Review of Nespresso De'Longhi Expert & Milk EN 355 GAE capsule coffee machine

Nespresso is a well-known brand that produces portioned coffee capsules and coffee machines for its production. The brand has a large number of gourmet connoisseurs, because Nespresso has a well-structured concept and is constantly working to improve its product. Today the company offers a wide selection of flavors. This includes both traditional varieties of cappuccino, espresso, latte and others, as well as varieties that are completely caffeine-free. The main series of Nespresso coffee consists of more than 15 variations of Grand Cru coffee, each of which has its own individual and unique taste.

History of the Nespresso coffee machine

The history of Nespresso coffee machines dates back to the 1970s. At that time, one of the employees of the largest company Nestle had an interesting idea. He proposed creating a sealed capsule-tablet that would preserve the freshness, richness and aroma of freshly ground coffee for a long time.

A Nespresso capsule is a small cone-shaped container. It is made of aluminum, which is coated on the inside with transparent cling film to protect the coffee from oxidation upon contact with metal, as well as to avoid aluminum particles from getting into the coffee. The manufacturer guarantees a high degree of safety during use.

Capsule coffee machines were created for the convenience and speed of coffee preparation

One capsule is equal to one serving of coffee. To prepare it, it was necessary to create a special coffee machine, the development of which took more than ten years. In 1986, the company Nestle Nespresso SA was created, which became the first in the market of portioned coffee capsules. Immediately after the opening of the company, the Nespresso coffee machine was introduced to the general public, which immediately became a sales leader in most major countries and cities.

Review of Nespresso De'Longhi Expert & Milk EN 355 GAE capsule coffee machine

Capsule coffee machines are an adequate and modern solution for coffee lovers who do not want to worry too much and bother choosing the best combination of grinding, degree of roasting of beans and the density of the coffee “tablet” in the cone. All these questions were resolved for the coffee lover by the manufacturer of ready-made capsules. Thus, the consumer is only required to select capsules in accordance with his own taste and purchase a suitable coffee machine. One of these machines is the hero of our today's review. Nespresso De'Longhi Expert & Milk EN 355 GAE is a universal device that allows you to flexibly adjust many coffee preparation parameters. Let's find out what she can do.

Characteristics

Equipment

De'Longhi products are traditionally distinguished by their original (in our opinion, very stylish) design. This coffee machine was no exception, and here the originality catches your eye even before unpacking the box.

The coffee machine came to us for testing, packed in a protective box made of brown “technical” cardboard. Inside it was a “ceremonial” box - with a plastic carrying handle and full-color glossy printing.

The originality lies in the rounded upper corners, thanks to which the box looks like a cardboard “chest”. It also opens in an unusual way: not only does the top lid of the chest open, but the front wall also reclines almost completely. The contents of the box were protected from shock using foam inserts.

After studying the packaging, you can familiarize yourself with the main characteristics of the device and find out what drinks can be prepared with it.

Having opened the box, inside we found:

• the coffee machine itself;
• removable cappuccino maker;
• metal grate;
• movable stand for cups;
• removable water tank with lid;
• container for used capsules;
• removable drip tray;
• instructions;
• promotional materials;
• warranty card;
• tester for determining water hardness.

At first sight

Visually, the coffee machine gives the impression of a well-assembled and more than stylish device. The device looks futuristic. The reason for this is the combination of plastic, metal and transparent elements, as well as the cylindrical shape of the cappuccino maker and water tank. Let's take a closer look at the device and all the elements.

The body of the coffee machine is made of plastic. The upper part of the body is matte, the lower part is matte-glossy, striped. The strips are tactile and act as a “grip zone.”

At the bottom of the coffee maker you can see a sticker with information about the model, rubber feet and a compartment for storing (winding) the cord.

On the front of the coffee maker there are rotating control knobs and a spout for the finished drink with a large Nespresso logo.

When turned on, the control knobs are illuminated: the left one is white, the right one is red. We'll talk about them in more detail in the "management" section.

There is also a drip tray at the front, covered with a metal grill.

A stand for a coffee cup is installed on the same grille (which also has a removable metal grille and functions as a mobile drip tray).

Also on the front you can see a combined drip tray and a container for used capsules (it can hold up to 12 pieces).

These two containers are installed one inside the other and, when in working condition, are completely hidden inside the body of the coffee machine. There is a small handle for removing them.

On top there is a slider for placing the capsule, a preparation button and an LED indicator for the maintenance mode.

On the right side of the coffee maker there are connectors for installing a water tank and a cappuccino maker.

The base for the water tank looks like a pedestal with a small recess in the center (a coarse filter mesh is hidden inside the recess). The base for the frother reminds us of a connector from a regular electric kettle (in fact, it performs the same function: it provides power to a separate electrical device - a cappuccino maker).

