Braun Tassimo Freshly Brewed Coffee, Cappuccino and Hot Drinks Machine (silver)

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

If you like the taste of proper coffee but can't be bothered with all the hassle required to make it, then the Tassimo from Braun is probably, if you'll pardon the pun, just your cup of tea.

Tassimo is the result of a collaboration between experienced appliance manufacturer Braun and food-giant Kraft and the fact that they've worked together from the start has really paid off.

Rather than using traditional brewing methods to produce your drinks, the Tassimo exclusively uses special pods called T-DISCS to brew your drinks. These T-DISCS each contain precise amounts of coffee, tea, chocolate or concentrated milk and have been individually designed for each of the different beverages that the Tassimo machine can produce. Each disc features a barcode that is read by the Tassimo machine when inserted and gives instructions on exactly how much water should be used and how long the drink should be brewed as well as any other variables that are needed in preparing the perfect drink. This rather high-tech approach to drink-making really pays dividends and during Amazon.co.uk's tests we were particularly impressed by the high quality of the drinks that the machine produces. At the time of writing there are seven drinks available in the Tassimo range including Kenco Classic Blend, Kenco Classic Blend Decaffeinated, Kenco Cappucino, Kenco Espresso, Kenco Caffé Crema, Twinings English Breakfast Tea and Suchard Hot Chocolate. Even the resident Amazon.co.uk coffee buff was pleasantly surprised, in particular with the machine's ability to churn out a potent espresso with a decent crema - something that often proves to be the stumbling point for other coffee machines (the crema is the layer of thickly effervescent foam that is found on top of a well crafted espresso).

The Tassimo machine itself is a squat little device with stylish curves and a clean modern feel to it, something that will make it look at home in pretty much any kitchen, dining room or home office. It has a good solid feel to it and a relatively compact footprint that won't take up too much valuable worktop space. Water for the drinks is provided by a 1 litre water container that sits at the rear of the machine. A nice touch is the ease with which you can fill the water container - the whole thing simply lifts off, can be filled directly from the tap and then popped back on again - meaning that there's no messing around with jugs of water required. Operating the machine is simplicity itself. Once you have chosen which drink you want just lift the clamp above the brewing mechanism, insert the appropriate T-DISC and close the machine up again. Conveniently T-DISCs only fit in the machine one way round, so even the most ham-fisted of individuals shouldn't experience too many problems. After a brief pause (while the machine reads a barcode on the T-DISC to work out how your drink needs brewing) the Auto light pops on and you can operate the Tassimo's single control - an unmistakably large start/stop button - to dispense your drink.

If you want to make other drinks straight away then the Tassimo copes well with this too. All that is required is to pop in another T-DISC and follow the process straight through again, although if you're making a large round you may experience a pause after the second or third cup while the Tassimo machine heats additional water to cope with the demand. The fact that all brewing happens inside the T-DISCs is a real boon at this point as it means that flavours aren't transferred when you switch between different drinks. Other features of the Tassimo include a variable height cup stand and the ability to make drinks stronger or weaker than standard (depending on your tastes) by adding more or less water as you brew them. This latter feature can actually turn out to be quite important if you're a fan of big mugs as the standard cup sizes delivered by the Tassimo (approx. 75ml for espresso, 200ml for cappuccino and 280ml for coffee, café crema and tea) can be a little on the small size for many bigger cups.

Overall the Tassimo succeeds in doing exactly what it claims to do and produces exceptionally good tasting drinks with the minimum of fuss and will no doubt become a well-used appliance in the homes of those who desire a little more to their coffee than a teaspoon of instant coffee granules. Highly recommended.--Adi Himpson, Amazon.co.uk

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Customer reviews

review by: Emma date: 2008-12-28 rating:
great...i love it!
I recieved a tassimo machiene as my christmas present this year and am happy to say if there was more than 5 stars I would give it more, i love hot chocolate but have never really been a fan of of the instant stuff u get in a jar, but the tassimo makes a the hot chocolate just as good as the one i got from marks and spencers cafe the other day, and the 16 pods were cheaper that one mug. I have now tried both the milka and suchards hot chocolate i think there both just as nice, thankfully my parents brought me some of the discs so i could try it out on christmas day, i had 2 cups of coffee and about 20 cups of chocolate, I have to say it is cheaper to buy the discs over the tassimo website if possible i found them to be more expensive in morrisons and i got 10% staff discount. I brought the twinning breakfast tea to try today...wanted to try the cappichino but we didnt seem to sell it, lets just say i can finish the pods off but i wont be buying anymore there was nothing special about it...i personally found it abit funny and think i'll still to buying the tea bags as i can get 100 odd cups of tea instead of 16 for £3.00. My family have also enjoyed the machiene my dad only drinks coffee and enjoyed the crema cup whereas my mother found it abit strong so im tryin to find one to her standard, my brother has also enjoyed a mug of coffee and was happily satisfied and hes a fussy coffee drinker. All in all i am very happy and rate both the hot chocolates as my favourite drink.

