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Product Description
Product Description
Treat Your Taste Buds with Over 60 Years of Italian Espresso Tradition
Gaggia is a company deeply rooted in Italian espresso heritage. Yet its coffee machines have evolved over the decades, from the original pressure-generating, lever-activated piston, to the latest fully-automated, bean-to-cup technology which, at the touch of a button, grinds, brews and dispenses a delicious cup of espresso. However you prefer to brew your coffee--whether you want the simplicity of bean-to-cup or crave domestic barista status--there is a Gaggia machine for you.
History
In 1938, Achille Gaggia filed patent no. 365726, an ingenious invention which saw steam pressure applied to ground coffee, so that the water forced through the coffee extracted all its flavours and aromas to create a rich foam crema layer. However, the real revolution came 10 years later when Achille filed a new patent, for a lever-operated piston machine incorporating a spring. This spring provided additional pressure, and this pressure forced water through the coffee in a shorter time, producing a short black espresso in just 15 seconds.
In the 1950s, Gaggia found fame in the trendy coffee bars of Rome and Milan, and most notably in London’s prominent Sirocci in Soho. These coffee bars soon became icons of the '50s lifestyle. With the launch of Baby Gaggia in 1977, the company began producing domestic espresso machines, making the professional values inherent in Gaggia’s commercial machines widely available for use in the home.
Gaggia Classic
There's nothing like a good cup of coffee to inject a little luxury into your daily life. The Gaggia Classic RI8161 coffee machine is an ideal introduction into the world of Italian coffee and offers a real hands-on, professional coffee-making experience. The elegantly styled machine brings modern coffee shop looks to your kitchen, as well as coffee shop quality and great taste into the comfort of your own home. The simple-to-use and durable manual machine is perfect for everyday use, combining advanced technology and a classic, compact stainless steel body.
The 1300 watt, 8 kg Gaggia Classic is powerful, yet lightweight. It comes with a 15 bar pressure pump and 1.2 litre water tank for outstanding results. The removable water tank/reservoir and stainless steel boiler ensure that it's practical and easy to clean.
Your choice--ground coffee or coffee pods
Gaggia’s manual machines come with coffee filters for one or two cups of ground coffee, and a special filter for ESE (easy serve espresso) pods. All Gaggia’s coffee machines have two special 'crema perfetta' filters that allow you to use either ground coffee or coffee pods.
Professional filter holder
A manual coffee machine is the most traditional and well-known way to make espresso, using the filter holder and ground coffee. A professional chromed brass filter holder and ring, the same as used in Gaggia’s commercial machines, ensures a consistent temperature throughout the coffee making and dispensing process. The material of the filter is durable and safe to use. It is inert and thus ensures the best results with consistent temperature.
Rotating steamer
The panarello steamer attachment rotates for easy access to froth milk in seconds, and also delivers hot water for tea and other hot drinks.
Solenoid valve
Espresso coffee, originally created in Italy, is made by rapidly forcing water that has been heated to the correct brewing temperature through finely ground coffee beans. The heart of the espresso machine is a precision engineered pump. The pump and water flow is easily controlled with just a flick of the switch. The internal mechanism of the Gaggia Classic is composed of a solenoid expansion valve that allows rapid drying of the interior. Gaggia’s solenoid valve delivers a widespread shower through the coffee, eliminating hotspots which can burn the coffee. Its precise pressurisation ensures no drips and leaves drier coffee grounds after brewing, for easy cleaning.
Traditional frother
The Gaggia Classic coffee machine comes with a traditional frother. The higher the fat content in the milk, the denser the froth will be. The 'turbo-frother' will give you perfect, creamy froth, but just a tip--don’t let the milk come to the boil! It may require two or three attempts to become an expert barista, but you will be successful at frothing milk if you give it a chance. Just swivel the turbo-frother steam nozzle slightly outward so that you can get the frothing pitcher under the nozzle without knocking the base of the machine.
Important to know……
1 . The taste of your coffee depends on the characteristics of the beans from which it is made, the type of bean, and where it was grown and processed. Coffee beans that are roasted for a longer period of time and at higher temperatures will be much darker in colour. Darker beans will produce a richer cup of coffee than lightly-roasted beans.
2. A variety of dark roasts are available from which you can choose to brew your espresso. Each of these roasts is a blend of coffee beans that are roasted at a specific temperature producing a specific type of flavour. There are also decaffeinated beans that have had up to 98% of their caffeine content removed. The next time you purchase coffee for your espresso maker, experiment with one of the many kinds of coffee on the market. You may just find that it tastes better than the blend you have been using.
3. A fine 'espresso grind' for pump-driven machines must be used. Be sure to ask for this when buying coffee or when having beans ground. Do not use a blade-type grinder because it makes too much coffee dust and produces an irregular grind.
4. The mark of real espresso is its dark colour, rich taste and the light brown, natural froth called 'crema' in Italian.
5. Cappuccino is simply a combination of espresso and hot, frothy milk. Cappuccino is usually topped with cinnamon, nutmeg or cocoa powder.
6. Espresso coffee should be served immediately after it is made.
7. Espresso should be served in 2 to 2½ oz demitasse cups. A 4 or 6 oz cup or glass should be used for cappuccino.
8. Ideally, coffee beans should be ground immediately before using. Remember, it must be an 'espresso grind' for pump-driven espresso machines.
9. Ground coffee tends to absorb food odours, so it’s best to store ground coffee or whole beans in an airtight container in your freezer.
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Customer Reviews
Oh, by the way, I was glad to have read somewhere that the mains lead is packed inside the water tank, otherwise I could have spent a long time searching for it in the box!
