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Fully automatic espresso machines are kind of a luxury. They’re expensive, and they can take up a lot of space, but that may be a small price to pay for getting the equivalent of a barista at your service every day. I recently bought a Philips 4300 series fully automatic coffee machine with LatteGo to test out and see whether it’s worth the splurge.
In this review I’ll tell you what kind of drinks it can make, how they taste, what the cleanup is like and how this newer version compares to the Philips 3200 series I reviewed last year.
What is an Automatic Espresso Machine?
Automatic espresso machines do all the work of making espresso for you: they grind the beans, tamp down the grounds, heat the water and extract the espresso under high pressure. They will also clean themselves and give you automatic feedback and instructions. It takes all the work out of enjoying espresso and espresso-based drinks.
The machines don’t use pods or plastic cups; you get fresh ground espresso from exactly the beans you choose to use, and your coffee is made fresh at the moment.
Many automatic espresso machines will also have some kind of milk heating and frothing ability; some use a traditional wand steamer while others have containers and tubes that do it automatically.
As I noted, these machines can be expensive. The Jura lineup will set you back about $2000. The Philips 3400 LatteGo by comparison is about $899USD/$???CAD.
Latte Go Milk System
I’ll get to the details on the espresso in just a sec, but first I want to touch on one of the key components of this machine and that’s the LatteGo milk system. The ‘system’ is basically just a special container that you fill with milk, snap into place, and then let it do its work.
The LatteGo frother mixes milk and air at high speed in the chamber, then pours a the hot milk right into your cup at just the right temperature, promises Philips. The container is made up of three parts now: the lid, the clear cup and a bracket (the 3200 had just two: a lid and the cup), and Philips said it’s designed with minimal tubes and small parts to make it easy to clean.
You can rinse it under hot water for a quick clean, or toss it in the dishwasher.
The milk container is easy to use, though I am a bit puzzled about why the milk container has been redesigned. Ow with the cup and bracket, if you don’t click them together tightly, milk spills from a small hole in the bottom of the cup. Weird, and yes I did get milk everyone and that’s how I know. Even so, the LatteGo system is easy to use, and fast to clean.
Philips 3400 makes 8 drinks
Coffee lovers have their favoutites and the Philips 3400 LatteGo is designed to make the core beverages at the touch of a single button.
This version of the machine makes 8 different drinks: Espresso, Cappuccino, Coffee, Ristretto, Latte Macchiato, Café au Lait, Americano, and Caffé crema, and it will dispense Hot water of just do steamed milk
(The 3200 by comparison made just 5 drinks: Black Coffee, Espresso, Americano, Cappuccino and Latte macchiato. It will also dispense hot water.)
Making coffee drinks with Philips 3400
To make a drink, choose your beverage from the control panel and press start. We’ll start here with an espresso.
The machine will grind the beans, and make your espresso shot on the spot. To brew one shot of espresso from start to finish it takes about 30 seconds.
If you want a double, just tap the double shot option and it will make two individual shots, unlike some machines which just use the same amount of beans but with twice the water.
You can customize your drink too… if you do want a longer shot, you can tell the machine to add more water; you can also adjust the strength of the brew too, and the amount of milk in your drink.
The control panel is actually pretty easy to understand and adapt to and gives you everything you need to know at a glance, including notifications when the grinds bin is full and needs to be emptied or when you’re out of water or beans.
I tried making a few different drinks on the Philips 4300. Double espressos are generally my daily go-to but I also tried the Latte, cafe au lait, latte macchiato and a cappuccino.
When you turn the machine on it will heat up and automatically rinse the machine without you needing to press any more buttons.
The espresso was great; the shots brewed up pretty fast and I loved that the double shots were perfect doubles, not just double long shots. The espresso came out hot and creamy with a nice crema on top. I was actually really impressed with the overall quality of the espresso.