7 Things You Have In Common With Espresso Maker

The Krups EA850B is an excellent, but very expensive, beans-to-cup coffee


machine
The EA850B is a high-end beans-to-cup espresso machine that can also make cappuccino and
latte automatically.
This is very much a premium product, and there's no doubt its glossy all-black finish looks
smart.

The

strip, fitting the chlorine and limescale filter and performing an initial flush of the system. It even
Lets you know if something isn't fitted correctly, such as the coffee ground hopper being out of
place.
Once you've added your beans to the top-mounted hopper, you can adjust the grind using a
simple knob. When making Espresso, the machine lets you Choose the size of espresso, from 30-
70ml, and whether you're making one espresso or two.
Adjustable, permitting you to use cups from 62-122mm in height.
It was reasonable, coming out at
Just over 65 degrees C and with a good layer of crema, but it didn't quite have the body we were
On the lookout for. For the second espresso, we changed the size to 30ml, and this improved matters
considerably. The espresso was full-flavoured, with a lovely crema and thick, oily texture; this is
the best espresso we have had from a beans-to-cup machine, with the possible exception of the
also-excellent Panasonic NC-ZA1.
A thick, oily, beautiful espresso
Unusually, the machine also has a Ristretto mode, for a shorter, stronger espresso. This resulted
In a very strong and more bitter shot for people who think espresso is for wimps.
The EA850B can also make cappuccino and latte, but does not do this with a steamer wand;
Rather, the process is totally automatic. You fill out a container with milk (Including the jug you would
otherwise use to froth milk with a steamer wand) and run a pipe into the spout block. You then
Turn a knob on the spout block to select either cappuccino or latte, pick the size of espresso you
want in the drink and press the go button.
The machine sucks milk up from your jug, froths it and pours it into your glass, before adding
the espresso at the end. It produces a large drink - it would barely fit in our tall cappuccino glass
- but the result is impressive. The cappuccino still needed a stir to mix completely, but was hot
with tightly-packed foam - a very tasty drink, made with the minimum of fuss.
The machine makes impressive cappuccinos automatically
The Panasonic NC-ZA1 also has this feature, but we found Krups' implementation was neater;
It's easy to plug in and remove the milk hose on Krups' model so it's only there when you require
It, and it doesn't remain hanging out of the side of the machine as with Panasonic's model. We
also thought the EA850B had the edge for frothing, producing more tightly-packed foam.
Actually, the only major problem we noticed with the machine was that it didn't tell us when we
were running out of beans in the hopper before making a drink; one latte had to go down the
Sink, since the coffee part was mainly hot water due to lack of beans.
There's no doubt the Krups EA850B is a very expensive coffee machine, but it makes some of
The best beans-to-cup espresso we have had. We're also impressed by the instant cappuccino and
latte feature, which made tasty long drinks with the minimum of fuss. It's marginally better than
The Panasonic NC-ZA1 as a result of its superior milk frothing, but the Panasonic model is half the
price, so beats the EA850B40 to a Best Buy award.