The removable water tank is made of transparent plastic. It is equipped with a transparent lid and has a valve at the bottom that prevents water from leaking out if the tank is removed from the base or not fully installed. The top cover does not have special fastenings.

A rather weighty frother (cappuccino maker) is a separate device that combines the functions of a kettle and a mixer. It is made of plastic. The working chamber for milk is metal. Inside the chamber there are Max marks for one and two servings of milk, respectively.

The cappuccino maker allows arbitrary rotation on the base. The transparent plastic cap of the cappuccino maker has a rubber seal. At the bottom of the milk tank we see a rotating whisk, which is responsible for foaming, and a heating element is hidden inside the body. The cappuccino maker is controlled using a button that has its own LED backlight - red or blue.

Particular attention is drawn to the design of the whisk, which is connected to the motor using magnets. The milk reservoir is thus made without connecting elements and without any gaskets, which eliminates the possibility of milk leaking into the device and greatly simplifies cleaning the working chamber.

Instructions

The instructions for the coffee machine are a fairly heavy black and white brochure with a color cover and high-quality paper inside.

24 pages are allocated to the Russian language (half with Greek), by studying which you can learn everything you need to know when operating a coffee machine.

The instructions seemed to us detailed, understandable and, in principle, user-friendly. All actions are accompanied by clear illustrations and/or pictograms. Although in most cases you can do without them.

However, we strongly recommend reading the instructions at least once. It contains a lot of useful information (including regarding the service mode, in which you can make changes to the deep settings of the coffee machine).

An additional color brochure will introduce the buyer to Nespresso coffee capsules and tell you about the variety of flavors available.

Control

The coffee machine is controlled in everyday mode using two knobs responsible for selecting the type of drink and its temperature, as well as a button to start the preparation process, located at the top of the coffee maker.

When turned on, the handles are illuminated (the left one is white, the right one is red). The left knob is responsible for selecting the type of drink (icons with cups of different sizes allow you to clearly determine which mode is selected):

• ristretto (25 ml);
• espresso (40 ml);
• lungo (110 ml);
• Americano (25 ml coffee, 125 ml hot water);
• hot water (200 ml).

The right knob is responsible for selecting the temperature of the finished drink (three temperature modes are available). It also serves to turn off the coffee maker - to do this you need to set the temperature to zero (minimum).

The device can be turned on by literally any action: you can press the coffee preparation button, select one of the preparation modes, or simply open the slider. The coffee machine will begin to warm up, which will take about 30 seconds. There is no need to wait for the heating to finish: if you select the desired mode and press the cooking button, the process will start immediately after the device has finished preheating.

In order to increase the volume of the drink manually, just press the preparation button again within 10 seconds after finishing coffee preparation. To increase the volume of hot water, select the water icon on the drink selection knob.

The volume of the drink can also be changed directly during preparation. To do this, simply select the new desired volume using the appropriate knob. If the new selected volume is less than the volume of the finished drink in the cup, the preparation process will be stopped.

You can also stop cooking by pressing the cooking button or opening the capsule compartment slider.

Foamer (cappuccino maker) control

The milk frother, called Aeroccino, is controlled using its own button, which has an LED backlight. A short press on the button starts the preparation of hot frothed milk (this will take about 70-90 seconds). During cooking, the button will light up red.

To prepare cold foam (which will take about 60 seconds), the button must be pressed and held for 2 seconds. This cooking mode will be accompanied by a blue backlight of the button.

Service mode (settings mode)

The coffee machine allows for deep customization, meaning the ability to change many preset values. We will not describe in detail the sequence of actions that must be performed to make certain changes, but we will list the settings themselves.

In settings mode, the user can:

• change the standard volume of coffee (from 15 to 30 ml for ristretto, from 30 to 70 ml for espresso, from 70 to 130 ml for lungo, from 15 to 110 ml coffee and 25-300 ml water for Americano, from 50 to 300 ml for hot water);
• turn on the descaling mode;
• turn on the coffee machine emptying mode (full drain);
• reset settings to factory settings;
• adjust water hardness;
• set the energy saving mode (time before automatic shutdown 9 minutes/30 minutes/2 hours/8 hours);
• enable/disable Bluetooth.

Smartphone control

In addition to the above, the coffee machine can be controlled from a smartphone using the Nespresso app for Android or iOS.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find this application in the Russian-language Play Market. A short investigation showed that the problem allegedly lies in the Russian law on personal data, which must be stored on the territory of the Russian Federation. Nespresso is rumored to have some problems with this, so the application was temporarily unavailable.

To test its functionality, I had to resort to a trick - download the APK file from a trusted source.

