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The past decade has seen more and more major cooking appliance brands introduce integrated coffee machines into their range to match the shape, size and style of their ovens, microwaves, steam cookers and even dishwashers. It’s almost seen as a must-have extra appliance to offer consumers looking to upgrade or renovate their kitchen. The consumer gets a delicious cup of coffee and the manufacturer and retailers get to sell another appliance — it’s a freshly brewed win-win!
For most cooking specialists, this exploration into coffee machines starts and ends with a perfectly acceptable if stock-standard fully automatic machine. Smeg, Siemens, Fisher & Paykel, Gaggenau: they all make a delicious coffee but they are not reinventing the wheel. ILVE has done something a bit different, offering an integrated manual machine, but it is definitely an outlier.
Further Reading: Super Six! The Best Built-In Coffee Machines for 2015
That’s why Miele’s recent foray into benchtop coffee machines is so interesting. The German maestro has previously offered built-in fully automatic and Nespresso machines but this is the first time it has ventured into freestanding small appliances, assuming one doesn’t include its storied floorcare range under that description.
The thinking behind it is that not all Miele customers can afford the cost or space of a built-in machine but they still want to have a uniform brand across their appliances and a continuation of the form lines and style. The door is also open to non-Miele customers because the new Miele CM 6300 Benchtop Coffee Machine (RRP $1,599) has several attractive features, such as its OneTouch for Two feature that can prepare separate cups of the same coffee variety at the press of just one button.
Users can choose between preground coffee or up to 300 grams of fresh beans, which will transported into a delicious beverage via the AromaticSystem:
“The remarkable dynamic brew unit expands when water flows in,” a spokesperson told me. “This innovation allows ground coffee and water to blend better and improves the extraction of aromatics for optimum enjoyment.”
For milk-based drinks, the Cappuccinatore can deliver both frothed and hot milk directly to the cup without relocation. At the top of the machine is a cup warmer, the use of which really does make a difference to the quality of a coffee.
“For truly individual coffee enjoyment, users can choose their desired flavour intensity by customising the grind, ground quantity, percolation temperature, water quantity and more. Furthermore, up to four personalised beverages with these customised parameters can be saved in user profiles to ensure the perfect cup of coffee is delivered at the touch of a button.”
Further Reading: Format Wars! It’s AR’s epic Mother’s Day guide to the best coffee machines