Automatic cappuccino maker: how to use, principle of operation

Cappuccino is one of the most popular coffee drinks in the world. Its secret is not only in the ideal combination of coffee and milk, but also in the delicate milk foam, which in classic recipes takes up up to a third of the entire drink. It is for the light and airy foam of cappuccino that many of us rush to coffee shops in the morning. However, you can prepare delicious coffee with milk at home, just get a cappuccino maker. Komsomolskaya Pravda talks about the best cappuccino makers available for sale in 2022, and our expert will tell you everything about choosing a good device.

Operating principle of built-in machines

Automatic cappuccino maker or milk frother - what is it for: to prepare cappuccino, latte, macchiato or other traditional drinks, mostly invented by Italians, but which are known all over the world.

The operating principle of an automatic cappuccino maker is based on the difference in pressure, under the influence of which milk from the outside flows into the coffee machine through a plastic tube. There it foams and moves into the mug through the spout of the coffee maker.

Most often, coffee makers with automatic milk frothing function have double boilers to provide enough power and speed to brew espresso and generate steam.

Such machines are more expensive; they are bought to serve cafes in order to speed up the process of preparing drinks for visitors. For home use, a good machine with one heating element is sufficient.

How to use

It doesn’t matter in what order you perform the operations - brew coffee and froth milk. In powerful units this is done simultaneously, but in ordinary units the machine must cool down a little after generating steam, so you can speed up the process like this: first brew espresso, then immediately whip up milk foam.

How does a cappuccino maker work in a coffee machine and how to use it correctly:

Place the silicone tube in a bag of milk.

Press the automatic foam preparation button (or another type of process control).

The liquid will flow through the tube into the unit.

After a while it will pour into the cup.

Immediately after cooking, you need to rinse the tube and milk group with hot water so that the fat does not dry out inside.

Video: Homemade cappuccino maker

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of an automatic device:

Fast process of obtaining milk foam.

You can leave everything to chance - the machine will prepare the drink itself.

Flaws:

After whipping the foam, it is necessary to rinse automatic cappuccino makers.

For daily use, once a week, be sure to completely disassemble and wash all parts of the cappuccino maker. The milk fat inside will emit an unpleasant odor if it is not removed in a timely manner.

To wash built-in milk units, manufacturers produce special tablets that destroy residual fat and eliminate odors.

Cappuccino recipes

to diversify a coffee cocktail, the basis of which is only 2 ingredients . Over time, various preparation options have been created to help you understand how to make cappuccino.

Recipe 1

The simplest cappuccino using a whisk requires minimal spending. Suitable for people who are far from coffee culture and would like to get to know what cappuccino is. To prepare, you will need instant coffee and full-fat milk.

Bring water to a boil, pour in 1-2 teaspoons of coffee, add sugar if you want to soften the bitterness. Heat the milk until bubbles form, quickly remove before the boiling process begins. Then beat the hot milk with a whisk until a thick, foamy consistency forms. Cover with a milk cap of coffee. The cappuccino is ready.

Cappuccino recipes

Recipe 2

An option on how to make a decaffeinated vegan cappuccino using a cappuccino maker.

Choose decaffeinated ground or bean coffee and a richer plant drink (for example, coconut Aroy-D or NeMoloko 3,2%).

The following steps depend on the type of coffee machine: pour in the espresso base, pour in the milk analogue. Either one cappuccino program is launched, or two consecutive ones - espresso and milk foam. The prepared cappuccino is sweetened or decorated with cinnamon to taste.

Recipe 3

A one-minute recipe for those who want to achieve voluminous foam, has a mechanical cappuccino maker and is limited in time. Prepare instant coffee and sugar in equal parts, water and milk in double parts. Place everything except the last ingredient in an elongated container, dissolve, then whisk using a cappuccino maker. Add heated milk and beat again.

Recipe 4

A method for those who prefer to make cappuccino using a cappuccino maker or other frothing mechanism from ground coffee.

Cold water is filled into the Turk and 1-2 tablespoons of coffee . The mixture is brought to a boil, then removed from the heat, carefully poured to separate the sediment from the liquid. Separately, the milk is whipped with a whisk, mixer or mechanical cappuccino maker. Then it is added on top of the coffee.

Operating principle of a semi-automatic device

How to use a manual cappuccino maker and what this means in a coffee machine: the steam tube, if you put a nozzle with holes on it, turns into a panarello - a device for forming milk foam.

