SunBeam Paul Bassett machine review

There are many Espresso Machines out in the market. Similar to the DSLR market, it is categorized as consumer, commercial, and a category in the middle, the pro-sumer. For home users, it is rather pointless to have a commercial machine in home. Those machines are built to make coffee in a constant basis, where you have to fulfill the needs of an endless line of caffeine seeking junkies. Unless your house of people need 100 cups of coffee per hour, you have the choice of a basic consumer or a pro-sumer machine.

Entry level espresso machines are relatively inexpensive. One most important thing that I would look at is the steam wand, in the entry level ones, most of them gives you no pressure, and probably doesn't pack the power needed to create the spiral effect when frothing the milk. This wand is definitely strong enough for anyone to pour some coffee art.

My recent experience of a SunBeam Cafe Series Paul Bassett Edition is rather surprising. It has double boiler, packs most of the features that you would find in a commercial system. And most of all, the froth it produced is very amazing. It is small and fits nicely in your kitchen. The handle is solid and sturdy, unlike other brands where the handle and the machine feels very plastic.

There is a few slight issues with it, is that the milk frothing wand is shaped such that it is very difficult to have it all the way cleaned. It has an irregular edge that can trap some milk deposit in it, you have to really scrap with your fingernails to get that part of the area. The 2nd issue is that the tamper that came with it feels a little bit like a toy, I think it is not heavy enough for anyone to take it seriously. Also the pressure generated from the boiler takes a very brief moment to heat up, thus the first few drops of your coffee which came out seems a bit under extract. However, since this is a consumer grade machine, it is already offering much more than I'd expect. Last bit of issue is not to do with the machine itself, but rather the company. Sunbeam is a relatively new Australian company, and they currently only sells in Australia.

The verdict

Overall I think this is a great machine, very great value for the money. Pack it with a decent grinder and you have a near professional setup at home. The coffee and froth that comes out of it is great, much better than some automatic brand name machine that is double in price. It is very easy to clean and the make and feel is really solid. The look of the machine is great, it can add to your taste in the kitchen.