For too long, my mornings were filled with mediocre coffee or expensive cafe runs. I yearned for the authentic aroma and taste of a freshly brewed specialty coffee at home, tailored to my liking. Without a reliable home solution, I faced financial strain and daily inconvenience. This quest for a superior coffee experience led me to explore how a high-quality Melitta Bean to Cup Coffee Machine could truly elevate my daily ritual.
Essential Considerations for a Coffee Machine Purchase
Investing in a bean-to-cup coffee machine promises to transform your daily routine into a barista-grade experience, solving the common issues of stale coffee, daily cafe expenses, and pod waste. It’s indispensable for anyone who savours fresh bean flavours, appreciates automated convenience, and desires a wide array of drink options at home.
The ideal owner is a coffee enthusiast who values quality and variety, from busy professionals needing a quick, perfect brew to households entertaining often. If counter space is tight, your budget is extremely limited, or you’re content with instant coffee, a bean-to-cup model might be an over-investment; a compact pod machine or drip coffee maker would be more suitable.
Before buying, consider the range of coffee specialities you desire, the ease of cleaning, and the machine’s footprint. Evaluate water tank and bean hopper capacities, and the level of customisation for each drink – from grind fineness and strength to milk froth texture and temperature. User profile memory is also a significant plus for multi-person households, ensuring everyone gets their perfect, personalised cup effortlessly.
Unveiling the Melitta Barista TS SMART
Allow me to introduce the star of today’s review: the Melitta Barista TS SMART Model F85/0-102. This elegant, black bean-to-cup espresso machine promises barista-quality coffee directly into your kitchen. It’s a fully automatic coffee maker that grinds fresh beans, perfects milk, and delivers an impressive 21 pre-set specialities via its intuitive touch display or Melitta Connect app. It comes complete with a user manual and a welcome cleaning kit.
This Melitta coffee machine is ideal for the coffee enthusiast who cherishes variety, customisation, and convenience. It may not be the best fit for someone seeking a minimalist, no-frills machine or entirely manual brewing.
Here’s a quick overview of its strengths and weaknesses:
Pros:
* Vast 21 pre-set specialities and app customisation.
* Dual bean hoppers for two coffee bean types.
* Memory for up to 8 personalised user profiles.
* Intuitive touch display and app control.
* Exceptional coffee quality, rich aroma.
* Automated cleaning and removable brewing unit.
Cons:
* Milk-based drinks can be lukewarm.
* Touch interface sometimes less responsive.
* App connectivity issues.
* Single heating system means delays for milk beverages.
* Drip tray needs frequent emptying.
Key Functions and Their Advantages
Unparalleled Coffee Variety and Customisation
The Melitta Barista TS SMART F85/0-102 truly excels in offering a vast repertoire of coffee experiences. Right out of the box, you’re greeted with an impressive 21 pre-set coffee specialities, ranging from familiar Espresso and Café Crème to more intricate Flat White and Ristretto. This extensive menu ensures there’s a perfect drink for every mood and guest. What makes this even more remarkable is the flexibility to customise each of these. You’re not just picking a drink; you’re crafting an experience.
The integration with the Melitta Connect App takes this customisation to a new level. While the machine’s touch display offers quick adjustments for coffee amount and strength, the app unlocks deeper settings, allowing you to fine-tune water temperature, milk froth consistency, and even aroma intensity. This precise control ensures every cup meets your exact preference, delivering a consistently superior taste that often surpasses many high-street cafes. The benefit is clear: true barista-quality coffee at home, precisely tailored to your palate, ensuring no two mornings are ever the same unless you want them to be.
Personalised Brewing with My Coffee Memory and Dual Bean Hoppers
One of the features that truly sets the Melitta Barista TS SMART apart, especially in a household with multiple coffee lovers, is its ‘My Coffee Memory’ function. This ingenious system allows up to 8 different users to save their individual coffee preferences. Imagine: no more fiddling with settings every morning. Whether it’s your partner’s strong espresso or your own perfectly frothed latte macchiato, each profile remembers specific settings for coffee strength, volume, milk amount, and even bean selection. This transforms the machine into a personalised coffee butler, saving time and ensuring everyone gets their ideal cup with just a couple of taps. The psychological benefit of having your perfect coffee ready without thought contributes significantly to a smoother, more enjoyable start to the day.
Complementing this personalisation is the innovative Automatic Bean Select feature, which cleverly incorporates two separate, airtight bean compartments. This allows you to load two different types of coffee beans simultaneously – perhaps a dark roast in one and a medium roast or even decaffeinated beans in the other. The machine then automatically selects the appropriate bean type based on your chosen recipe or preferred profile. For those who enjoy variety or have different caffeination needs throughout the day, this is incredibly convenient. No more emptying and refilling hoppers just to switch from an energising morning brew to a relaxed decaf evening drink. It ensures optimal freshness for each bean type and expands your brewing possibilities exponentially.
Superior Aroma and Quiet Grinding
The pursuit of the perfect coffee begins with the beans, and the Barista TS SMART employs Melitta’s ‘Best Aroma System Plus’ and ‘Intense Aroma’ features to ensure every cup delivers an exceptional sensory experience. These technologies are designed to extract the maximum flavour and aroma from your freshly ground beans. Combined with five adjustable settings for coffee strength, you have precise control over the intensity of your brew. Whether you prefer a mild morning coffee or a robust, invigorating espresso, the machine consistently delivers. This feature is crucial because the richness and depth of flavour are what truly define a high-quality coffee experience, elevating it beyond mere caffeine delivery.