Steam is generated in the boiler and then enters the tube. The milk is gradually heated and frothed to the desired degree. Which one is controlled by the user.

How to use

A manual cappuccino maker in a coffee machine is more difficult to use - you need to get used to it. The temperature at which the best foam is obtained is 60 - 70 degrees. If you overdo it, you will get the taste of boiled milk, which not everyone likes.

The process step by step on how to use the cappuccino maker:

Pour milk into the pitcher. Release a little steam before whipping.

Place a container under the nozzle 5 - 8 mm and turn on the steam supply.

Adjust the angle of the tube so that a funnel is formed in the liquid.

When the volume has doubled, the nozzle is lowered deeper to warm up all the liquid.

Turn off steam.

Helpful Tips:

It is better to whip the foam in a special stainless steel pitcher, as it is easier to control the temperature. If it is impossible to touch, then the liquid inside has reached the required temperature.

In the first couple of times, whisking the milk, you get very large air bubbles. You can eliminate them by lightly tapping the bottom of the pitcher on the table. This will make the bubbles the same size.

The foam is immediately poured into the espresso mug (or vice versa) before it loses its structure.

You can usually prepare the foam well the second or third time.

Advantages and disadvantages

A manual device is easier to clean and control milk fat residues - this is the main advantage over automatic preparation. Coffee machines with a manual frother are cheaper, but the result is the same. It may not be worth overpaying if the machine will work at home.

The disadvantage can be considered the longer process of preparing milk coffee drinks, although if you have 5 minutes of time this is not a problem.

How to care

After whipping the foam, wipe the nozzle with a wet, clean cloth or wash under the tap. You need to pass a small amount of steam and hot water through the tube to wash away the fat remaining inside the pannarello.

Which coffee machine is suitable?

Saeco Lirika One Touch Cappuccino

Saeco Lirika One Touch Cappuccino has a large water tank and a corresponding compartment for beans, 2 programs for milk drinks and coffee, and a ceramic coffee grinder. The user may not like the noisy operation of grinding grains. With small volumes of use, the poured water may become rotten, the grains may lose their aroma ( 31-48 thousand rubles for 2020 ).

Bosch TIS 30129 RW VeroCup 100

Bosch TIS 30129 RW VeroCup 100 is capable of brewing a coffee drink with 5 different strengths, partially warms the cup, reveals the aroma and taste of the beans due to direct grinding before preparation, and can simultaneously pour into 2 cups . This is not to say that making cappuccino with this cappuccino maker is a pleasure - the frother should be wiped after each use ( 22 thousand rubles ).

Delonghi ECAM 22.360

Delonghi ECAM 22.360. The model has a number of advantages: changes in the amount of foam are available, partial heating of the glass, double espresso once, high-quality production, 5-year . The downside is the lack of custom settings ( 38-55 thousand rubles ).

Electric foamer

There are devices operating from the electrical network, intended exclusively for milk. The principle of their operation is to work independently from the coffee machine.

If you don’t have a coffee maker at home, and espresso is prepared in a geyser device, you can whip up the foam by pouring milk into a separate electric container. With the help of a rotating whisk, after 2 minutes you get a fluffy, dense consistency that is no different from that prepared in a coffee machine.

The disadvantage of such a device is its high cost - about 150 - 200 dollars if you buy the original model from European manufacturers.

What are the pros and cons of the nozzle?

If you hear the word “nozzle”, this does not mean that the foam will be worse than in a coffee machine. But still, you will notice certain inconveniences when you use a hand-held device:

Additional utensils will be needed when using;
It is necessary to control the process when the foam is whipped;
The temperature of your favorite drink will not be so high, because the cooking process will take place in two stages.

The Panarello nozzle costs less than a coffee maker or automatic coffee machine;
You can regulate the amount of foam you get. After all, each person has different preferences;
Easy to use and also easy to clean. To do this, you will need to beat water instead of foam, and the nozzle will be clean;
If suddenly there is some kind of breakdown, the repair will cost much less than fixing a coffee machine
Thanks to manual preparation, you can easily learn how to draw patterns on coffee.

Manual model - how to use

A hand mixer also works well with milk. This device runs on batteries or is connected to the network. Consists of a long nozzle and a handle with a start button.

At the end there is a metal nozzle in the form of a spirally twisted wire. It is this that ensures the increase in milk foam volume. There are devices with a heating function. Without heating it is suitable for those people who prefer cold coffee drinks.

