# Who said you cannot teach an old dog......?



## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

Well, that thing that happens once a year came along today, and I woke up a year older. No lie in or anything, just another day. Having battled for a few days with what to offer guests to drink, now that I am not allowed to drink it myself has caused me a lot of deep thought. I had been going to go down the capsule route but at the back of my mind was the equation, how on earth can you make a coffee from 5 grams?

The answer of course is that you cannot. Yes, in an emergency it will do, but I wanted to be able to offer guests a half decent cuppa, and preferably decaf as well as non.

Having ordered a Lavazza Fantasia late on Monday night, I spoke to Claudette at BB on Tuesday morning, and she uttered words which were sacrilege to my ears.....BTC. I ditched the suggestion straight away, saying I wanted to offer a choice of coffee.

Now, being an old dog, I peruse the thread titles and if it does not take my fancy, I do not look at it, so, I had not seen the review Davec gave the Melitta BTC.

You can offer a choice of coffee as the Melitta, unlike other machines, has a hopper which opens a door allowing the beans to drop into the grind chamber as the machine needs them for the individual shot. It has a system that allows you to tip a different sort of bean into the grinder.

Bollocks was my first reaction! She then offered to send me a demo machine to try. Not being one to turn down blonde ladies, I accepted, then started to research a little. This included reading both the written and video reviews of the Reverend Dave. By now, my imagination was starting to become interested.

I am not going to prattle on about this machine, but just a few of its pros, are the ability to remove the brew chamber for regular cleaning. The ability to adjust every drink by strength, volume and milk volume. Built in cleaning cycles and loads more.

This means that if you are looking for a convenient way of making a very acceptable drink, and do not want the rigmarole of dosing to 0.001 of a gram and adjusting your water temp to 92.75 precisely, then this may be for you. If you are new to coffee, or an old dog like me, then perhaps you to can be pleasantly surprised.]Today, I turned out some coffee using a bean I do not know, which I am told was quite acceptable and it will only get better. I am pretty certain this Melitta Varianza will be saying with me and even if I return to coffee one day, I will keep it as it just makes a mockery of the efforts needed to put in, for individuals to often produce an average cuppa!

https://www.bellabarista.co.uk/melitta-varianza-bean-to-cup.html


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Glad you have found a solution to your guests coffee needs...Anyone dosing to 0.001g please shout up as those scales must be incredible


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

Mrboots2u said:


> Glad you have found a solution to your guests coffee needs...Anyone dosing to 0.001g please shout up as those scales must be incredible


boots, you know as well as I do, that if those sales existed you would own them......it is the theory I am referring to


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

dfk41 said:


> boots, you know as well as I do, that if those sales existed you would own them......it is the theory I am referring to


Whatever makes you happy...those boffins did quite a good job on you bean2cu though


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

With BTC, theres a lot of people who will; never buy prosumer, or even good grinder and pourover....so for them it's either Nespresso type systems or bean to cup. I personally think BTC is better then Nespresso type stuff for a lot of reasons and however much we might think grinder good machine...the majority of people don't want the hassle. they just want to press a button!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Happy birthday.

I think you can make coffee from 5g, it'll just be a third as much as you can make from 15g. (Sorry if I ruined your special day with rocket surgery & brain science).


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

MWJB said:


> Happy birthday.
> 
> I think you can make coffee from 5g, it'll just be a third as much as you can make from 15g. (Sorry if I ruined your special day with rocket surgery & brain science).


you have ruined nothing......I want to drink it from a normal cup, not something from a dolls house!


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

dfk41 said:


> you have ruined nothing......I want to drink it from a normal cup, not something from a dolls house!


sure ?, xmas is coming . Santa might think you have been a good boy and you'll get lucky


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

That looks ideal for what you want.









It even makes ice-cream (though It looks lacking and needs a flake)


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## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

Happy birthday matey.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I do not expect to convert any experienced users as if you can make a good cuppa and do not mind the routine then why would you change? I am thinking that perhaps people who want to upgrade or enter, might see this as a way of achieving that with the minimum of fuss.

