Flash in the Pan

I've recently been trying some new espresso equipment. One brewer has been the Krups XP4030 (street price about $150). It is a pump-driven semi-automatic system (as explained by CoffeeGeek.com) with a thermoblock to heat the water. This is definitely a low-end machine, and priced as such. No problem necessarily with that, as my favorite machine is the Starbucks barista (made for them by Estro). But there is a big drawback with thermoblock systems that experts note: difficulty in keeping a steady temperature level. Get the temperature wrong, and you get worse espresso.

The machine boasts 15 bar (otherwise known as 15 atmospheres) pressure, but most machines generally dissipate pressure until it is at 9 bar. Too much pressure and you could end up unable to let the water mingle with the grounds long enough to extract all the flavor. I found that espresso shots poured too fast for my taste, even as I tried more finely grinding the beans and tamping the grinds down more firmly. Plus, the espresso portafilters (the baskets that hold the grinds) have a single hole in the bottom, meant to "improve" the crema, I think, and tend to clog badly.

When it came to steaming milk, I found the machine completely unsatisfying. The attachment to make frothing "easier" was overly aggressive and wasn't capable of producing the fine foam that is a mark of properly steamed milk. I tried unscrewing the bottom part of the steam wand, but I couldn't do any steaming that way.

Overall, I'd say pass on this machine.

Labels: appliance, coffee, espresso, opinion, product, review

Calling the Krups GVX2 (the all-black model is the GVX1) a "burr milling system" seems pretentious, so let's use a more realistic name: burr coffee grinder. For the most part, it does what it is supposed to, which is definitely good, although there are a few quirks that I didn't completely care for.

What generally makes a burr grinder superior to a blade system, at least for coffee, is the ability to set the texture of the grind with an adjustment mechanism, and not by trying to guess what amount of whirring corresponds to what you need. And there was an adjustment knob on the side of the GVX2. However, I found that it didn't set finely enough for espresso; the coffee brewed a few seconds too quickly for my taste even when I had the grinder at the finest setting. I was also ambivalent about setting the number of coffee measures you want and then pressing a button, which is really setting a timer to get the "right" amount of coffee. That worked roughly the same as the old Capresso model I used that finally gave up the ghost after years of service. But if you found yourself a bit short, there was no obvious way of getting just a little bit more. (Actually, I found that pushing the start button a second time would turn off the grinder, which had the same end effect.)

The hopper didn't have room for a lot of beans at a time, though enough for a double espresso or a few cups of coffee. Given how much room the two measures of espresso took up in the receptacle (it did keep the grounds contained nicely), I wouldn't have tried for 12 measures all at once, as I would have been concerned about it backing up into the machine.

I also found that at times the coffee would stop moving through the grinder, which was still on, and I'd have to give it a shake to get things moving again. Overall, it's a fair grinder, though not a great one. However, the list price of $59.99 makes it a reasonable entry-level machine choice.

Labels: appliance, coffee, equipment, product, review

Although the DeLonghi DCG39 doesn't do well everything it seems to advertise, it has enough features and smart design to make it worth having if you need to grind things, like coffee beans or spices. The overall look is clean and visually appealing, with a great feature of an electrical cord that hand reels back into the body when you are done; the knob is hidden out of side underneath the unit.

You turn a knob on the front to set how much coffee you want and then hold down a button and watch LEDs light to tell you whether the coffee is coarse, medium, or fine. Because there is no hopper that feeds beans into the grinder, to be dispensed below, setting the volume is critical because it will affect for how long the grinding occurs. That makes operation a tad clumsy, but then, using older fashioned grinders, like my probably 20 year old Krups model, requires you to keep an eye on the results and to check from time to time to be sure the texture is right. So you have to do the same basic thing here.

The front knob lets you pick anywhere from 4 to 12 cups of coffee. That works well with my regular (not espresso) coffee maker, because it makes a minimum of four cups. But if you want to make a single or double cup, you really have to keep a close eye.