To get a high, fluffy foam, it is advisable to use whole homemade milk with a fat content of 4.5 - 5%. If someone restricts themselves in calories, the effect of cappuccino will be less pronounced, but the taste will not change.

Cold milk froths better, so do not heat it on the stove before making cappuccino.

Option! The foam can be made with a French press by pouring milk into it and pulling the upper moving part - the piston - several times. The result is an effect no worse than that of an automatic machine.

User tips

To ensure that your capsule coffee machine works as long as possible, it is better to use filtered or bottled water. Hard tap water quickly clogs the filters and negatively affects the taste of the finished drink.
Once every 3-4 months, the coffee machine needs to be descaled. This is done by simply pressing a button; a capsule with cleaning liquid (purchased separately) is first placed in the device.
A standard Nespresso capsule contains 5 g of ground natural coffee. Some users find that the espresso is too weak. To make the drink more rich, you can manually reduce the amount of water in the serving.

Expert opinion Galina Valerievna Borodina

Coffee connoisseurs believe that all Nespresso drinks have a noticeable, pleasant bitterness. Increasing the strength and temperature of the drink (possibly with manual adjustment) will help make it more obvious.

What is better to choose home

To decide which cappuccino maker is better - a built-in automatic, a manual one with batteries, or a panarello in a coffee machine, it is recommended to watch how cappuccino is prepared in a cafe. There you can find all types of devices designed for this purpose.

It's also worth considering:

How many cups per day are prepared using milk. If there are more than three, then a semi-automatic machine or, if you have the funds, an automatic coffee maker with a built-in milk unit will do.

Where will the unit operate - at home, in a restaurant or cafe. If there are a lot of visitors, then the higher the speed of preparing drinks, the better. In this case, you need to buy a professional model with two boilers - for espresso and cappuccino.

How important it is to save time at home in the morning. If you have 5–10 minutes in the morning to brew coffee and whip up foam, you shouldn’t overpay for an automatic machine.

You can try a manual cappuccino maker if you don’t have a coffee maker at home, and buying a good device is not financially profitable.

Saving on household appliances is not profitable, but how to choose a milk cappuccino maker if all high-quality appliances are expensive. Most often, cheap models do not satisfy the taste of espresso itself, so you need to focus primarily on coffee.

According to customer reviews, having bought a budget coffee maker, they stopped preparing beans in it, but continued to use the semi-automatic cappuccino maker. The taste of cappuccino consists of two components - milk and coffee. If one of them does not meet all the parameters, it is not worth spending the money. Ratings of the best cappuccino makers are of little help for several reasons:

People praise what they bought. They may not realize that there is something better.

There are a lot of models of coffee machines - it’s impossible to try all the cappuccinos to choose.

Which cappuccino maker is better – the one that you will enjoy using and will be easy to clean.

What other cappuccino makers are worth paying attention to?

Kitfort KT-710 (from 2.9 thousand rubles)

Rommelsbacher MS 650. Photo: yandex.market.ru
The jug is huge by the standards of cappuccino makers - more than 700 ml. With this you can make a bunch of drinks for a large family at once. But on the other hand, if you drink coffee alone, you will have to wash the entire container every time. After all, you won’t be able to prepare milk for future use. Three modes are available: heating, hot and cold foaming. The manufacturer even states that the cappuccino maker can be used for purposes other than its intended purpose, namely for mixing and heating sauces. We don’t know how to feel about such multifunctionality in a device that is most often bought by big coffee fans. The set includes two nozzles. One for mixing, the other for foaming. The first is needed not only for the sauces already mentioned above, but also, for example, for cocoa or hot chocolate. The liquid heats up no higher than 75 degrees Celsius.

Characteristics:

Made of plastic and metal
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 730 ml.

Large volume

Noisy

5.Oursson MF2005 (from 1.7 thousand rubles)

Oursson MF2005.
Photo: yandex.market.ru Inexpensive Chinese cappuccino maker made of bright plastic. Let's praise the industrial designers for choosing colors. We decided not to limit ourselves to the standard black/white/red, but took ivory colors - splashes of champagne, burgundy - rich wine, contrasting orange. We are sure that there will be people with bright kitchen sets that match the color of each item. There is only one button and three modes to control: heating and foaming hot/cold milk. Moreover, the device automatically turns off when the foam is ready. There are risks inside that you need to fill the device based on the mode. This is a small problem if you drink cappuccino alone. Don't fill it completely - it won't whip up as well. And the volume is designed for two people.

