Melissa Avanza
4/5
I'm going to say that after looking through the which consumer website for coffee machines, we decided that we wanted to treat ourselves to a bean to cup coffee machine. We decided to go for the more advanced Melitta Avanza series as opposed to a more basic one in the same range due to the milk frother having an attachment that you can feed into any milk container, and that you can make two coffees without milk at the same time. I want to be honest with you-the machine makes lovely silky smooth coffees like expresso and does a decent job of frothing milk, so unless you are used to making barrister level quality coffees, then you will probably like the results. The machine is actually sensibly priced for an automatic machine and we really did not want to pay nearly a thousand pounds for the privilege of freshly ground coffee, so it seems like it is not a bad price for an automatic machine that gets the taste and texture of the coffee right.
The machine is quite deep but has a pleasing front which is quite slimline given how many functions must be crammed inside it, so it should fit well on a kitchen worktop. It has numerous icons to alert you to different things such as emptying the drip tray and removing the convenient puck shaped coffee discs (in a separate container, also inside the drip tray) or showing that the coffee hopper or water tank needs refilling.
The more complex tasks like cleaning the machine (it runs a small amount of water through the coffee outlet at the front whenever it's switched on or off-it will power itself down after an adjustable amount of time). The whole brewing unit can be cleaned as well, however it requires some patience and I strongly urge you to read the manual-it does have plenty of diagrams to help you with the functions.
The chrome coffee outlet can be moved up and down to accommodate a wide variety of cups and mugs which is useful.
There is one thing you should be aware of though and that is the fact that the machine is loud. Sadly Which reviews with regard to the more basic melitta in the same range state that the machine is well rated for quietess. I can tell you that the Melissa we brought was so loud we thought there was something wrong with it at first, but after doing some research we discovered others noticed that the machine created a lot of noise. If our machine is anything to go by, then the noise seems to be generated by excessive vibration between the plastic case on the left hand side and the internal components. It is annoying because it would probably be a simple case of putting a few rubber coin shaped dampners inside the case. However the noise can be muted almost entirely by gently pressing your finger against the plastic when the pump is pouring coffee through the outlet at the front. That's my only complaint about the Melissa Avanza, otherwise I would happily give the machine 5 stars. So overall the machine is good value-it makes great coffee-your essentially getting a automatic bean to cup machine for less than half the price of a more advanced unit which does make it good value. I just wish Melitta were aware of how noisy the machine is, which could be so easily muted by the above mentioned dampners. Or failing that just press your finger on the center of the left side of the casing when the pump is working.
I hope my review helps.
Paul