Boots, I do not believe in Santa

Obnoxious, cheers matey


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## NickdeBug (Jan 18, 2015)

Happy Birthday! My typical toast is "fill yer boots" but that sounds wrong is these circumstances!

Said it before and I'll say it again, if I could get a decent coffee at the press of a button then I would be all over it.

However, much as I would love to go with a B2C I think that we generally all accept that the path to good coffee starts with the grind and dialling in for each bean. A B2C seems to compromise that in favour of convenience, which in some cases may be perfectly acceptable.

The questions are: would I even notice a difference? and would I be happy to take that compromise?

Well, I can certainly tell the difference between the coffee that I make and that offered by the typical high street chains, just as I can tell the difference between barista produced Costa coffee and that from a machine at a petrol station. So yes, I would probably be able to tell.

As as for compromise, without giving it a try it's hard to answer.

Happy to give it a try if someone wants to bung one my way for a bit.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

You can adjust the grind settings which when added to the electronic menu features gives a far greater degree of control than you might think


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## Phobic (Aug 17, 2016)

dfk41 said:


> I do not believe in Santa


!!!!


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## Phil104 (Apr 15, 2014)

Happy birthday bonny lad - and since it's your birthday you can do whatever you like. One of my best mates has a B2C, he enjoys it, there's little faff, I often give him beans or he buys pretty much what I would buy, he pops round for an espresso and enjoys that - and above all he's a mate.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Happy birthday!


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

dfk41 said:


> You can adjust the grind settings which when added to the electronic menu features gives a far greater degree of control than you might think


That would make it appeal to a wider audience I guess, especially with dialling in different roasts.

I think my other half would prefer it to my setup as well since she likes the odd coffee and can only make instant when I'm not there.


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## UncleJake (Mar 20, 2016)

Glad you're sorted!

Happy Birthday.


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## ashcroc (Oct 28, 2016)

Looks like an interesting machine. Does it have options for non coffee drinks so you can enjoy it too?


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Rhys said:


> That would make it appeal to a wider audience I guess, especially with dialling in different roasts.
> 
> I think my other half would prefer it to my setup as well since she likes the odd coffee and can only make instant when I'm not there.


Same here. I can see the appeal of a BTC exactly for that reason.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

pessutojr said:


> Same here. I can see the appeal of a BTC exactly for that reason.


it's why my wife likes (and uses), the Varianza.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I thought, a few days in and becoming more used to it, I would share a photo. For the cup size, I run an espresso shot, then a cappuccino shot. It seems to use about 10 to 12 grams (guesswork) per shot although you can vary a couple of settings. The only complaint I would have, but bearing in mind this machine makes a total mockery of manual coffee making with a press of a button, is that the milk does not get heated enough. I think, the innards become hotter by steam, then the machine draws cold milk from the milk container and the tube passes through heating the milk as it goes. I just place the cup in the microwave for 20 seconds but others have said that they prefer cooler drinks anyway so it suits them. The more I use it, the more I like it, for what it is which is convenience


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

that looks yummy:whistle:


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

the microfoam is probably better than a lot of people produce, but not nearly as good as those who can, do!


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## mremanxx (Dec 30, 2014)

Been looking to replace my B2C for work and was looking at these, the Jura's seem to get the best reviews due to the amount of coffee you can choose to grind to increase strength etc, I then saw the Krups which apparently uses Jura parts and cheaper, don't know if thats totally true but I do feel a decent B2C is better than the capsule machines.

Anyone use a Krups?


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

mremanxx said:


> Been looking to replace my B2C for work and was looking at these, the Jura's seem to get the best reviews due to the amount of coffee you can choose to grind to increase strength etc, I then saw the Krups which apparently uses Jura parts and cheaper, don't know if thats totally true but I do feel a decent B2C is better than the capsule machines.
> 
> Anyone use a Krups?


read dave's review.......you might be surprised

https://coffeeequipmentreviews.wordpress.com

also check the video clips


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