Cheap Lello 1375 Ariete Cafe Prestige Coffee Maker Review
$199.99 $167.99
"Lello 1375 Ariete Cafe Prestige Coffee Maker" Feature
- 950-watt espresso/cappuccino machine made of heavy-duty stainless steel
- ThermoBlock 15-bar pump-driven system provides uniform, constant pump pressure
- Removable 2-1/4-quart water reservoir can be refilled from the top at any time
- Cup warming area allows up to 9 cups to be warmed before use
- Measures 9-1/2 by 9-1/4 by 12-1/2 inches; 1-year limited warranty
"Lello 1375 Ariete Cafe Prestige Coffee Maker" Overview
Lello Ariete 1375 Espresso/Cappucino Maker
Customer Review
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By A. Goldsmith
This is an amazing espresso machine for the money. I wanted to run it through its paces for a few months before reviewing it. After almost 3 months and over 100 double shots, I am ready. I am a straight shot drinker; I never knew how smooth and intense espresso could be until I got this machine. Crema is good. I subsequently tried a few offerings from espresso bars and found them completely disappointing; I doubt I will visit another espresso shop any time soon.
If you have problems with the machine, call Lello Appliance: 201-939-2555. The one year warranty is meaningless if you don't know whom to call. Amazon could not provide this info. Lello is very responsive in my experience.
Steaming is adequate. My wife and guests like cappuccinos and lattes. I use a 20 oz Krups pitcher, and it works all right. It is shorter and wider than some of the others. I think a smaller pitcher might work better. I use a thermometer to keep from scorching the milk. I like to mix a drink that I found online called a "flat white". After you steam the milk, stir the froth into the hot milk in the pitcher to make a uniformly velvety thick mixture and pour this into the cup. I always like to make milk drinks in a clear glass cup. The appearance of the layering of foam, milk and coffee is impressive. I steam the milk, make the espresso in the clear cup, and then pour the foam over it. That way, the crema from the espresso, with a lot of the flavor, stays in the cup instead of sticking to the wall of the shot glass.
Experiment with how much coffee you put in the filter. Do not overfill the filter, but I find that experimenting with the amount of coffee I use has improved the quality of my espresso. The amount used can vary according to the type of coffee, roast, and grind. I use less of a darker roast, for example, to avoid a bitter flavor.
The keys to quality are 1) The coffee and roast, 2) the grind, and 3) the time spent brewing.
THE COFFEE:
I used to drink dark roasted coffees like Starbuck's. I found that purchased dark roasted coffees taste burnt and bitter when made into espresso. A lighter roast is called for. I decided to start roasting my own green coffee. I use my long-disused hot air popcorn popper for the task. I found good instructions for roasting and a good selection of green coffees at Sweet Maria's on-line. Their espresso blends or Timor Maubesse (Indonesian) beans roasted to Vienna roast, a shade lighter than French roast, made fine espresso with good crema. It is very easy to control how dark your roast is. You do need good ventilation.
If you do not roast your own, the beans you buy should not be the darkest roast available. The finest coffees available are arabica beans grown at high altitudes. The robusta coffees are bitterer and have much more caffeine; they make up large part of the canned coffee blends on the market. While the arabica beans are much better tasting when brewed into coffee, by themselves they do not produce as good espresso as a blend of quality arabicas with 10-15% good quality robusta added for its taste and crema producing qualities. The green espresso blends that I buy have a small percentage of robusta added. For the reviewer I read who thought that the espresso she made did not have enough of a jolt, a blend containing some robusta might take care of that problem.
THE GRIND:
A friend of mine who has made espresso for decades has never bought a fancy grinder; he uses a blade grinder and grinds very fine. I do not recommend this for this machine with its pressurized portafilter. Fine particles of an uneven or very fine grind can plug the filter; it can sometimes be hard to unplug the filter.
I bought a Capresso Infinity grinder from Amazon. For under 0, it produces a fairly consistent grind. You do not need to tamp the coffee hard in the portafilter. The quality of the brew is determined by the fineness of the grind. I experimented a bit with grind. I found a grind that occasionally plugged the filter. Set one notch coarser it produced a consistently good espresso without plugging the filter. So I think that the finest grind you can get without plugging the filter is probably best.
