n'ai aucun problème majeur avec la machine. Je recommanderais clairement cette machine pour ceux qui souhaitent se faire des espressos, ou allongés de qualité, sans trop dépenser (surtout considérant que certaines machines à pods sont encore plus chères que celle-ci). Évidemment il est possible de "modder" la machine en changeant le portafilter, mais honnêtement, étant quelqu'un qui prend de 2-5 cafés par jour, je ne vois pas l'intérêt pour le moment puisque le café est très bon! Je recommande!!

Been using this machine every day for over 3 months. It works great and makes a fantastic cup of espresso. Some observations: - Use with a conical grinder. Small changes to the size of the grind makes a significant change to the pressure that can be generated (smaller grind = higher pressure). This results in significant changes to the flavor of the espresso. - The screen cups have a small notch/bump in them to keep them from falling out of the handle when dumping the grinds. They can only be inserted/removed from the handle in one way. I replaced them with ones without the notch (my preference). - If you allow it to run out of water while running, you have to release the internal pressure by opening the steamer wand valve (put a cup under the wand). The machine is not broken - don't panic. - The pour volume for a single and double can be adjusted (read the manual) but the minimum pour size is a little large in my opinion. The pour can be stopped manually but you have to be monitoring the pour to turn it off. - There is some vibration in some conditions that can cause the cup to wander during the pour. So it is best to keep an eye on the pour in any case (see comment above)

Estoy muy satisfecho con este producto. La calidad y como se ve es muy buena!

I have a Breville Bambino but bought this for my parent’s house as I was hosting a party there for a week. In comparison to the Bambino, this Casabrew produces more espresso for a double with more foam with less grounds (15g for Casabrew vs 18g for Bambino). Although I had to use the hot water function repeatedly to decrease the temperature and prevent over heating, I was able to use the milk frother function for 7 drinks in a row without any issue. The machine takes up more room vertically and the materials seem more solid than the Breville and at a lower price. I am very happy with this product and would’ve been happy with it over the Breville had I known how good it was. It was easy to set up, brew time was quick, temperature good without having to warm up the machine like it suggested. No leakage at all. Excellent product. PS. If noise level is important to you, the Breville is less noisy.

4 stars if you're intent on learning to make great espresso, 5 stars if you're happy to stick with beginner mode. There's nothing inherently wrong with this machine. It can make good espresso, with a nice crema, if you use fresh, quality coffee that's ground correctly AND you run it at least twice without coffee before making a cup -- the portafilter needs to be hot or you'll get a subpar extraction that's thin and lacks the silky smooth mouth feel. Ignore the single shot basket. It's pretty much useless. No one makes single shots. Fill the double shot basket as close to the max line as you can (~15g of coffee), and MOST IMPORTANTLY reprogram the 1 cup button so that you get about 30 to 32 grams of espresso in your cup. 15g of coffee for 30 grams of espresso is the "golden ratio" of 1:2. From the factory, both the 1 cup and 2 cup buttons allow way too much water. The ratio is closer to 1:4, which will yield a terrible espresso. Buy a coffee scale with a timer function and reprogram the 1 cup button as I said above (for ~30g of espresso in the cup). The 2 cup button will be your "manual" button -- you can use it as an on/off button to do a manual extraction while watching your coffee scale and timer, the way a professional manual espresso machine is used. If this is all you ever want to do, and you like the results, then it's a 5 star machine. However, if you were hoping to experiment with your grind and your tamping to achieve different extraction pressures and times, then you'll have to buy a new portafilter, one that does not use a pressurized basket. The cheapest I found was a bottomless portafilter from a 3rd party for $60 CAD. You'll also need a real tamper, which is another $20 to $30 depending on features ($30 for a spring-loaded one). And you'll likely need a coffee distributer and leveler too ($30) since you'll be working with a bottomless portafilter and they are much less forgiving (on purpose). That's why I say 4 stars if you had aspirations of learning the art of espresso making -- after buying all the additional parts, you'll have spent almost as much as a De'Longhi Maestro Plus which comes with both pressurized and non pressurized filter baskets (so you get the best of both worlds) plus all the accessories you need, AND you'll still be stuck with the Casabrews 51mm portafilter which is a little small and only holds 14-15g of coffee -- larger diameter portafilters are preferred, 58mm being the standard for pro systems, and being able to hold 16-20g of coffee is preferred. Like I said, it does make good coffee. It just doesn't offer any way to grow your skills and make even better coffee. I've had it for 24 hours and I already wish I'd bought something more professional, but I'm the kind of person who will take the time to learn, so if that's not you, then go for the Casabrews.