It turned out that the application has many functions, many of which relate to the distribution system of coffee capsules and coffee machines. As planned by the developers, the application simultaneously serves as an online store for purchasing goods from Nespresso (this feature, as expected, did not work in Russia). It’s a pity - after all, according to the idea, the application can not only tell you where the nearest store is, but also warn that the supply of capsules is coming to an end.

But after registering and activating the account, the function of remote control of the coffee machine via Bluetooth started working.

And immediately access to standard functions appeared.

In terms of functionality, the application completely replicates the control panel of the coffee maker (including providing more visual access to the “settings mode”).

As a bonus, you can set a delay timer to start the coffee machine at a certain time, as well as access to create your own drink.

In general, everything that is not tied to regional features looks nice and works as it should. It’s a pity that the application is not yet officially available in Russia.

Exploitation

Before first use (or when used after a long period of inactivity), the manufacturer recommends rinsing the water tank, and also running the coffee machine three times in the “lungo” mode (of course, without a coffee capsule), and then running the hot water preparation mode twice. After this, the machine is ready for use.

The process of daily operation turned out to be simple and intuitive. Which, in general, is not surprising: capsule coffee machines were created to simplify the process of preparing a drink as much as possible, and therefore, they pay increased attention to user convenience.

All that is required from the user is to monitor the water level, as well as empty the container for used capsules and the drip tray in a timely manner. But you don’t even have to monitor this yourself: the coffee maker will remind you in time that the container is full or there is a lot of water in the tray.

The preparation process is accompanied by a sound of medium volume, well known to anyone who has encountered capsule coffee makers.

It’s quite difficult to come up with additional comments here: the coffee maker regularly performs all the tasks assigned to it - it brews coffee in accordance with the specified parameters, the cappuccino maker heats the milk and whips up milk foam. Everything works together like a well-oiled machine.

The operating impressions are extremely positive. Almost immediately after getting acquainted with the coffee maker, you get the impression that you have always used this device, which is a sign of a thoughtful user interface and design of the device as a whole.

Care

Caring for your coffee maker involves performing a few simple steps. The body of the device must be wiped from time to time with a damp cloth (napkin). The water tank can be washed with a mild detergent.

To clean the cappuccino maker, you need to remove it from the base, disassemble the lid (remove the gasket) and the whisk (remove the spring). All this must be washed in warm water and a mild detergent. Unlike a coffee maker, you need to wash the cappuccino maker after each use.

Before storing the coffee maker for long-term storage, you need to drain all the water from the device using the corresponding function accessible from the service mode.

Our measurements

When starting measurements, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. There weren’t many parameters available to us: first of all, the volume and temperature of the finished drink and milk in the cappuccino maker. But the energy consumption of the device in this case is not of great interest to us: so little electricity is spent on preparing one portion of the drink that, compared to the price of the capsule, there is simply nothing to talk about.

So, here's what we managed to find out:

Electricity consumption in sleep mode is 0.1 W, in standby mode - 1.6 W (in this case, the coffee maker periodically turns on heating the water inside the device). The maximum energy consumption that we recorded during coffee preparation was 980 W. The cappuccino maker consumes up to 400 W, which in total gives us the declared 1400 W.

The preheating time (preparing the device for operation) is 30-35 seconds. Thus, you can get your first cup of coffee in a little more than a minute after turning on the coffee maker.

The accuracy with which the coffee maker measures the volume of water turned out to be quite high: the device accurately “hit” the espresso (40 ml) and almost made no mistake with the lungo (106 ml when the norm is 110 ml). But during the preparation of the ristretto, we received 21 ml of the drink instead of the desired 25 ml. However, it is not surprising: the smaller the volume of liquid, the more difficult it will be to guess which part of it will remain inside the capsule and will be “lost” during the spill.

The drink preparation time was 20, 30 and 35 seconds (ristretto, espresso and lungo, respectively). It will take about a minute to prepare an Americano (25 ml of drink and 125 ml of water).

At the maximum set temperature, the temperature of the finished drink poured into a cup at room temperature (20 °C) was 62, 74, 78 and 78 °C, respectively. Which clearly hints to us that ristretto and espresso lovers would do well to preheat the cup.

This can be done using the hot water preparation function: in 1 minute the coffee maker will prepare 200 ml of hot water at a temperature of 78-80 °C.

The cappuccino maker is designed for one (125 ml) or two (250 ml) servings of milk. If you take milk from the shelf on the refrigerator door (+8-10 °C), it will take 80-90 seconds to prepare it. During this time, the milk will be heated to a temperature of 68 °C, and a fluffy foam will form on its surface.

