Oh yes, make that three appliances that have crapped out on us in recent months, having had very little real use – our Party Gear iPod dock, our Rexel Shredder and now our Morphy Richards Espresso machine that promised so much with its prestigious build quality and yet lasted three years ... Read review
Stylish jet black and aluminum finish pumped espresso maker that adds great coffee and ... more
fantastic style to your Kitchen. High performance 15 bar pump pressure ensures best tasting espresso / cappuccino with no limit to the number of cups produced Remova...
The DeLonghi Café Treviso Pumped Cappuccino / Espresso Maker is a stylish, modern jet ... more
black machine with an aluminium finish which would fit beautifully into any kitchen and with 15-bar pressure, you will get wonderful tasting drinks with no limit to t...
Advantages: Inexpensive, makes good basic coffee Disadvantages: Tiny tank capacity means filling it every time. A bit noisy
...Comet paying £70 for a DeLonghi Treviso, but before you all start checking and finding out that it should have cost £52, it did, before they tacked on the 3-year warranty.
==SO WHAT IS IT?==
===The Treviso=== is a two-cup espresso machine. That is to say it can make two cups of coffee at a time, and in our household, that’s plenty, most of the time. Espresso machines pump high pressure (14 bars in this case – about 206 psi) ... ...the coffee contained therein, hence the coffee is ‘expressed’ through the filter with all the speed of ….errrr…..an express train.
===Compared=== to a coffee percolator, where the hot water goes round and round picking up extra flavour on each pass, the espresso taste is more like a Rombout filter literally pumped up ‘on steroids’ as Jezza Clarkson is wont to say. Hence, its resulting flavour from a single pass tends more towards that ... more
Oh
yes, make that three appliances that have crapped out on us in recent months, having had very little real use – our Party Gear iPod dock, our Rexel Shredder and now our Morphy Richards Espresso machine that promised so much with its prestigious build quality and yet lasted three years of merely occasional domestic use.
With
hindsight, the perceived build-quality of the latter appears to have been ‘all fur coat and no knickers’. I can’t bring myself to scroll back through my opinions to find out how much it cost, but it was over a ton, of that I’m sure. I’d only upset myself anyway.
IT HAD TO GO
It’ll come as no surprise that I’ve decided to buy something cheaper, covered with an extended warranty this time. Hence it was that I recently found myself in Comet paying £70 for a DeLonghi Treviso, but before you all start checking and finding out that it should have cost £52, it did, before they tacked on the 3-year warranty.
SO WHAT IS IT?
The Treviso
is a two-cup espresso machine. That is to say it can make two cups of coffee at a time, and in our household, that’s plenty, most of the time. Espresso machines pump high pressure (14 bars in this case – about 206 psi) hot water through a filter, squeezing out the flavour of the coffee contained therein, hence the coffee is ‘expressed’ through the filter with all the speed of ….errrr…..an express train.
Compared
to a coffee percolator, where the hot water goes round and round picking up extra flavour on each pass, the espresso taste is more like a Rombout filter literally pumped up ‘on steroids’ as Jezza Clarkson is wont to say. Hence, its resulting flavour from a single pass tends more towards that of filter compared when compared to anything a ‘perky copulator’ can manage.
WORKING UP STEAM
An additional feature on most espresso machines is the steam lance, used for frothing milk later to be dispensed onto the coffee, creating Cappucino from black coffee, and the Treviso is amongst these ranks. A lot of reviewers are unimpressed by this feature, but although the instructions say to use half-skimmed milk, we use fully skimmed and it’s fine.
ANY GOOD?
The Treviso doesn’t get bad reviews per se, but that’s maybe in the category of ‘damned with faint praise’. As far as I’m concerned, by hook or by crook we’re going to get three year’s service from it for less than I paid over the last three years!
THE ACID TEST
Does
it make good coffee? Yes it does. We stick to an Illy brand of ground coffee designed for espresso machines as we find it neither too insipid* nor burnt tasting.
*
Yes, what is it about drowning sufficient edible vegetable matter in water that seems to make coffee-making such a hit and miss affair, even in restaurants where they ought to know better?.
MAKING A CUP (OR TWO)
To
make coffee in most espresso machines, except those that take a proprietary ‘cassette’, you pack a kind of ladle with coffee.
The
ladle then ‘bayonets’ into place with about a quarter turn of its handle so that it now sits over where the cup(s) will be – the attachment needs to be secure as there’ll be 200-odd pounds of pressure behind it any time soon.
This
machine has a choice of two sizes of liner for the ladle to allow for one or two cup operation. There’s a tamper fitted to the underside to get the coffee nicely squeezed down.
A
litre of water goes in at the back. This would be one of my major beefs, as this leaves you forever filling the thing unlike the outgoing incumbent on our work top. If you have a filter jug which removes some of the crud from local tap water, it may be better to use water from this as espresso machines can fur up like anything that boils water. It’s just that they’re trickier to descale, as you can only see half of what goes on.
You
= are advised to turn it on 30 minutes in advance. Not only does the water need heating but the whole plumbing system benefits from a thorough warming, as does heating a tea pot.
Then
you have a choice of two rocker switches to operate. One shoots steam through a lance to ‘froth up’ a milk jug for cappuccinos and the like. This is doomed not to get much use in our house, as we like it tall, strong and black. Hell we don’t even put sugar in it! It’s a man’s life in the Nibbles household, even for me.
The
other rocker switch sets the espresso pump into action, and boy does it first make you jump? The pump is quite noisy so thanks goodness that it’s all over in a minute of so. For such a dynamic noise, the brown dribble that oozes from two nozzles underneath seems an inadequate climax (ooh-er missus), but by golly, it tastes good.
