Customer Ratings & Reviews

The KitchenAid Espresso Machine with Burr Grinder has been a game changer for our morning coffee routine. This beautiful machine provides coffee shop quality drinks, without the cost and with no experience required! Opening the box and completely unboxing everything, and getting it setup and ready to use took about a half hour. I took my time to learn the machine, and minutes later I was up and running. The controls are very easy to use, and the instructions really explain everything you need to know very well. I assumed that I would need a few test runs to make a delicious latte, boy was I wrong! I followed the directions to grind enough beans for a double pull, loaded it as the directions instructed, and the espresso came out perfect! The milk frother was also super easy to use, and warmed up and frothed my milk perfectly! A quick pour into the espresso and I had an amazing drink that I didn't think I would be able to make without trial and error. Cleanup was a breeze as well, and it was tidy and ready for tomorrow. This machine will provide years of delicious drinks in our home, and I am excited to use it every time!

I don't drink coffee. I don't drink lattes. I don't drink espresso but with a machine like this I am definitely looking to start. Let me set the stage, my girlfriend loves coffee and swears by it and swears. I need to stop drinking energy drinks. I don't totally disagree with her assessment but I disagree. However, she bought a few things, please don't ask me what they were along with a coffee mug with my favorite college team on it, my name and inside the greatest substance that I have ever tasted in my entire life and proceeded to change my life. Life. With this KitchenAid semi-automatic espresso machine with Burr grinder, she tells me that my life is changed forever. Aunt, I should never want coffee or an energy drink. As long as I have this in my possession. For the moment I'm going to let her make me coffee because she's so passionate about it. But I got to tell you about a guy that doesn't drink coffee. I love what was in that cup. If I didn't know better. I swore she ran down the street to Dunkin or Starbucks or both to put this in the cup. It was smooth. It was Rich. It had flavor and I'm sure it had to do with some of the products that she bought but it also is the quality of the machine. When the quality of the machine can produce high quality espresso no matter where it came from or how good or bad it is, it speaks a testament to how great the hardware is. I haven't committed to a switch from energy drinks, but I am definitely close. If you don't have one, get one and quit looking at the price tag. I started thinking about how much you're going to save for the life of this product as opposed to going to a random coffeehouse for the quality you can have in your kitchen.

I ordered this and got into a car accident! It arrived and after 5 days in hospital I was able to go home! My family (need to mention grandnephew James) is taking care of me. So James puts this together, washes everything and learns the importance of reading instructions ~ Remove the red spacer between the water tank and the holder!!! Otherwise you will have a huge leak. Then the drinks start. He made as many recipes as he could from the book and I drank them. I have been awake now for 3 days!!!!! So, the temperature setting is extremely important when making iced lattes. It has a nice labeled pressure gauge to let you know you have packed it well. The burr grinder works great to keep the grounds close to the same size. The frother works great but it comes with a small cup-highly recommend getting a larger one. The hot water dispenser delivers perfect hot water for an Americana. I also recommend making 2 shots for your drinks-1 was just not enough coffee flavor. James also used pre ground coffee (drip) and made a latte that was very good. He wants to do tea next. Maybe I’ll get a caffeine break! One thing you really need with this is a knock box-that’s the container you bang the grind holder to get the used grinds out. Totally said- I would buy this again! It has been fun, tasty, and a welcome break from plain coffee.

The KitchenAid Semi Automatic Espresso Machine with Burr Grinder, KES655 arrived and was well packaged, in a large box that was quite heavy. It comes with written instructions plus a recipe book for really fancy drinks.It is a nice looking stainless machine & comes with a very large water carafe. You could make a lot of expresso cups before needing to refill it. The carafe has a lid and also a nice handle for carrying. There is a water filter as well. There is a storage tray behind the drip tray and this seems like a strange place for storing extra filter baskets. These machines need to have the drip tray emptied frequently. There are several different types of filter baskets. There is a bean hopper for adding coffee beans & I had some difficulty getting this into the correct position but it finally worked & did a nice job grinding the beans. With this machine you can put a small cup under the grinder of in case you want to grind extra beans. The machine has adjustable water temp & one or two cup size. I don’t add milk or alternatives so I haven’t used that function. This is my 2nd expresso machine & I find that they come with a fairly steep learning curve. You might hate the machine initially but once you taste the coffee, you start to enjoy the machine. This machine is not as intuitive & there is a blinking light that says Hold for 3 sec. DO NOT MESS with this button since it is for descaling. I needed some help from the company to figure out why I could not get things working. Overall, it is a nice machine but the price is quite high but typical for this type of fancy machine.

