Purista® | Bean to cup machine

The machine looks great and does make a good cup of coffee and having the 2 cup option is great - we bought it because having bean to cup was more environmentally friendly than the pods we used previously and we can use the milk frother we had before. The downsides are that receptacles for water and coffee beans are very small and need constantly replenishing - coupled with the fact that the machine uses a huge amount of water. It also seems to burst into life about 30 minutes after you make a coffee.

The Melitta Purista is a slimmed down machine from Melitta that still offers everything you could need in quality. The major appeal of this machine for me is how practically it fits into your home. Thinking about coffee machines, two traits that usually come to mind are their size and their noise-levels. In both aspects, the Purista is extremely house-friendly. For one thing, at only 20cm wide, it is one of the narrowest fully automatic coffee machines on the market! For another, its steel cone grinder is extremely quiet, meaning you can brew your coffee first thing in the morning without worrying about waking your family. This is a coffee machine made for any home – it understands that you might not have miles of free counter space and that the bedrooms in your home might be within noisy-grinder earshot of the kitchen! However, these aren’t its only good qualities. First and foremost, to answer the important question – yes, it makes a good espresso, and a good café crème. I used to work as a barista, so I’m aware of what a complex art and science goes into that pursuit of the perfect cup, and I was pleased to see Melitta giving this a lot of thought. The aroma of the beans you’ve invested in is well-preserved by the Purista, thanks to several features designed to deliver the nuanced flavours that your chosen coffee is capable of. For example, a new pump control system has been designed to make sure the contact time between the water and the coffee is optimum, and even better, the freshly ground coffee is pre-moistened to better encourage the flavours to dissolve through and into your beverage. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of a slow drip-pour whilst still owning a machine that will make your coffee on demand in a timely manner. The Purista has five grinder settings, so you can have your beans prepared the way you like them, and you can also customise your drink through adjusting the strength and the pour amount. For extra convenience, you can program in your preferred coffee settings, and then the next time you want that style of brew, all you need to do is press the Favourite Coffee button. This is a brilliant feature, though I would prefer it if you could save several favourites – then, for example, you could program in your preferred settings for a strong morning cup and a gentler evening brew. Other modes and options include Double Cup Mode, which, quite predictably, pours two drinks at once. The height of the coffee outlet is also adjustable, allowing you to pair the machine with everything from espresso cups to latte glasses. (The height is adjustable up to 135mm.) Circling back to its practicality, this machine is easy to clean. The whole brewing unit can be taken out, cleaned and put back in without stress, and the machine even lets you know when it needs cleaning or descaling! In the case of descaling, this shouldn’t need to happen too often – only about once a year - thanks to the Melitta® Pro Aqua Water filter. With a slick design, large buttons and a clear display, everything about it is doing what it can to be attractive and convenient. It even comes with an accompanying app that gives you coffee tips and helps you to check your machine’s diagnostics if it’s ever giving you trouble. All in all, this is a handy machine. I just don’t have the room in my kitchen for most coffee machines, so I was happy to see a design that caters to this need without losing out on coffee quality. The near-silent grinder, too, makes this very worth considering – especially with two people and a dog I want to leave sleeping when I sneak out to work every morning! Pros: Slim design Quiet grinder Program a ‘Favourite Coffee’ Tells you when it needs cleaning/descaling Easy to clean Anti-scratch Five grinder settings Adjustable coffee strength Adjustable pour height - www.thegadgethead.com

We bought this machine because in the past we have bought Militta Filter Machines, and they were always very good. However, this isn't. We bought it because it does two cups at the same time. But.... + The right side fills more than the left + The construction is flimsy - locking handle for brewing mechanism became detached the first time we tried to remove it for cleaning. + Becasse some beans are left in the grinder from previous coffee type, you end up never getting the correct flavour of the next set of beans without wasting several cups. + The manual is useless - things in wrong sequence and poor english translation + Doesn't produce a good cremma + Scuff marks on a brand new machine as if it had been used before + On the plus side it does look good and is very compact - very disappointed. We wont be using it and therefore we have wasted £400.