La Pavoni Bar 3S

Advantages: Absolutely fantastic coffee is possible (better than any chain store).
Disadvantages: Quite difficult to master, and not especially forgiving.

...When a company sells a product that hasn't changed for nearly a century, and still commands one of the highest prices on the market, there is a reason. In the case of the Professional, a very good reason. La Pavoni have built their reputation on the performance of their lever driven espresso machines, which haven't changed significantly since their introduction in 1961. The Professional is the big brother to the Europiccola, and your extra £200 doubles the capacity of the boiler and adds an arguably unnecessary pressure guide to the sight level on the side of the boiler. The name Professional is somewhat misleading, as the machine is designed and intended for the domestic market. The Professional's baby brother, the Europiccola is more widely available and as it is often seen second-hand is almost certainly a better buy than... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Robust engineering, excellent performance, beautiful styling
Disadvantages: Heavy, hard to keep clean, very expensive

...Have you ever wondered why coffee in the coffee shop is better than coffee at home? Coffee shops use freshly ground and roasted coffee, and machines that can extract the full flavour from that coffee. If you want to replicate this quality of coffee at home, you need a machine that's up to the task. La Pavoni produced the Europiccola in 1961 and, some tweaking aside, they haven't changed the design significantly since then. The machine consists of a boiling chamber sitting on a base, with a glass level on one side and some curvaceous pipe-work on the other side. It truly is a thing of beauty, available (in ascending order of price) in chrome and black, straight chrome, chrome with wooden trim, gold, or gold with wooden trim. Go to www.lapavoni.com (domestic line, lever machines) to convince yourself that this is no ordinary machine... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Looks good, really throws out the juice
Disadvantages: Won't take whole fruit such as apples and pears; fixing screw used on blade

...I'm writing this here because this particular model only comes up in the shopping section and you can't write a review there for some reason. The Power Juicer Express is the 'slimline' version of the original Jack La Lanne power juicer but is supposed to have the same effectiveness. This is my first juicer and juice itself is gorgeous. Learning curve - after two weeks and half a dozen attempts at juicing, I really feel I have the hang of it. Despite what it says on the JLL website, it really doesn't handle whole fruit such as apples and pears. Now I chop each into about three or four pieces and these push through without jamming the motor. Oranges and other citrus fruit you have to slice off the skin, leaving the pith, and whoosh, out comes this luscious fresh juice. Pear is fabulous, on it's own or with apple, as is... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful