Great buy if you like cafe-latte. Taste is different, but good!
Positive Product Points
makes a pretty quick Capuccino for ONE person.. with only one coffee pot.. stovetop, very easy..
Negative Product Points
A bit difficult to clean the milk in the top part.. When it was new, it wasn't easy to screw the top section on tightly..
DON'T forget to push down the button on the top before you start!! You will waste coffee, because you end up with a pathetic bubbling tepid brew..
Detailed Commentary
It's a fascinating apparatus.. mechanical, simple to operate. It works basically like the normal Bialetti stovetop coffeemaker: a lower part that you fill with water, a funnel that you place into that, which contains the espresso ground coffee, and a top part you screw on tightly. Heating will push the water upward, through the funnel, through the coffee, into the upper part. Difference here is, that the little pipe that sticks up inside the top-part contains a disconnectable valve. PLUS, you fill the top part with milk...... first, the machine will operate as usual, pushing up the water through the coffee, into the milk this time.. Milk is warming up already during this process... At some point, coffee stops flowing, and pressure builds up in the lower part. When it reaches a certain level, the valve will open, and steam will blow through the warm milk/coffee at the top. You have to be careful with measures. Too much milk will make it foam too much, and escape from the spout... since the pot is on the stovetop, this will make a smelly mess. however, if well-dosed, it makes a very nice coffee. I would not really call it Capuccino, but rather café-latte.. Although there is another instruction on how to make café-latte with it... which is not so good I think. Well worth the money if you can get it at the 42 Euros I got it for in Italy (that's ca. 60 dollars). I do not have the one with the cow-print (which I don't like much), but a black bottom and shiny aluminium top. There's also one with a glass top, more expensive (I think about 55 Euro, in that shop).. In fact, that must be fascinating to watch....(but more difficult to clean..)
Buying Experience
I bought it in a shop in Italy.. saw it displayed in the shop-window of a pharmacy.. (??) turned out they rented out their shopwindow to the store that sold glasses, plates, and coffeemakers (and other stuff).. Well, why not, what do you want to display in a pharmacy shopwindow.. SO I had to cross the city to find the shop that sold it, because it just looked TOO good to be true.. Expected it to cost at least 70-80 euro. SO when it turned out to be only 42 euro, I could not resist. My wife thought that 4 different coffeemakers in the house was quite enough already, but this one was a must...