To
get two cups, you place one smaller one under each nozzle. To get one gutbucket of a mug, you place your favourite “World’s Best Mum/Dad/Teacher/Tax Inspector” mug in there to straddle both.
ANY GOOD BITS?
To be fair, this is something that this machine does better than its predecessor (apart from cost less that is) – it accepts the bog-standard mug without having to decant from something less tall, which is something the previous machine wouldn’t do. I think we even had to buy some new cups to fit. You can also buy an adapter so it will handle those proprietary cassettes I mentioned earlier.
CLEANING IT
There
are three main areas needing regular maintenance.
One
is to empty the used coffee grounds into the bin without letting go of the liner from the ladle. The ladle’s handle has a natty little flip-up catch to hold onto this whilst you hover perilously over the kitchen bin.
Secondly
, there’s a drip tray, just like in pubs, which needs to be emptied out, the frequency of which is proportional to how clumsy you are.
Thirdly
, there’s a periodical need to descale it using something suitable for plastic kettles.
CONCLUSION
That’s about it really. A proficient coffee maker that now (dammit) seems to be reduced to forty quid as soon as I’d parted with my fifty-three. At that price, I definitely buy the 3-year warranty just to make them fix it or give you a new one.
Advantages: Quick, Pump action, 15 Bar pressure, small Disadvantages: Can't get a decent size cup under the expresso filter
...mine was actually called a delonghi trevisio, but it is this machine.
A small neat expresso coffee machine, with milk steamer/frother, this little box of tricks made a perfect cappuccino straight from the box.
I have to admit I was a little sceptical - I had been expecting to only be able to buy a steam action (3 - 4 bar pressure) machine for my budget - which was £75, so was delighted to find this pump action at an affordable price, but did wonder ... ...The difference in the two actions is the quality of the expresso and more particulary the crema on the expresso (the frothy bit!!). I have to say I was not overly impressed with the first couple of expresso's i made. However I invested in a coffee pod adaptor for the BAR14 at the huge cost of £5 (!) and the taste, strength and crema have improved greatly. The coffee pods are already compacted and individually sealed in a little sachet, so I wonder ...
Noo68 20.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso
Advantages: Compact, attractive looking, easy to clean. Disadvantages: Noisy, doesn't come with a jug for the milk.
I got this as a gift and was fairly happy with it. Its not really ideal to use in the morning as it is extremely noisy and the milk frothy making part isn't great as you have to have a certain sized cup/jug which isn't supplied so I had to rumage around my kitchen and try all sorts of things to make it work with ease. It is easy to use and once reading the instructions once you shouldn't have to refer to them again. Easy to clean as it has a removable ... ...to take it out to get the cup to fit under) The wire is quite short so you have to have it near a plug which was a disadvantage for me as I had to move my kitchen work top around just to accommodate it.
I think its a good little product but the novelty has worn off for me and it is now in a cupboard and I am back to making my coffee the way I had done before. ...
pixief 28.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso
Advantages: Cheap, makes good drinks Disadvantages: Requires refilling frequently, takes ages to set up first time.
Ok, so I'm not normally a fan of this sort of thing, I find the extra effort required to put the kettle and make a hot drink is just too small to justify buying one of these machines, but I was given this one as a present so I figured, why not? Anyway, it was not too hard to set it up and once I'd got it working, I was pleasntly surprised.
It's not instantaneous, obviously, you have to fill it up, turn it one and then wait for the 30 minute warm ... ...to be quite small and it requires filling up quite alot. However, as this is the first on of these I've owned I'm not sure if thats normal or not. I was surperbly impressed when I made my first drink with this.
At the touch of a button, there was a perfect, hot espresso, at (almost) no effort on my part. It also makes cappuccino and has a steamer which makes the froth on top of one very well.
There is little/ no manafacturer support for this so ...
anakha6 07.12.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso
Advantages: Kinda good coffee better than instant Disadvantages: Bit too bland
I bought this coffee maker via ebay about 2 years ago. I got a great price of around £24.00 it was brand new, just a graded product. Although when it arrived it was perfect only the box was damaged.
I must say I have been somewhat dissapointed with the flavour and strength of the coffee (have tried various brands) I find it lacks that kick, and is rather bland. A friend has a slightly more expensive model and it makes much stronger and fuller coffee, ... ...coffee. Don't get me wrong the coffee is good but lacks the wow factor! Think I will take the tip from the previous review and invest in a coffee pod adapter!
All in all pretty average. This is fine if your'e looking for a basic coffee maker. For coffee lovers like me, go for a better model. ...
ameela 29.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso
bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad ...
heartysasi 04.06.2007 (22.10.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso
Product Information for "Delonghi BAR 14 Caffe Treviso" »
Product details
Manufacturer
Delonghi
EAN
8004399320000
MPN
BAR14
Cup Warmer
without Cup Warmer
Housing Material
Plastic, Combination
Integrated Coffee Grinder
without Integrated Coffee Grinder
Milk Foamer
Steam Nozzle
Pad-, Capsules-System
Traditional Coffee Maker
Pressure System
Pump Espresso System
Timer
without Timer
Type
Espresso Machine
Type of Electronic Infoscreen
No
Type of Espresso Machine
Traditional
Type of Jug
without Jug
Water Filter
without Water Filter
Manufacturer's product description
Stylish jet black and aluminum finish pumped espresso maker that adds great coffee and fantastic style to your Kitchen. High performance 15 bar pump pressure ensures best tasting espresso / cappuccino with no limit to the number of cups produced Removable 1 litre reservoir which can be refilled at any time Stainless steel boiler for longer life Swivel steam pipe mixes steam air & milk to produce a rich froth for perfect cappuccino Built to accommodate either full size or espresso coffee cups Filter storage department permanent filter included Built-in coffee tamper Separate coffee and steam thermostats Easy to use - 3 button operation Deep removable drip tray