Characteristics:

Plastic
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 200 ml

Automatic shutdown.

Milk sometimes pours out of the spout on the lid.

Melitta Cremio (from 4.3 thousand rubles)

Melitta Cremio.
Photo: yandex.market.ru There is a more expensive version of this device, but made of stainless steel. Otherwise the characteristics are the same. Plastic seems even a little more preferable, since stainless steel is a classic silver color, and this one is available in three colors: red, white and black. He even won an award for his design a couple of years ago. In 2022, this cappuccino maker retains its position in the ranking of the best. The manufacturer promises an anti-stick coating inside. We found no complaints about this part among the reviews. I immediately put three nozzles for different coffee drinks in the box. The jug itself is wire-free - it is integrated into the stand, and can also be retracted into it for compact storage. It's nice when engineers pay attention to such little things. The device turns off automatically as soon as you remove the container from the stand.

Characteristics:

Plastic
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 250 ml.

Three whisks included

The weak legs of one of the beaters often break after a couple of years of use

7.VES electric H-200 (from 2.2 thousand rubles)

VES electric H-200.
Photo: yandex.market.ru Another “heavyweight” with a volume of 600 milliliters. This is where its main pros and cons follow: it’s enough for everyone, but it’s more difficult to wash. Available in two colors - black and white. Pleasant button illumination - soft blue. It does the same thing as other best cappuccino makers of 2022: heating, foaming in hot and cold modes. Two attachments are placed in the box with it. The first is a classic whisk. The second is for mixing. The lid is transparent, which helps to assess the degree of readiness of the drink. When overheated or at the end of the cycle, it turns off automatically. The whipping mechanism is held on by magnets and can be easily removed for washing. There is a mark inside, above which it is better not to pour, otherwise the liquid will splash out.

Characteristics:

Metal
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 600 ml.

Ease of washing

Plastic is not of the best quality, easily soiled

BBK BMF025 (from 1.9 thousand rubles)

BBK BMF025.
Photo: yandex.market.ru Many people associate this brand with car audio. Their consumer household appliances are not that common on the Russian market. However, the cappuccino maker from our rating of the best 2022 is often found in stores. The design of the device is curious: compared to its competitors it looks extraordinary. It works very quickly - literally a couple of seconds and the milk is frothed. There is just a heating mode. Despite the volume of 240 milliliters, it is not recommended to fill it to the brim in the foam preparation mode. Holds only 115 ml of frothed milk. This is enough for two moderate cups, or one very large one. There is an automatic shut-off, which, according to the manufacturer, is activated before a film forms on the milk.

Characteristics:

Plastic
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 240 ml

Fast and silent operation

Not enough foam for two mugs with one-time refill

Gastrorag DK-003 (from 2.6 thousand rubles)

Gastrorag DK-003.
Photo: yandex.market.ru Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard anything about this company before. It specializes in the production of equipment for catering. However, their cappuccino maker was clearly ahead of the creators' plans and won part of the market for consumer cappuccino makers. What makes it stand out from others? First of all, the weight is more than one kilogram. Don't be surprised: the case is made of durable metal. Froths, heats milk, or does both at the same time. True, the volume of foam here, like that of the previous participant in the rating, is small - 115 ml. But even in public catering, the barista froths the milk separately for each cup. The operating temperature does not exceed 65 degrees Celsius, which is considered optimal for cappuccino. The control panel has two buttons and a small display.

Characteristics:

Metal
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 240 ml

The handle does not get hot

Interior coating is difficult to clean

Ariete 2878 (from 6.7 thousand rubles)

Ariete 2878. Photo: yandex.market.ru
Multifunctional milk frother, easy to use, with a power of 500 W and a capacity of 140 ml for frothed milk and 250 ml for heated milk. The transparent lid allows you to control the formation of foam, and the only button serves to activate two functions at once: Hot and cold foam. The ideal tool for preparing a variety of drinks at the right time: latte, cappuccino, cream coffee, shaker coffee, hot or cold chocolate. Anti-stick coating makes cleaning easy. It turns off automatically and keeps the outer walls cool.

Characteristics:

Metal
Autonomous
Electromechanical
Stationary
Volume 240 ml

Vintage style

Price

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