First, let me say that I love my grandpa and appreciate the fact that he got me this espresso machine. It has brought me a lot of joy and it was a wonderful gift full of consideration for my love of coffee.
With that said, let me tell you about the X6. I've owned this machine for a little more than one year (I got it for Christmas '06). The machine, by virtue of being a pod-only espresso machine, has some pluses but big minuses. I have become somewhat attached to my machine in spite of its problems (though I shall not replace it), but I would not recommend it to anyone with a serious attention to coffee.
First, the pluses. The machine is very easy to use. There are only three buttons and a knob: the on button; the espresso button; the steam button; and the frother knob. As mentioned before the machine takes only ESE (Easy Serving Espresso) pods. The advantage of using only pods is that the coffee is always ground and tamped correctly. And since it is also confined to a paper encasement the grounds won't spill all over the place, keeping your espresso area tidy. Finally, and probably its biggest strength, it's a very pretty machine. When your espresso-leman friends see it they'll think it is something out of Jetsons-Italiano, scoring you a notch on your cool rating.
Now to throttle the thing. It's biggest drawback is that it only takes pods. This is a problem for four big reasons. First, pods are really hard to find. Sometimes Starbucks has them in-store, but your best bet is to get them online and have them delivered. Second, you cannot decide what type of coffee to put into your machine, you're bound to the coffee that comes in pods and cannot use other lose forms of coffee (unless you want to buy a pod maker). Third, they generate a lot of waste. Most pods come individually wrapped, which generates a lot more waste than using regular coffee grounds. Fourth, they're expensive. If you drink espresso every morning, the least expensive you can make a shot of espresso is approx. $0.39. To get this price you'll need to buy a box of 150 pods (about $70) and find a place to store them while you watch your wallet get thinner (Ooh, and don't even try lose grounds either, you'll get a shot of espresso so weak you'll think you were drinking nickel coffee at Wall Drug).
Other disadvantages of the machine are that you have to wait about 10 minutes after steaming milk before you can make a shot of espresso (I guess espresso pressure and steam pressure pull from the same reservoir and you can't do both at the same time because the water is too hot). The quality of the machine isn't very good either, with the body being made mostly out of plastic.
In conclusion, if you're a serious espresso imbiber do not buy this machine. It's low initial investment will soon deteriorate as you go broke buying and shipping over priced pods. The espresso is fairly good, but not worth the pain of hunting for elusive pods in store or online. |
