As you may have gathered through my Breakfast Indigestion series, I am totally addicted to all things breakfast related which of course includes coffee…and lots of it! So when I was contacted to try out the new Philips Saeco Intelia, I was both thrilled and intrigued to learn about this fully automatic espresso machine. I’ve never taken up an offer to do a kitchen type product to review but considering the Intelia is pretty damn relative to what I blog about the most, I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve been using it daily for exactly one month now and am now comfortable writing about my experience.

The first thing I did notice was the simplicity and the lightness of the machine. I assumed that it would be heavy as a few barbels but you could easily move it from one room to another with ease. There weren’t too many buttons and other unnecessary options to confuse an egg head like me.

Having used these types of machine’s from one’s that have traditionalists in mind requiring abit of manual labour i.e. tamping to the capsule driven machines like the Nespresso – I can safely say that the Intelia was much better than the latter. There’s something about drinking coffee created from a capsule that is NQR. Don’t get me twisted, though it doesn’t actually taste that bad, I could just never appreciate it. The fact that I was able to go out and buy my favourite bean in the whole wide world – St Ali –  and being able to grind it and fill the house with its aroma made me smile as wide as Brandy does. It does have a ceramic grinder which helps to preserve the aroma. 

St Ali SO need to make their own cologne!

8 steps to making it all happen every morning

Step #1 Fill the bean tray at the top with some of your favourite beans ready for bumpin and grindin

Step #2 Fill the left container with some water

Step #3  Drop the milk extractor tube in a cup of milk

Step #4 Select the strength of coffee (between 1 – 3 beans) then hit the relevant espresso cup button according to how much you want

Step #5 Watch it pour whilst you smell the incredible aroma. Smell it real good…

Step #6 Move your cup to the left under the milk frother/cappuccinatore for the next stage to begin

Step #7 Press the got water/steam button and select the amount of milk you desire by pressing the espresso coffee brew button

Step #8 Once it has filled to your desired level, hit stop.

Drumroll…………….

And there you have it. A Cappuccino. Boom! Sorry, I took a few sips to wake me up..it was 7 am people!

Key Features I like:

+        1.5l water tank capacity

+         300 gram coffee bean container

+        Approx 10 servings of coffee grounds capacity – I’ve been able much more as I tend to go from weak to standard shots

+        Automatic coffee circuit rinsing and descaling – anything to avoid cleaning it myself...

+        One-touch Espresso

+        Color-coded icons…much like traffic lights!

+        Low temperature grinding so not to overheat the beans – don’t burn my coffee!

The +’s

+         It didn’t bastardise my favourite beans

+         No damn complicated menus

+          Watching the crema form and breathing it in like my life depended on it – my favourite moment

+         Hardly any day to day cleaning or mess

+         Compact. Works well despite the crammed space at home with no other fiddly bits to worry about

+         Aesthetically pleasing and not too modern. I was actually relieved it wasn’t all stainless steel – hate smudges

+         Surprisingly quiet – even more so than my dishwasher LOL

+         The beautiful smell of the house from freshly ground beans. I should so put some beans in cups around the house!

The -‘s:

–          Tends to pour out a little water with each option which can be annoying. I assume this must be part of their cleaning system

–          No stainless steel milk frothing jug included

–          The cappuccinatore/wand is a wee bit short and spurts out abit of a mess at times so it would be wise to hold the cup up to ensure no milk is wasted

–          With an RRP of $999, it ain’t exactly cheap but after using for a month, I can’t leave the house without using every morning. If I saw this in the shops for the first time, would I have purchased it? No. I don’t spend that much on gadgets to begin with let alone coffee machines. In saying that,  I swear I was never a weekday morning coffee drinker until the Intelia came into my life. It’s like a drug! Wah.  My acupuncturist did say I lacked calcium so a daily fix will do the trick. *INSERT CHEEKY SMILE HERE*

Video

Cap Off

Overall, I was impressed with the Philips Saeco Intelia. Although nothing beats the taste via the traditional method of tamping coffee, I know for a fact that my humble little pack of precious St Ali beans would have been gone by now if it had been done this way. I’m not much of a traditionalist so I can’t imagine myself taking the time to make coffee that way every morning anyways, so being that the Intelia is fully automated and customisable, it makes this stress free option the clear choice for those who want a quality cup of coffee without having to worry about cleaning up afterwards. Can you tell I’m not a morning person?

Honestly, I was pleased with the consistency with zero leftover coffee grind at the bottom of each cup plus you can’t beat that lovely crema – I even went without milk a few times to fully appreciate its glory. I still have a couple of other favourite blends to try out from Axil Coffee and Sensory Lab so watch this space for more updates.

Food Rehab received and tested the Philips Saeco Intelia courtesy of Philips. For further information, visit their website at http://www.philips.com.au/c/espresso/182451/cat/

Check out Not Quite Nigella if you wanna WIN one of these babies.

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Keep eating,

Adrian