Melitta Avanza Series 600 Coffee Machine - Review

Melitta recently sent me their Avanza Series 600 Bean to Cup Coffee Machine to review and I was excited to see how it held up against their top of the range machine, the TS Smart.

The Melitta Avanza Series 600 is certainly a bean-to-cup machine that has plenty to offer without the hefty price tag that many similar machines come with. What’s more, it has plenty of features that make it rightly stand out on it’s own. Whilst bereft of some of the features of the high-spec Melitta TS Smart, the Avanza is much more compact and perfect if you’re severely lacking the table-top space in your kitchen yet still want a coffee machine capable of creating barista style cappuccinos and lattes.

Design & Features:

The Avanza, first of all, looks sleek and stylish and has a panel with two dials and four buttons across it. There is a steaming wand on the right-hand side and and the bottom is a detachable drip-tray and good-sized grounds basket.

Measuring just 32 cms high, 20 cms across and 45 cms deep, the Avanza is much slimmer than other competitor machines yet still comes with a 250g bean hopper. Unlike the TS Smart however, there isn’t an option for adding pre-ground coffee but this isn’t a problem if you just buy whole beans which the machine’s steel burrs can ground in five ways, from fine to coarse.

There is a good-sized 1.5 litre water tank at the back which holds enough water for 6-7 long coffees and there is also space in the tank for a water filter. What’s more, it has the capacity to make two drinks at once which is a feature I use regularly given my husband and I usually drink coffee at the same time.

Melitta Avanza Series 600 Coffee Machine

Usability & Performance:

Creating milky coffees is straightforward and frothing the milk requires connecting a tube to the bottle of milk and just placing your cup under the steam wand. Although not as convenient as a one touch milk system, it’s still easy to use and thankfully quiet compared to some machines which sound like an aircraft taking off every time you try to froth milk! It’s also hygienic as the machine can automatically clean the steam wand once the frothing process is complete. The froth itself is good but I found it doesn’t get as frothy or silky as higher-end machines tend to. But at the end of the day, it’s frothed milk!

At the touch of the buttons on the panel you can make espresso, café crème, latte macchiato and cappuccino. You can also set the strength of your coffee by using one of the buttons on the machine and is a great feature if you want to easily switch between mild or intense coffees at the touch of a button.

The maximum drink length you can make is 220ml, which is a good size for milky coffees and once you find your preferred grind and coffee strength, the drinks made are very good. I also love the fact that the burr is as quiet as the TS Smart.

Overall:

The Melitta Avanza Series 600 has a lot going for it and is perfect if you have a compact kitchen and don’t mind that the machine isn’t all singing and all dancing. There is no accompanying app to make coffee from your phone or an LED screen with dozens of touchscreen buttons or a function to save your favourite coffees, but at the end of the day, it makes good coffee and that’s the most important function of all.

If you’re looking for a machine that gives you more options and a bigger variety of coffees that the TS Smart would be a better machine for you. However, if you’re on more of a budget but still looking for a good quality bean-to-cup machine at a reasonable price with the ability to make both espresso-based and milky coffees then you won’t go wrong with the Avanza Series 600.