As for the quality of the finished drink, we subjectively assess it as high. During testing, we tried several flavors from Nespresso and received consistently high results (which we, in fact, expected from a device in this price category).

conclusions

Capsule coffee makers are a solution for those who want decent quality coffee with minimal effort (and are willing to pay a little more for it than users of traditional coffee makers). The Nespresso De'Longhi Expert & Milk EN 355 GAE coffee maker fully satisfies the needs of such users: it turned out to be easy to use and maintain, but at the same time allows for remote control and allows the user to get into deep settings. The device looks stylish, it will look good both at home and in a business environment (for example, in an office or in a meeting room). Additionally, we note that we liked the design of the cappuccino maker and the quality of the milk froth. Finally, we can’t help but mention the high speed of operation: the first portion of coffee can be obtained a minute after pressing the preparation button. This result, of course, cannot be achieved with any of the traditional coffee makers.

Our verdict: the coffee maker will fully satisfy the needs of those who are not afraid of the cost of coffee capsules and who do not like to experiment with blends on their own. However, Nespresso produces 24 varieties of capsules, so even if you drink coffee 3 times a day, you can never repeat it in 8 days. For each blend, the main flavor components are indicated (for example, “spicy notes of clove, cocoa, pepper and nutmeg”), intensity (determined by the degree of roast, body of flavor and bitterness), as well as the recommended preparation method (some capsules are better suited for ristretto or espresso, others - for lungo or Americano, others will reveal their taste better with milk). We also note the presence of decaffeinated blends (with reduced caffeine content). All Nespresso blends are suitable for making coffee and milkshakes. In general, we have no doubt that even the most picky coffee lover will be able to choose a drink to suit his taste: we have tried many of the presented blends and can say with complete confidence that each of them has its own taste and is interesting in its own way.

pros

• easy to care for
• elegant design
• first cup of coffee a minute after switching on
• automatic cappuccino maker

Minuses

• relatively high price of coffee capsules

Nespresso Expert & Milk EN 355 GAE coffee maker provided for testing by Nespresso

Advantages and disadvantages

Coffee from a Nespresso machine is tasty and strong.
Coffee in Nespresso capsules has many advantages:

• economical consumption;
• the capsule-tablet is made from the best varieties of coffee, which are properly roasted and ground;
• drink preparation speed;
• There is no need to clean up and wash after making coffee. Simply throw away the used capsule.

Continue holding the button for additional rinsing and...

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Continue holding the button for an additional flush or release it.

Press and hold the flush button.

> Rinsing begins. The milkshake buttons flash for 12 seconds.

> The rinsing process is complete. The milkshake buttons are lit.

Place the milk container in the refrigerator.

Rinsing after making milk foam

Place any container under the milk nozzle.

You can leave the milk in the container while rinsing. Rinsing is necessary to clean the milk tank tubes after each use.

WARNING

Wipe the tubes with a damp cloth to remove any remaining milk.

All components of the milk container are dishwasher safe. Place them in the dishwasher at least once a week.

WARNING

CAREFULLY

The milk nozzle is heating up! You can burn your hands. Be careful.

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Manufacturers and prices of capsule-type coffee makers

DeLonghi is one of the manufacturers of Nespresso coffee machines.
Machines for the Nespresso system are manufactured by two fairly well-known companies: DeLonghi, KitchenAid and Krups. All Nespresso coffee machines have good build quality, a modern appearance, and offer pressure up to 18 bar. Prices for devices vary from 5,000 to 50,000 thousand rubles. Coffee gets such an exquisite taste thanks to the use of special technology.

A special needle pierces the capsule and hot water is supplied, the water fills the capsule through the resulting holes.

The water pressure changes the pressure in the capsule, after which the capsule is pierced from the back and the coffee is poured into the cup. Thanks to this technology, a product is obtained that will satisfy even the most demanding coffee connoisseurs.

Coffee maker DeLonghi EN 520 reviews

Advantages:

• Nespresso DeLonghi EN 520 small sizes;
• nice design, looks good in the kitchen;
• whips up excellent high foam;
• brews very tasty coffee;
• not too loud;
• works quickly;
• convenient and easy to use;
• minimal maintenance costs;
• prepares delicious cappuccino and latte;
• You can use different types of coffee.

Flaws:

• DeLonghi Lattissima EN 520 prepares only one cup at a time;
• expensive capsules;
• no timer.

Capsule coffee machine DeLonghi Nespresso Lattissima EN 520 reviews are based on 33 user reviews in Yandex Market.

Nespresso Lattissima EN 520 coffee machine instructions. How to download the service manual?

The Nespresso EN 520 instruction manual is easy to download; at the beginning of the page you will see a table:

Right-click on the PDF image, then look for “Save As” in the list, then save the DeLonghi EN 520 coffee maker instructions in Russian on your PC, for example:

And the last step, select the folder in which you want to save the DeLonghi EN 520 Nespresso Lattissima coffee machine instructions, for example on your desktop:

We hope you were able to find the instructions for the Delonghi coffee maker, download and use it successfully. You can also download other Delonghi instructions.