Apart from that, there are two main issues which I am really glad I knew about before I took it out of the box. One should be noted by anyone buying it, which is that the company now ship it with only what is known as a 'pressurised basket' for the filter. Instead of having lots of tiny little holes all over the base, if you look underneath it this has a single tiny hole in the centre and it MUST be used with what the original instructions call the 'optional perfect crema' accessory which is a tiny piece of brown plastic which fits loose in the filter under the basket and by all the laws of washing up is going to get lost in the first two weeks. (There are reviews from people who lost it in unpacking and had to buy another immediately!)
If the pressurised baskets are used without the widget, coffee and grounds apparently are likely to shoot out at 90 degrees and redecorate your kitchen for you. So not very optional at all then, unless you like brown streaks. It is a mystery why the company is shipping these as standard. The idea is that they make it more foolproof to get a good crema if you are using coffee that is incorrectly ground etc. However, I would have thought that the market for this machine is likely to be reasonably interested in doing it properly - there are enough good 'point and shoot' machines out there these days, after all. And quite apart from that, to have the whole operation of a £200+ machine dependant on one tiny piece of loseable plastic is just bizarre.
However, there is a far better solution which is to order the original style non-pressurised baskets from somewhere like happydonkey.co.uk. I ordered two yesterday shortly after ordering the machine from Amazon and they arrived just as I was setting up the machine so I was able to use them from the start and had no problems at all. The double basket was just under £6. I used my usual brilliant coffee from hasbean.co.uk ground in my usual OK but not superdooper burr grinder and got a fabulous cup of espresso first time out, much richer than I ever got from my ancient (but dearly loved) Krups machine.
The second issue will only bother people who a) like cappuccino and latte and b) already know how to microfroth milk like a real barista. The steam wand on this machine is awful for this. The metal wand is very short so even with my smallest frothing jug it was hard to reach the milk. And the plastic easy-froth add-on produces what those add-ons always produce which is a big bubbled foam rather than a microfoam. However, I can see why they do this as the foam produced will satisfy anyone who just wants a foamy top to their coffee and as these things go, it works well. I just wish the wand itself was more useable without it - my old Krups came with a rubber add-on but once you took it off, underneath the wand was great and I could do latte art etc no problem.
However, forewarned is forearmed and a lot of people who care about this have replaced the Gaggia wand either with the Gaggia Panarello widget which is apparently better or else with the wand made for the Rancillio machines.
There is also an issue with steaming a lot of milk, apparently, but there is a trick on Coffeegeek to avoid running out of steam which I will try if it proves a problem. My husband likes his coffee with cream anyway so mostly I'm only steaming milk for one.
So altogether, so far I'm really pleased. If it wasn't for those silly pressurised baskets and the feeble little steam wand I'd give it full marks. I nearly did anyway, as those are soluble problems and it is a great little machine.
I was 100% right to.
My wife had done plenty of research into which Gaggia to get me, and the Gaggia Classic seemed to consistently raved about. Now it's my turn to.
Really easy to assemble, though having to remove the chrome overflow pipe to remove the tank was tricky (it's screwing it back on that's tricky as you could lose the pipe you have to screw it onto inside - maybe it was a problem with my machine).
Anyway, with minutes, I had it set up, filled with water and switched on. The tank holds loads and is very easy to fill. There's spaced for a few espresso cups and saucers on top to warm, though if you do want them to warm up, and get really hot coffee too, I agree with the other reviewers that you need to leave it on a while to really heat up.
The filter holder is very sturdy, in fact the whole machine is so robust and well put together you can feel the quality. It comes with two filter cups, one and two cup, but you'll probably only use the two cup filter cup.
It is a bit noisy, but I don't care. It's a powerful machine and you get the impression it's very much function over form with this Gaggia. It does whatever it takes to get the best possible cup of coffee.
The espresso is superb. The milk frother takes a bit of getting used to but is really effective, creating a really good frothy cappuccino time after time - you will have to rinse the frother nozzle though after each use. the only criticism is that the nozzle is quite low to the level of your worktop so getting a cup under it can be tricky. Not a real problem though.
Everyone who tastes the coffee that it produces falls in love with it and wants a Gaggia - I reckon we've probably sold 2-3 machines for Gaggia so far. If you're reading this Gaggia, we'd like commission!
Seriously though, if you want a sturdy machine, built to last, that's great looking, but not just for design’s sake, that makes impeccable coffees, this is it.
Then I discovered this machine. OK it definatly looks good, not a machine to hide away in a cupboard after a couple of uses, not something to kick yourself once a week for buying, not once you have tasted the coffee it produces. Now I have people calling in for coffee and I can tell its a pleasure because a second cup is seldom refused, I am almost never asked for tea. My machine is on all day just longing to be pressed into service.
The machine feels good to use it is solid and heavy in a way that makes it feel like a proffessional machine and yet takes up little space on my work surface. Once you get the hang of it (and it is honestly not difficult) making coffee becomes a pleasure and I like the feeling of being in control that I probably would not get from a fully automatic machine, there is something pleasurable about tamping down the coffee and letting the coffee flow until you feel you have enough in the cup, great crema comes as standard if you use your coffee while it is still fresh in the pack. The milk frother produces superb results.
I use Illy coffee and while I did buy a grinder I seldom use it, I admit I am lazy but I find this brand of coffee is ideal in its grind and flavour and I love the airtight tin in comes in. If you keep this machine de-scaled, about once every 3 months in hard water areas, I recently discovered citric acid from the chemist (food grade) that costs around 79p a box which does the job quickly and effectively you should have no problems. Keep the shower head clean and give the steam attachment a rinse after use or the milk will clog it, then off you go.
I promise you will never look back, one bonus will be that as your kitchen fills with the aroma of fresh coffee and you take your first sip of the day you will be transported to a pavement cafe in Florence and that really is... priceless.
Amazon are offering these machines at great prices and ours arrived in two days, great service.
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