Fully automatic but demands attention
Mar 10, 2014 - If you want your home to replace the coffee bar, you'll love the Krups XP1600 Combi Steam Espresso Machine.
Due to the Krups EA9010's luxurious price I expected a high degree of automation, but I was completely unprepared by just how robotic this machine is. Sure, the EA9010 pulls shots of espresso in much the same fashion as other coffee makers I've used such as the Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista. Aside from the initial buzz of the internal burr grinder kicking into action, both brewers essentially begin making coffee at the touch of a button.
The EA9010 takes hands-free espresso making to another level entirely. Manual and semiautomatic machines require you to first grind your beans (or at least provide it with grounds), then fill, load, tamp, then swivel their portafilters into place before you can even contemplate pulling a shot. You may have to also wait until the contraption's water boiler comes up to temperature.
Truly a device for lazy espresso addicts, the EA9010 asks you to do none of this. Just make your drink selection and a swift 45 seconds later, it'll treat you with a lovely shot of black gold. And since the machine's thermoblock heats up and stays hot when you first turn it on, I was never caught twiddling my thumbs waiting for an ideal brewing temp.
I was truly blown away when I first commanded the Krups EA9010 to make a cappuccino. At first the appliance instructed me to pour 2 ounces of milk into a glass cup (two are bundled with the machine). Then after I set the glass (with cold milk) down on the cup holder, the EA9010 automatically lowered its milk-frothing tube and began heating the dairy into a light and airy foam. Next the tube disappears back into the machine while two streams of hot, concentrated java flow into the cup. Lastly the gadget automatically rinses its frothing wand inside the 'steam nozzle cleaning container,' the plastic tube I described earlier, by flushing it a few times with its special solution.
All that robotic cleaning translates to extra work on your part. Outfitted with built-in fill sensors, both water trays are pretty shallow and the machine was constantly imploring me to empty them. That said I'd rather take multiple trips to the sink than risk flooding my kitchen counter.
Performance and taste
It goes without saying that I had high hopes for the quality level of drinks from the Krups EA9010. I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. Not only did the machine pull shots of straight espresso quickly, conveniently, and with minimal effort, they tasted delicious too. Indeed, shots I sampled using the lowest liquid volume (1.3 ounces water) to coffee strength (level three, maximum) settings available were consistently flavorful, yet balanced, never bitter.
Espresso created from my finicky but cheap test beans (Costco House Blend) had lots of complexity, chocolate notes, with just a slight dry finish. That said they lacked the richness of what I experienced from the De'Longhi Dedica. Even so, shots the EA9010 pulled had significantly better crema, frankly the thickest and most impressive I've experienced to date from a home espresso machine.
![And And](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125718524/266812655.jpg)
Provided I used the highest temperature setting, this Krups brewer was also the best at handling light roasts of any espresso gadget I've tested so far. Either when grinding beans myself (large ultrafine burr setting), or automatically ground, shots I pulled of my go-to premium espresso roast (Quills Blacksmith) were sweet, full-bodied and bright, never sour.
In fact to get a second opinion of the Krups EA9010's espresso making abilities I packed up the machine and headed out to the Quills Coffee New Albany, Indiana, location. Quills isn't merely one of my favorite local coffee shops and roasters, the outfit competed nationally at Coffeefest 2015 in Chicago and was awarded the tittle America's Best Coffee House. This particular spot is also where Quills runs a training lab dedicated to educating its baristas.
With the Krups device set up and ready to go I sat down with Michael Butterworth, who is the director of education for Quills Coffee. I also offered up a challenge he couldn't refuse, a blind taste test. Using the same Quills coffee and water feeding both the Krups EA9010 and the professional La Marzocco Strada espresso machine before us ($18,000), I asked him to correctly identify which shot was pulled by hand and which was robotically brewed. Let's just say the result was surprising. Check out the video to see for yourself.
Testing in the lab confirmed what I tasted. Refractometer readings of espresso brewed from Costco test beans consistently hovered between a TDS (total dissolved solids) percentage of 3.6 and 4.2 percent. While low compared with the roughly 15 percent TDS I experienced from the De'Longhi Dedica, this actually translates to an excellent extraction percentage of between 17 and 20 percent. The ideal coffee extraction percentage is considered to be between 18 and 22 percent to achieve full flavor without the bitterness of over extraction .
This calculation assumes that the 0.25-ounce (0.7 gram) dose of grounds per single shot of espresso, which according to Krups the brewer uses by default, is correct. Of course since the EA9010 doses its coffee automatically, there's no real way of verifying this formula directly. That said, when I brewed shots by adding 0.2 ounce of grounds manually I experienced similar, and delicious, results (4 percent TDS, 26 percent extraction).
Conclusion
I must say I'm quite embarrassed by my experience with the Krups EA9010. Priced at an unattainable $2,500 (£999.95), at least for me, my immediate instinct was to scoff at, deride, even fear this exorbitant home espresso machine -- because I might actually like it. Unfortunately despite all of my resistance, my objections quickly crumbled in the face of the EA9010's excellent performance and supreme convenience. Making great shots of espresso coffee is difficult even for trained baristas and the fact that the EA9010 automates the process to the point of being mundane is truly remarkable.
For all the Krups EA9010's impressive abilities though, a super-automatic espresso machine like this isn't for everyone, or even most coffee fanatics. For example home espresso junkies who wouldn't blink at spending this much on imported brewers, grinders, and other paraphernalia will likely poo poo the EA9010's lack of true manual controls. For this breed of coffee drinker, investing in a superb Baratza Vario W grinder ($585) paired with a Rancho Silva ($1,000) or perhaps a Breville Dual-Boiler ($1,299) makes eminently more sense. If you're seeking delicious espresso without having to toil in front of a piping-hot machine, and have money to burn, then the Krups EA9010 is the luxury gadget you've been waiting for.
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