Description

Breville-Nespresso Espresso Creatista Plus Coffee Machine Review

Creating Top-Quality Latte Art at Home

In this busy world of today, it is not often that we find the time (let alone want to!) to grind our very own coffee beans and customize our coffee from the comfort of our own home. We have grown accustomed to great coffee at reasonable (rather expensive I would say) price. However, for some, you never quite hit the sweet spot, whether it is about taste, texture, flare, whatever, you name it. You can never quite get the perfect coffee, wherever you go. However, if you are a coffee fan, serious about coffee and willing to experiment until you find the perfect blend for you, then there is no way around it. You need to have your very own coffee/espresso maker and the Creatista Plus Coffe Machine is probably one of the best, if not the best espresso coffee machine that uses Nespresso capsules.

Overview

Nespresso and Breville, two of the biggest companies in the industry of coffee making, joined forces to create one of their best coffee makers, the Creatista Plus Coffe Machine. Nespresso is known for bringing great-taste espresso and black coffee all delivered in capsule pods, famous worldwide for their rich flavor and easy use. Breville stands out for their milk frothers. You would imagine that combining the best from each other would create a coffee making machine worth turning heads. Hardly ever testing an item has delivered so much pleasure to so many and after many of us enjoying coffee from the Creatista Plus in our testing site, we think so too.

This stainless steel coffee making machine runs smooth, fast, and does not create any noise, which I pretty impressive as you always get that hiss in the background when the water is running through the capsule. Some enjoy it as they can feel coffee coming through, others hate the rather bland sound. What is really cool is that the Creatista Plus Coffee Espresso Machine heats up very quickly, in less than 3 seconds you are ready to go and the milk is ready for frothing. That is very cool, especially if you are in a rush but you can’t do without your cup of coffee. No more having to wait until the machine heats up. All done super quick. You can choose from foamy to a creamy froth, with its 8 different textures, and that should be enough to most people.

Having developed the machine with Nespresso, it should be no surprise that the Creatista Plus Coffe Machine strongly claims that Nespresso coffee capsules are the best capsules to use. The 16 capsules included in the package should help to choose what coffee strength you like the best, but in all fairness, you are not limited to Nespresso pods. You can use any capsules from any other company so you are not limited to the Nespresso flavors.

The machine’s capacity is for up to 6 cups before a refill. It feels good drinking knowing that there is no plastic involved in the process, making the machine BPA-free. And to make it even more interesting, you do not have to worry about the internal cleaning process either because it has an internal self-cleaning feature to maintain the quality parts inside. Not only that but you get a barista milk jug with your coffee machine, so you are ready to go from the moment to turn this brilliant coffee machine.

Key Specifications

• 19-bar pressure extraction pump
• Heating time for only 3 seconds
• Smart frothing steam wand with 11 milk temperature setting, 8 frothing textures, and temperature sensor
• A power-saving system with auto shut off after 9 minutes of inactivity
• Thin-film transistor display at the top
• 8 coffee drink selection
• Water tank capacity of 50 oz.
• 6.7 x 16.1 x 12.2 inches dimensions
• 10.9 pounds of weight

Design

With its stainless steel finish, the Creatista Plus Coffe Machine looks sleek and elegant. It measures 6.7 x 16.1 x 12.2 inches and weighs 10.9 pounds with an LCD screen at the top of the machine that displays clear images to show you the type of coffee that you are making. How about that? Could it get any easier? This is the ideal machine for anyone who wants more than just the coffee you get at your local shop, but value style and efficiency. It is so easy to operate, you press one button, coffee comes out, get the frother going, finish the coffee the way you like it, not the way a corporate process has decided that you should like.

Brewing Features

Frothing Steam Wand

One of the most impressive features of the Creatista Plus is the frothing wand. It automatically steams the milk to produce 8 different textures at 11 different temperatures. All you need to do is to choose the coffee that you want from the LCD screen and the frothing will be done for you with little to no effort. This is something that we loved as none of us is a barista so we were a little concerned about overheating the milk, or basically, making a mess. With the Steam wand, it was all done for us without any input from us, Super cool. We just put the jug of milk under the steam wand, and we were amazed to see smooth and silky milk, ready for having fun creating artistic latte/ cappuccino “tops”.

If you think the steam wand could be too hot to handle then you are wrong, It actually is cool to the touch and that is an amazing safety feature, avoiding people getting burned by accident. Furthermore, the wand removes itself once the milk-steaming is done adding another layer of safety against burns. This is not an automatic machine where everything is done for you. Most of the work is done for you, but you do need to do something and to be honest with you if you are going to buy a machine like this one, you will want to finish off the coffees yourself, to add your own style. If you want a machine that will do it all for you, this is not the machine for you.

Capsule System

The capsule/ pods system is the world-famous signature feature of Nespresso that makes them shine above the rest. You just put the capsule in, and with just a single push of a button, you can have a mouthwatering latte, cappuccino, espresso, lungo, ristretto, and so many different options that it is hard to name them all.