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review by: date: 2008-12-03 rating:
Avoid at all costs!
Good Points: Looks stylish.
Bad Points: Who wants to drink coffee that withers tastebuds?

You can only make drinks using dedicated "pods" which are an expensive rip-off and cannot be recycled. As for quality, apparently coffee is supposed to taste like burnt dishwater. Who knew?

If you are looking for a decent cup of coffee I advise you to avoid this product at all costs. The crema is appalling and the coffee is more bitter than this review. So it can make a decent cup of tea. So can my grandad and he doesn't need a Tassimo to do it.

Overall I am very disappointed. Had this not been a gift I would have been mortified at parting with hard earned cash.

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review by: date: 2008-12-02 rating:
no fuss coffee
We have had ours for well over a year and still use it several times a day. I was expecting the novelty to wear off after a while but no, still producing good coffee with minimum fuss.

Everyone has their favourites - I don't rate the hot choc, personally! Latte & Cappuccino do it for me.

We've had no problems at all, and we are not good at doing any maintenance. Someone mentioned de-scaling.....?!

Yes, it's a bit noisy. But not so you can't carry on chatting.....

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review by: Cliff Jones date: 2008-10-29 rating:
Incredible
Quick, easy, clean, and also quiet. I can come in from a run in the morning and make coffee faster and quieter than boiling a kettle while I am making toast, and there is no cleaning up. The kids can have hot chocolate striaght after. The other thing about it is there is no pouring, so I'm happy for my 8 year old to make himself a hot drink. You'd never let a kid near a kettle or heat a pan of hot milk on the hob.

Now if I could just get a machine to walk the dog...


review by: smartdave date: 2008-09-15 rating:
Machine for lazy people
I saw adverts for Tassimo, but thought it an indulgence for lazy people, and it is.
I love coffee, and have owned an espresso machine for many years. For over two years it sat on the kitchen side unused, because I was too lazy to use it. Then someone bought me this silver Tassimo machine. At first I bought loads of packs of the standard Kenco medium roast and Cafe Crema on special offer. Both are nicer than instant, but nowhere near as good as my old Espresso machine had made.

I then discovered not only the website, but also European sellers on Ebay. From then on I discovered varieties which surpassed my old Espresso machine. The coffee I now drink everyday from this machine is absolutely delicious. The website (Tassimo.co.uk) now has many more varieties available, a few new ones I am about to order now!

A run down of varieties below.

Kenco Cappuccino: Ok with a frothy milk top (like in a cafe), but unless you can drink really hot coffee it dissolves before you can drink it.

Master Lorenzo Crema intenso: One of the nicest coffees I have had.

Carte Noire Petit Dejeuner(from France on Ebay): Superb strong large coffee.

Carte Noire Voluptuoso (ditto Ebay): Short, strong and sweet

Carte Noire Voluptuoso Decafinated (now on website): Exactly as above.

Carte Noir Espresso: Gorgeous, strong shot.

Kenco Espresso: See above except not quite so nice. (Revised with a crema layer, will try soon)

Suchard Hot chocolate: Loved by my parents and I, drunk before bed every night

English Breakfast Tea. As I hate tea myself, I bought it for my Dad. He thinks it tastes odd.

KENCO Latte Macchiato: Looks great in a tall glass. Tastes OK

CARTE NOIRE Colombia: Very good

TASSIMO Sustainable Development: Very good, better than Colombia and "green".

JACOBS Caffè Crema Vollmundig Intensiv: Very Good

JACOBS Caffè Crema Mild & Sanft: Had to try it, wish I had not. Watered down version of the Intensiv (above)

JACOBS Monarch: Weird, will not buy again.

Kaffee HAG: Ok to good.

There are a few other cafe cremas I have not tried.

Carte Noire Kenya and the new Milka are on my shopping list this week.

There is now a Bosch version of this machine. It has a larger water container and looks more funky. Is it as good? All I know is that my machine is used every day and has never let me down in the last 20 months. If it broke down tomorrow, I would be at the Amazon website immediately to replace it with another Braun (Go with what you know), though maybe the black one.

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