What is it?
Making a cup of coffee at home used to be simple, but it didn't necessarily used to be good. Where once it was fine to shove any old coffee grounds in a French press and treating yourself to a slightly gritty cup of coffee that tasted a bit like tree bark, it's 2018, and things are different. They're so different, in fact, that you can now make a cup of barista-standard coffee from your phone. Or so Melitta claim, at least – and the brand's Barista TS Smart is here to try and prove it.
The features
At first glance, the TS Smart is a normal free-standing coffee machine – no need to plumb it in; just fill it up with water and beans and you're ready to roll. Its shiny façade hides a plethora of coffee options, however – from a simple single espresso or americano to a latte macchiato to a European-style (read: short) cappuccino and a choice of pre-ground coffee or two bean hoppers (a very handy feature if you've got a decaf drinker in the household. There's a separate milk chamber that's easy to clean for milky coffees (which will do just as good a job with almond, oat, soya or whatever your tipple), and an 'easy cleaning' mode that'll rinse through the pipes and the interior in about 20 seconds.
But it's called "Smart" for a reason: while you can make quick adjustments to the amount of milk or water in your coffee from the buttons on the front, the customisation available becomes clear when you pair it with your phone. We know, we know – Internet of Shit – but any scepticism about how 'necessary' it is to have a Bluetooth-enabled coffee machine in your kitchen evaporated when we saw how much it opens up the machine. Not only can you speed up the process with a more intuitive interface on the connected app, but you can choose exactly how much coffee and hot milk in ml, as well as whether you want a double shot, which hopper you want to use, and more. You can also customise a bank of recipes to have your favourites within button's reach. Our favourite is the latte macchiato bumped up to 150ml of milk – ideal for stirring over ice in the hot weather.
Where to get it
It's available on Amazon for £1,249.99 (reduced to £1,094.38 at the time of writing), or from Currys for £1,199.99.
For more information, go to melitta.co.uk