The KitchenAid Semi Automatic Espresso Machine is a solid and beautiful machine that makes a great Espresso or coffee drinks. Design The KitchenAid Semi Automatic Espresso Machine feels very solid and well made. I like the look of the stainless steel and the rounded corners in the front. The nob is easy to turn and the buttons are simple toggles with lights to show the current setting. I think the pressure gauge gives it a fun, retro look. The bean hopper is removable! There's an easy to use release under the lid that you twist to either secure it or remove it. I think this is great because it makes it pretty easy to switch beans before it's empty to go from Ethiopian to Kona or regular to decaf, for instance. There are still some beans left on top of the grinder, under the hopper, after you remove the hopper, but you can remove most of them easily with your fingers. The steam wand has a rubber holder you can use to move the wand easily, without burning your fingers. There's a dedicated nozzle for hot water so you don't get coffee flavor in your tea. The water reservoir is in the back and lifts straight up to remove it. It's not hard to remove or put back in place but you just need that much room above it. There's a tall piece that snaps down in the reservoir to hold the filter. The top of it, which is near the top of the reservoir, has a marker you can move so you know when to replace the filter, every two months. The drip tray has a red sign that says "Full" when it's time to empty it. When you pull the drip tray out, it pulls a second tray behind it that has storage for a double ended cleaning brush and the extra water filter baskets (single or double shot water filter baskets with a single or double wall of each are included). The tamper is two pieces, a metal bottom with a plastic handle that screws onto it, but it feels solid and stays together without issue. There's a lever in the front that you can slide left to right to adjust the grind size. There's a secondary adjustment for grind size under the hopper. You can customize the amounts of water and grinding that are dispensed and save some of those settings. It also comes with a tool for priming. It says you may need to use it out of the box but I didn't with mine. There's a light that flashes to let you know if you need to use it. There's a tray on top that heats up to warm your cup. There's also a light that tells you when you need to run a "clean cycle". Control and Usage For some reason I found it easy to go from grinding to pressing the button to start the water, the problem is I would accidentally do that without checking to see if it was on water for the Espresso, Steam, or Hot Water - the same button starts whichever of the three is selected. All you need to do is make sure you select the correct option first. This is no fault of the machine, the options are clearly labeled and a light shows which is selected, it's just my mind didn't always check this so it may be something you want to watch for too. Me forgetting to check the previous setting that was used aside, the usage is actually simple and clear. It was easy to start making a good espresso. Again, while there are defaults set for the amount of time the grinder will grind and the amount of water it will put out for espresso or hot water, you can change those defaults. You can even hold down the grind button and grind as much as you want - it will just shut off after 3 minutes. I like the flexibility of those options. Speaking of the grinder, it is quiet and not messy! Maybe quiet isn't the word, you hear it, but I thought it was very quiet and it doesn't send grounds all over. It has an ionizer to release charged particles that reduce static. There is also a "micro adjustment" for the grinder that has an additional 8 settings. This is adjusted by removing the top burr under to bean hopper. I found the pressure gauge to be easy to read and helpful. It shows a target range you want to be in so you know if you need to tamp more or less, or maybe adjust the amount of grounds. Getting a good extraction of the flavor from the beans has been easy with this machine but it's nice to see the pressure gauge to know where I'm at and see that I'm in the sweet spot, as far as the pressure goes. The Portafilter holder under the grinder is well designed so it doesn't pop out when you remove it. It's easy to pull it out gently without spilling lots of grounds. You can also select from one of three water temperature levels. I usually use the highest water temperature and I think it's excellent, very hot. I feel like it heats up very fast too - whether it's for the espresso, hot water, or the steam wand, I never need to wait long. The steam wand works great too. I used it with milk and added different flavorings like cinnamon and maple as well. For the espresso or the hot water, you can always stop the liquid from coming out by pressing the start button again. The steam you turn on and off of course, using the same button. Adjustments I mentioned some adjustments in a few places but I'll speak to them together here. There is a dial use can use to adjust the amount of grounds that it grinds - very easy to use. You can also just hold down the grind button to grind all you want. It has two settings for the amount of espresso (1 or 2 shots) and two settings for the hot water output. Those four default settings can be changed and they can also be reset back to the default. There's a dial to adjust the amount of coffee you're grinding. Press the middle of the dial and it will grind. There are guides to give you an idea of where to set the dial, for a single or double shot. There is a lever to slide back and forth to adjust the grind size as well as the "micro adjustment" that's under the bean hopper which gives you another 8 settings to select from. You can also adjust it for the hardness of your water, though you need to get a separate water test kit to do that. Summary I think KitchenAid did a great job of making the Semi Automatic Espresso Machine powerful but simple to use and with a lot of customization options. Mess with as little or as much as you want. I think all I adjusted was the grind size and selected the third temperature option and it creates a great espresso, latte, etc consistently! The fact that you can swap out beans relatively easily is a huge plus too!

