Melitta Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machine, Latticia OT, Colour: Frosted Black, F300-100

Firstly, this machine makes a fabulous cup of coffee, latte, cappuccino or plain black or white.My trusty De’Longhi (over 10 years old) went bang so it was time for a new machine. Hard to choose a different maker but I’m glad I did.It’s beautifully made - solid and good looking.The setup is pretty simple and is just about fully explained in the first time setup in the manual.The setting to make it as hot as possible works well as I like my coffee really hot.It also takes the standard water filters (which improves the flavour) and they are cheap enough as long as you don’t but the ‘branded’ versions - so then you don’t have to faff around with the frequent descaling if you don’t use the filters (it also makes setting the water hardness a redundant feature).Some people are moaning about the endless cleaning cycles- don’t listen to them- it’s no more intense than my de’longhi was after each drink, just different- and I don’t mind at all.You can adjust the quantity and strength easily ‘on the fly’ which is nice as you don’t always have the same mugs/cups etc. the only drawback is that the ‘Costa’ sized latte glasses don’t fit under, nor the slightly smaller versions - but that’s no different to my old machine - so we’re now using mugs - but that’s ok as they actually take the same volume of liquid.I was cautious about not having a milk carafe, but actually it’s so much more sensible just having a tube and wand (purchased separately but absolutely necessary). You just drop the wand into your milk bottle- simples! No mess, no space taken up in your fridge. The clean cycle after making a milk based coffee does require dropping the wand into a receptacle with water - so I just have an old milk bottle filled with water stashed behind the machine for that. Again, you had to run a clean cycle on my old machine- so no difference there.It is quite quiet- maybe not whisper quiet as stated.It also makes 2 coffees/lattes at once - that’s really neat.All in all - very impressed so far.

Great coffee machine.Fantastic at making a latte, black coffee or espresso. I've owned a Gaggia machine which has a more than double RRP of this, and that had a much poorer carafe milk design, which produced less nice milk for coffee and the milk would go off within 3 or so days sat in the carafe. The design of this machine is excellent. The milk system accessible easily behind the chrome nozzle section is easily cleaned, but unlike the Gaggia it never seems to look dirty, the Gaggia would get full of old steamed and dried milk, this one after a quick cleaning cycle every time you use it, stays very clean. All other cleaning cycles take their time, and require the manual to figure things out, but are then easily done. The only place I've noticed milk residue to build up is on the tip of the steam wand attachment (sold separately) but this disappears with some household cleaner or descaler.This machine really does make a nice coffee.There's an error in the manual which says you need to hold down a certain button to run the quick milk wand cleaning routine, but that's the wrong button, you need to hold down the milk glass button until the lights flash, then it runs a quick milk tube cleaning. That error in the manual frustrated me for a long time!

This coffee maker is great.I could talk about all the good things which are clearly laid out in the description so I’ll concentrate on the not so good things.- Despite the fact that photos show the milk carton with what Melitta call the “milk lance”, for some very strange reason this doesn’t actually come with the coffee machine. This means your only option out of the box is to put the hose into a cup of milk and you will soon realise what a mess this makes. Do yourselves a favour and buy the milk lance. It’s only £10 but makes everything much easier. Would be better for Melitta to provide this in the box though.- it’s hard to find any mention of this anywhere but as standard the machine will rinse the brewing system both before and after every use. This explains the water that goes into the drip tray seemingly with no explanation. I thought my unit was leaking somehow, but it is just rinsing the system. Also, if you are confused as to why the machine is randomly flowing water when it is turned on/off, this is all it is doing. It can be switched off in advanced settings but it is not recommended.- It will occasionally tell you to empty the drip tray, the way it determines this is how much water it has used to rinse and therefore ended up in the drip tray. So if you catch the rinse water that comes out of the outlet at the front (which I do) then occasionally it will think it has filled the drip tray when it actually hasn’t as there is no water level sensor in the drip tray.All in all this makes and excellent coffee and once you understand what the machine is doing and how it does it, along with buying the milk lance seperately, it is a 10/10 machine in my opinion. Well worth the price.