When experimenting with grind, be careful. One detractor who gave a poor review to this machine says that there is danger of the machine exploding. If you do not see coffee coming out of the portafilter within a few seconds of turning the dial to the right, shut off the machine and clean out the filter. Then use a slightly coarser grind.
If the machine does not deliver coffee and the pump is left on, a messy explosion seems likely. This seems like common sense to me. The fact that the detractor experienced an explosion is a testament to the amount of pressure the pump delivers.
AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT BREWING
If you do enough research on line about espresso, you will find a reference to the "Golden Rule". This rule states, as I understand it, that drawing a double shot should take 20-25 seconds. If it takes less time to draw a 2-2 1/2 ounce shot, it will be weak; if it takes longer, it will be "over-extracted" and bitter.
If you have an expensive machine with a commercial non-pressurized portafilter, the proper combination of tamp pressure and grind to get this brewing time will produce good espresso. With a pressurized portafilter on this machine, tamp is fairly unimportant. The extraction time is therefore controlled by the fineness of the grind. I have found that if I adjust the grind as explained above, it does take 20-25 second to get the shot.
Never leave the cup under the spout after shutting the pump off. After you shut off the pump, the coffee that flows from the machine is not extracted under pressure and will taste like bilge. Let the coffee extract under pressure for the full 20-25 seconds, move the cup from under the spout as you shut off the pump. The last few drips should go into the tray.
PROBLEMS
I gave it four stars only because there were enough very soluble glitches to make learning how to use the machine a bit trying. I destroyed a gasket before I realized that tightening the group head more did not prevent the first shot from being a total bust. Unless you warm up the machine for at least 10 minutes, run a blank shot through the machine, because all you will get is steam and espresso that tastes like dishwater. After destroying the gasket, I found the service number for Lello Appliance: 201-939-2555. They acknowledged that the original gaskets were not very good and sent me 2 new ones via priority mail; I got these in two days.
Another minor glitch is that not all of the water draining from the machine goes into the drip tray. Some water ends up leaking under the drip tray; but as long as the drip tray is emptied timely there will not be enough overflow to leak onto the counter.
The cup warmer is a joke. Have some hot water going near your machine to preheat cups. This is especially important when making milk drinks, which is a longer process.
It is now 4/14/2009 two years and change since I bought the machine. I use it every day for an average of 3-4 double shots per day. It still makes the best espresso I have had. Except for the leaking drip tray, it gives me no problems. Part of the quality has to do with the gourmet green coffee beans I buy from [...] and roast at home in a hot-air popcorn popper. The rest has to do with the machine. My cousin has a Rancilio Silvio, a highly rated and expensive machine. My machine is easier to use and pulls a tastier shot.
1/23/2011 it is now four years since I bought the machine. Still working as new! I never liked the pressurized portafilter that came with the machine It is always getting plugged and is hard to clean once plugged. I discovered via a forum on coffeegeek.com that you can get a non-pressurized filter basket, La Pavoni 2 cup MP-68 Millenium Edition Europiccola/Professional non-pressurized basket, a 51mm basket that fits the portafilter fairly precisely. Remove the black "pressurizer" by removing the screw at the bottom of the filter. You have to flatten the rounded rim on the new basket. I did this by inverting the basket and carefully flattening the rounded edge using a large pin punch--a small bolt or steel rod would work--and tapping it with a hammer. You need to get a better tamper and use a finer grind. The end result is the best cup yet with real crema. You need to adjust the grind and tamp pressure to get the espresso shot to draw in 20-25 seconds. The only drawback is that the seal was not as good as with the old basket. I fixed that by smoothing the imperfections resulting from the way I flattened the rim by rubbing the inverted basket on a knife sharpening stone until it was evenly smoothed.
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By L. A. Kane
Wow, a stainless steel unit for ~ 0. Seemed too good to be true but let me assure you that it's not. Solid and well built, it is quite functional and easy to use too. I live in Seattle, the coffee capital of the universe so I've got fairly discriminating taste in espresso and it has more than lived up to my expectations. The 15-bar pump-driven system provides good, strong pressure and brewing consistency. The drinks have frothy foam, excellent brew, and great taste. It is a bit bulky, roughly a 10" cube, but not overly large (it is actually 9.5" x 9.5" x 12" to be exact). Unlike some models, there's pretty good clearance between the nozzel and the drip tray so you can get a decent-sized cup underneath. Easy to take apart and clean too. I'm very happy with this purchase!
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