I've never owned an espresso machine before. I've only occasionally gotten cappuccinos or lattes from your typical coffee shop chains. Otherwise, I'd drink just regular drip coffee (hot or iced) that I'd make at home or get from that donut chain. I think that has forever changed with the introduction of this machine into my home. KitchenAid made nice pull handles to help get the machine out of the box (though one tore when I was pulling) which make it pretty easy to unbox. There are a number of other little packages with the various accessories that need to come out too. It does take a few minutes to unbox and assemble, but nothing was particularly difficult or puzzling. It comes with 3 booklets, one is a quick start guide for brewing your first cup, the other is the full manual, and the large book is a recipe book for various drink ideas. Not knowing what I was doing, just following the instructions one step at a time, and taking my time, I was able to brew (or "pull") a cup of espresso. I did make a couple mistakes, so I tossed my first cup, and used my learnings to make a 2nd cup. My 2nd cup was kind of a cappuccino (because I'm only guessing at the milk ratios), and I was pleasantly surprised with how good it turned out and ended up happily drinking the whole cup. The next cup I brewed, finally getting the hang of things was pure bliss in a cup. I later changed beans, which is sort of easy since the bean hopper comes out so you can pour out extra beans in the hopper, and then just run the grinder to empty the remaining partially ground beans in the grinder. My first cup was a bit off with the new beans, so made some adjustments to grind size and amount and it came out much better. And then the cup after that was even better! Pure magic. So, what I'm saying, even a novice like me, with no espresso making experience was able to make a fantastic cup of joe with this machine. The machine itself seems very well thought out, and nothing feels cheap. The water reservoir is easy to take out and fill. There is a long plastic thing in the middle that is just meant to hold a small water filter (though you should still use filtered water). As noted before, the bean hopper is removable, which aids in cleaning and changing beans. You can also access further grinder size fine tuning on the grinder itself. The portafilter (the large thing with the handle) is nice, weighty and solid. It does have a plastic channeling thing inside, which hopefully holds up to the test of time. KitchenAid includes 4 "baskets" (they go into the portafilter to hold the coffee grinds). You have two one-shot baskets, and two two-shot baskets. Of the two baskets for each size, one is double-walled, and one is single-walled. I've learned that beginners or lower-quality beans/grinds should use the double-walled baskets. That's what I started with, but then tried the single walled and with both I was able to make excellent drinks. The holder under the grinder is soft-ish plastic that gently holds the portafilter. It seemed like a curious decision to have something that seemed to just barely hold on, but then I realized it helps a lot with being able to jiggle the portafilter while its filling with grinds to help level out the grinds and prevent it from over piling in the center. The bottom catch tray pulls out, and with it, it pulls out a small storage tray for the unused baskets, and a small tool for cleaning the grinder. The catch tray also collects the water from the brewing/steaming process, and it collects a lot more water than I expected. It does have a little popup flag for when the tray is full of water, but I suggest emptying more often than that, because it could become a bit awkward when its full of water and good chance of spilling it. Everything cleans up pretty nice and easily with just a quick wipe down. I use the scrub side of a sponge to help clean the steam wand because milk quickly and easily bakes on. The steam wand swivels all around to give you sufficient access to it for steaming, frothing, or just hot water.