Crucially, this machine also boasts a ‘Whisper Grinder’. As anyone who has owned a bean-to-cup machine knows, the grinding process can often be quite loud and disruptive, especially early in the morning. Melitta has engineered this grinder to operate with remarkable quietness, ensuring that your morning coffee ritual doesn’t wake the entire household. It’s not just about noise reduction; it’s about enhancing the overall user experience, making the process of brewing your coffee as calm and enjoyable as drinking it. This combination of superior aroma extraction and discreet operation makes the initial steps of coffee preparation a pleasure rather than a chore.
Intuitive Operation and Smart Design Elements
Operating the Melitta Barista TS SMART is designed to be simple and intuitive. The machine features a responsive touch display that provides clear options for selecting your desired hot water, milk, foam, and coffee settings, along with adjustable coffee amounts ranging from 25 ml to 220 ml. While some users have found the touch interface occasionally temperamental, for the most part, it offers straightforward control. This ease of use means you don’t need to be a seasoned barista to navigate its functions; everything is laid out logically, allowing for quick selection and adjustment.
For those busy mornings or when entertaining, the ‘Double-cup mode’ is an invaluable addition, allowing you to prepare two servings of the same speciality simultaneously. This feature is incredibly practical, cutting down preparation time significantly. Further enhancing user convenience is the height-adjustable coffee spout, accommodating a wide range of cup and glass sizes, from a small espresso cup to a tall latte glass. This thoughtful design element prevents splashes and ensures every pour is clean and precise, maintaining tidiness around the machine. Its sleek black finish and stainless steel exterior elements lend a premium aesthetic, reflecting German engineering quality.
Effortless Maintenance for Lasting Performance
One of the common anxieties associated with sophisticated coffee machines is cleaning and maintenance, but the Melitta Barista TS SMART addresses this brilliantly. The machine boasts comprehensive automatic cleaning and descaling programmes, which are crucial for preserving optimal taste and extending the appliance’s lifespan. It intelligently prompts you when these cycles are due, and the process is guided step-by-step through the touch display or the Melitta Connect app, making it incredibly user-friendly. The inclusion of a welcome pack cleaning kit is a thoughtful touch, providing you with initial supplies.
Beyond automatic cycles, the interior is designed for easy manual cleaning, notably featuring a removable brewing unit that is completely dishwasher safe. This is a significant advantage, as the brewing unit is where coffee grounds accumulate, and being able to thoroughly rinse it ensures hygiene and prevents the build-up of old coffee oils. The removable water tank (1.8 litres) and drip tray are also easy to access, clean, and refill. While the drip tray does require frequent emptying, especially with milk-based drinks that involve auto-cleaning the milk tube, its accessibility makes this a minor inconvenience. Furthermore, the machine features a water filter and allows you to set your local water hardness, accurately tracking when filters need changing and descaling is required, reducing unnecessary maintenance.
Dedicated Milk Frothing and Hot Water Functions
For lovers of milk-based coffees, the Barista TS SMART offers an excellent integrated milk system. While some users have noted that milk-based drinks can sometimes be lukewarm, leading to a quick microwave reheat for some preferences, the quality of the milk froth itself is generally excellent. The machine delivers a creamy, consistent texture that beautifully complements your espresso, whether you’re making a cappuccino, latte macchiato, or flat white. The removable milk container is also designed for convenience, easily fitting into a refrigerator to keep milk fresh. An added bonus is the availability of a separate milk ‘lance’ accessory, which can be directly inserted into a milk bottle, offering a quicker and often easier-to-clean alternative for single milky coffees.
Beyond coffee, the machine also provides separate hot water preparation. This means it’s not just a coffee maker but a versatile beverage station. You can quickly dispense hot water for tea, hot chocolate, or even for warming cups, making it a truly multi-functional appliance. This capability adds considerable value, especially in a busy kitchen where diverse drink preferences might arise. The thoughtful design means you don’t need a separate kettle for your tea, streamlining your kitchen counter and making every hot drink request a breeze.
What Other Users Are Saying
Having scoured various online platforms, I found numerous glowing testimonials for the Melitta Barista TS SMART. Users consistently praise its ability to produce incredibly delicious coffee, often stating it rivals high-street cafes. Many highlight the dual bean hoppers and extensive customisation through profiles as game-changers, especially for households with diverse tastes. While some noted the occasional lukewarm milk or app quirks, the overwhelming sentiment points to a robust, user-friendly machine that delivers superior coffee and simplifies daily rituals, proving itself a truly worthwhile investment despite minor operational eccentricities.
Final Thoughts and Recommendation
The persistent quest for exceptional coffee at home, free from mediocre brews or constant cafe expenses, is a common challenge. The Melitta Barista TS SMART F85/0-102 elegantly solves this. It’s an outstanding solution due to its unparalleled drink variety, deep customisation via user profiles and smart app, and consistently fresh, aromatic brews. If you’re ready to elevate your coffee experience and bring true barista quality home, this exceptional coffee maker is a fantastic choice. Click here to explore this remarkable machine and start your journey to perfect home-brewed coffee.