As far as the "fineness" lights that go on, it was a bit confusing at first. It turns out that you hold the button and wait for the lights to come on in succession. If you're looking for a medium grind (for drip coffee makers), you wait until that comes on, but the coarse (percolators or coffee presses) will also be lit. Although there is a fine grind for espresso, if you're serious about that drink, you simply don't have the control in adjustment to get a consistent pour, which you absolutely need. However, in an emergency it could do, and I suspect it would be fine if you wanted to experiment with Turkish style, in which you boil the grounds with water and some spices (cinnamon and cardamom, I believe).

The street price seems to be about $30, which seems fair for what you get. Overall, if you don't need to make espresso on a regular basis, this is a decent grinder choice.

Labels: appliance, coffee, product, review

This unit actually came in late last year to test, but I couldn't complete that effort until now, as I'll explain in a minute. The DeLonghi RO2058 is a deceptively big oven: you can fit a 12-inch frozen pizza (the back bends out to provide the extra room). At various times I've baked five large potatoes, a roast beef, or a casserole. So, there is lots of space to do some real cooking, which is great if you want to lower your energy bill, as you aren't burning fuel to heat a full-size enclosure. A small light lets you see progress, and, as advertised, the inside seems relatively easy to clean, and the crumb tray comes out easily enough.

It is great having the convection option if you are in a hurry, as the hot air currents can cut a good 25 percent off the time you'd need to cook many things. There is also a toasting function for up to six slices of bread, in case you want to avoid NCAD (Needless Countertop Appliance Duplication). There are a couple of wire shelves, or you can replace one with a broiling pan that slides into the sides the same was as the racks do.

There are some drawbacks. I don't know whether someone accidentally sent me a European model, but the temperature scale was marked out in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, causing me minor mental convulsions as I was trying to convert between the two in my head. (Here's a hint: 180 C is about 350 F.)

And now let's to the rotisserie. I had put off checking it because we kept getting quartered chickens, and I wanted to test a whole one. The instructions claimed a 4.5 pound capacity ceiling, so when I picked up two chickens, I choose the smaller one, which weighed in at about 4.1 pounds. That was a disappointment. The heart of the rotisserie is a rod with a couple of fork implements that adjust with thumb screws. You put the skewer through the food, push the forks, tines inward, into the object of your future dining, and tighten them into place. That went well enough, but it was a little tricky to get the bar into place in the oven; it was a bit shorter than I had expected and easy to let one end or the other fall down while trying to get it into place. When I finally had it seated, I started the rotisserie - and found that the chicken was hitting one of the heating elements. Had I trussed the chicken, it would have been a little better, but it was clear that it still would have been banging into things. I'll try it again with something smaller, but it seemed too bad that turned out to be necessary.

Overall, I've been finding it useful, and at a street price hovering around $100, it's not too expensive to consider.

Labels: appliance, opinion, review

When I started testing the Magic Bullet, a friend of one of my kids said, "Oh, that's a Magic Bullet!" Apparently this is the stuff of infomercials and, according to the PR people, is one of the "must haves" that Jessica Seinfeld touts in her book on how to Deceptively Delicious. Avoiding the controversy of whether Seinfeld or her publisher was looking closely at the ideas of Missy Chase Lapine or not and jump into something else. I think the Magic Bullet has a few things going for it, but I don't think it's really not all that its promoters would like to promote to the world.

They position this relatively small device as a cross between a blender and a food processor. Let's look at the first part. The instructions claim that usually 10 seconds of blending does what you need. Not a chance. I tried milkshakes and fruit smoothies, and usually I needed upwards of a minute, which is fine except that you're warned under pain of hellfire and damnation not to let the unit run longer - NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER, as a Lear might instruct - than 60 seconds. A second longer and you could cause a cataclysm. Much longer than that, and I think life as we know it comes to an end.

