My Tassimo Machine

I know this isn't my usual recipe/food review but I though I might branch out into food related things such as my lovely coffee machine. I used to work in a cafe as a barista and have struggled to get a decent coffee at home. I've had a Gaggia machine but it was a bit of hassle cleaning and scaling and time consuming to make a single cup as I am the only one who drinks coffee.

I've had a Tassimo machine for almost a year now and have to say I'm very satisfied.

 

Ordering

I ordered my machine from Amazon purely because they couldn't be beaten on price and I like to look at the reviews before purchasing. So ordering was as easy as anyone with an Amazon account will find and arrived the next day, as I have an Amazon Prime account.

Put in Milk disc

 

 What's in the Box

As you would expect the machine comes with cleaning instructions and everything you need to get going.... except samples!
I understand these might go out of date but it would be nice to have something to try when you get your machine home, so be warned, make sure to buy some T-Discs before getting the machine or you will be disappointed.



The Machine Itself

Put in Coffee disk

The machine, once set up, is able to dispense a fresh cup of coffee with one press of a button. If you like something a bit fancier you use 2 discs, one after the other. A single disk drink will take a minute to dispense and a double will be about 2 minutes. You can also top up your drink once its finished dispensing by holding the button down.

I made a lovely Costa cappuccino (pictured). I've heard some complaints that the milk is a condensed milk, so yes it is a bit sweeter, I would usually add sugar to my coffee but don't have to with the Tassimo milk discs. Also "no" it doesn't taste as good as going into Costa, at 54p, without leaving your house, nobody would go to Costa any more if it did!

Finished Cappuccino

I've found it much quicker than boiling the kettle and also only uses enough electricity to heat exactly the right amount of water.

Value For Money

I bought the T40 which is £119 on the Tassimo site, Amazon prices vary, It has a large removable water tank and is a little more noisy than advertised but not loud enough to wake anyone in the mornings.

The easiest way to look at cost is by single or double drinks. One disk varies from 24p for a basic coffee or tea to 28p for a Costa Americano, a double (so milk disc and coffee/chocolate disc) will cost from 47p for a Carte Noire Cappuccino to 62p for a Costa Latte, the latte uses a large milk disk.

A huge saving on coffee shop coffee but a bit more expensive than the premium (micro-ground) instants.

If my machine broke would I buy another one? Yes, definitely

Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-dried Tomato

This is my first attempt at a recipe from Hello Fresh!, a home delivery company which supplies you with ingredients and recipes to make fresh restaurant quality meals at home in half an hour!

I love prawns and my fiancé has only just started eating prawns so I was really pleased to get this recipe in my first box of goodies.

My "Hello Fresh!" ingredients and recipe ready to cook

The first part of the recipe was to chop up all my ingredients: garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley. This is actually a really good method, obvious, but it really makes the rest of the cooking easy as you don't have to stop to prepare anything later.

Next the garlic onion, sun-dried tomatoes and chilli went into a hot pan with a little oil. Once the onion was soft I added a tin of tomatoes and half a teaspoon of sugar, then let it bubble while I popped the linguine into a pan of boiling water. Add raw prawns to the tomato sauce, drain linguine, and toss together with the parsley.

Result:

The dish was full of flavour but very hot; when it said add the chilli I poured the whole little cup in rather than just a pinch! The result was very hot but still demolished quickly just with plenty of water.

We both really enjoyed this recipe and I would definitely make this dish again but be careful with the chilli flakes!

Recipe Score:

 

(please note: my own cooking probably deserved a 4 but it wasn't the recipe's fault that I can't read "pinch"!)