The same method applies with Creatista Plus for making a coffee. Forget about getting the right amount of coffee, of whether the grinding is too thin, or too thick, etc. You are not a barista and guess what, it is fine. Instead of coffee beans or fresh coffee grounds, it uses Nespresso’s (or any other supplier to be honest) air-tight capsules which already contain the right coffee blend inside. And with more options than you could possibly think of these days, you will never get bored in trying new flavors and/ or tasting your favorite coffee, always perfectly made, again and again.

Latte Art

Creating latte art is a skill that only gets better the more you practice and it happens to be part of the hype around this machine. Whether you are using a manual espresso machine or an automatic one like Creatista Plus, the results still depend on the person making the coffee. However,

Nespresso extended the functionality of its state-of-the-art steam wand for making latte art. However, do not expect professional-like design like a phoenix or swan, because the best you probably get to make is a leaf or a heart shape.

Buying the Creatista Plus Coffe Machine will not turn you into a pro barista but you can certainly have some fun experimenting. And if you want to know more about latte art and it is something you get a kick out of, we suggest that you take latte art classes or training (yes, there is such a thing believe it or not) to learn different designs. Just don’t expect this machine to be able to do intricate designs, it was not designed for it. For that, you will need a full-blown professional expresso machine.

Operation

Unlike other Nespresso models that operate with only pushing one button, the Creatista Plus has a digital screen with dial and start button. To start, you need to fill up the water tank and for your safety, you should only operate the machine with the drip tray and capsule container in position. Press the start/cancel button to turn on the machine and the machine will heat up is about 3 seconds, thanks to its ThermoJet heating element.

Next, this is where it gets really interesting and coffee lovers will love this. You need to set up the water hardness by dipping the water hardness test strip in and out of the water tank, then wait for 1 minute. Once this is done, rotate the select dial and choose the result on the test strip, then press select to confirm. To turn the machine off, press and hold the start/cancel button for 2 seconds. If for some reason you step away, don’t worry, it won’t be left “boiling” for hours, after 9 minutes of inactivity the machine will turn off automatically. We really liked this safety feature a lot as time and time again we forgot to turn it off.

Back to making coffee which is really, really easy. You turn the machine on by pressing the start/cancel button, place a cup under the coffee outlet and push the cup support to unlock. Then insert a capsule at the top, close the lever and rotate the select dial to choose the type of coffee that you want. You now simply press the start/cancel button to start the extracting process and it will automatically stop once done, or until you push the start/cancel button to stop the coffee flow. Voila! You have just made a coffee that can rival any high-street coffee shop, at a fraction of the price.

Maintenance

Cleaning the Nespresso Creatista is very easy, simply remove the drip grid, the drip tray, cup support, and water tank to wash them thoroughly, as you would with any plate. And for the exterior, to keep it clean and shiny, simply use a soft damp cloth, The same applies for cleaning the excess milk from the steam wand. But don’t worry too much as to when you need to do this because the drip tray itself will alert you when is full so you know it is time to clean. So simple and efficient.

Over time, you need to descale the machine to remove the lime that builds up from the boiling hot water. Unless you have a water filter solution that filters the water through as you pour it out of the tap. Limescale build-up affects the taste and flavour of the coffee, so descaling is an essential part of the cleaning process if you want your coffee to taste great all the time.  You will also extend the life of the machine. And if having a cleaning alert wasn’t cool enough, the Creatista Plus comes with a descaling alert too so you don’t even need to worry about when was the last time you did it or whether it is due or not. The machine itself will tell you. This couldn’t get any better, and simpler and the descaling, when it needs to be done, it is done by the machine itself. All you need to do is put the descaling liquid and follow some very basic instructions.

Steps in Descaling

1. When the descaling alert shows, rotate the dial and select Maintenance, then Descale and follow the on-screen prompts.
2. Open the lever to eject the last used capsule. Clean capsule container, drip tray, and water tank by removing any water residue.
3. Fill the water tank with clean water up to the descale mark level and add 100ml of descaling liquid. Place the water tank back on the machine along with the capsule container and drip tray.
4. Place a 1-liter container below the coffee outlet and steam wand, then press the start/cancel button to begin the descaling cycle.
5. After the descaling cycle is over, clean the water tank, capsule container and the drip tray to remove any descaling liquid residue. You can now fill the water tank with clean water. Place a 1-liter container below the coffee outlet and steam wand and press the start/cancel button to begin the rinsing cycle. Do the rinsing cycle twice and the descaling process is done. All this process took us no more than 8-10 minutes.

Conclusion

Overall, the Nespresso Creatista Plus Coffe Machine is a fantastic machine to serve a cup of espresso or a latte with impressive art instantly. It is like a step in between the basic and simple Nespresso machines and the full-blown coffee espresso machines. However, do not expect professional-like design because it has no manual control over the process, it is designed to do everything for you, except pouring the milk. But it does it so well, and the coffee, we have to admit, tastes delicious. We never had a single person in our testing team complain, we all loved it. This machine is made for a convenient coffee experience that will save a lot of time and hassle for a busy person or family.

If however, this coffee machine is not what you are looking for and want something different, why don’t you check out other Nespresso coffee machine reviews section? We’re sure that there is something for you in there. Or if finesse is what you are after, we have a section for coffee machines with a grinder that might just be the right fit for you.