Seriously, if you need a single serving of blended something, this device is decent. It comes with four plastic cups with removable colored rings at the top. Remove the ring, fill the glass with whatever, screw the blending attachment, invert the lot and put it onto the blender, and you're in business ... eventually. If things dont' seem to be blending, the instructions say to picj up the entire blender and cup (or one of the normal blending containers) and shake away.

Personally, I think this novel approach is probably an attempt to pragmatically spin the problem of not being able to stop the blender, easily remove a container's upward facing lid (remember, the part the screws off is now face down into the blender), shove a rubber spatula in to scrape down the sides, and then remove the spatula, replace the lid, and continue blending. However, hey, it worked for me. When things are done, you remove the container. If it's one of the glasses, you unscrew the blending unit, add on the colored collar, and start drinking. That's a lot better than washing two continers. Also, you can get to the blades to make sure they are clean, rather than having them forever fixed at the bottom of a vessel.

Where the Magic Bullet offers a misfire is in the food processing part. The instructions would have you take a chunk of vegetable (like an onion) that fits into the small blending container, drop it in, attach the flat-bladed chopping base, and pulse away. I tried it and was completely disappointed. Perhaps the piece was a bit large (though it didn't seem stuck in the container). Instead of being sliced and diced in a matter of seconds, the end facing the blade seemed a little chewed up, but that was about it. Now, I did try a few cloves of garlic, but it was a case of all or nothing - either full cloves, or a very find mince. (Had I not been pulsing the unit, it would probably have turned into garlic mush.)

So, if you like smoothies or need other blending jobs where dealing with a large container and heavy base unit doesn't sound good, then by all means check the Magic Bullet - the Platinum Pro runs $139.99 (including tax and shipping) with the two blending containers, four container/cups, blending bases, motor unit, and so on. It also seems to be avaiable various places on the web for about $60. But if you need to chop, forget this device, as it cannot "easily take the place of any food processor."

Labels: appliance, gadget, opinion, product, review

I first started hearing about ovens using light to cook a number of years ago - that is, if we aren't counting Easy Bake oven commercials from childhood. Black & Decker sent one of its Infrawave line of ovens for me to test. I had the oddest reaction of feeling uncomfortable with it and yet really liking it at the same time.

Basically it uses infrared light to do the cooking, which means that it cooks with radiation (no need for the lead suits), and not the convection of heat via the air. One positive there is that there is no preheat time; you put the food in, turn the oven on, and you've started, as lights at the top and bottom go on and off periodically as the food cooks. That alone saves you significant time, and it also can cook very quickly. For example, I put in some appetizers that were supposed to take 14 minutes, and they were done in 7. The speed success, I gather from my experimenting, depends on how flat the food is. For example, I tried baking five small potatoes. The system recommended 30-some-odd minutes, but to get them really done (with a nicely crisped skin) took closer to an hour. A traditional oven would have taken at least a half hour longer. But toast that might have been five minutes in a regular toaster was often done in two to three here. You can get a good browned surface in a way a microwave would never achieve. (Except for the late, lamented Sharp combination microwave and conventional convection oven, which was a drea but eventually died and I've yet to find an adequate replacement).

But you do have to get used to this oven. For example, you don't think in terms of temperatures, because the oven cycles differently for different types of food. Instead, you try to find the food that is closest in nature, which can be an interesting experience itself. Also, you can't try to outguess how the cooking happens. I had originally put two pieces of bread in to toast and took them out prematurely. One side was done, but the other wasn't. When I did leave it in, though, it worked right. So there's an element of trust involved until you get used to it.

I haven't baked anything in it yet, partly because of the oven's major fault: it's a bit small. Four pieces of bread fit in - barely. I was going to bake a cut-up chicken until I found that I couldn't quite fit all the pieces into the small baking pan, though a slightly larger oven probably would have worked fine. In short, it's an oven worth adding to your tool arsenal, although you'll need some training time.

Labels: appliance, opinion, product, review