 "Miele")
Once, coffee was considered "South Indian" and you had a steel tumbler of hot, strong brew whenever you went for a dosa. In the past few years, however, due partly to the sudden mushrooming of cafe chains and partly to the availability of good coffee beans in the country, Indians beyond the Vindhyas have taken happily to the caffeine drink. Their aid for "filter coffee" is an appliance that is gradually becoming a part of the Indian kitchen - the coffee maker.
Let us get one fact out of the way before we proceed further with this story about one such coffee maker - Miele's latest Generation 6000 coffee machine, the CVA6800. It is priced at Rs 4,29,900. There, with the enormity of the cost out of the way, we can now look at the machine and its capabilities.
What makes the Miele machine so exorbitant an acquisition? For one, Miele is known for the quality and longevity of its household machines. While the German company only offers a two-year warranty on the CVA6800, you are privately assured the machine will last you for over 20 years. And no worries, when software upgrades are available, you can freely get your costly appliance brought up to date.
The CVA6800 comes as an individual unit that can be easily incorporated into a kitchen module. Press the power button on the glass display. A soothing jet black and powder blue screen lights up. The touch screen is smooth, and if you must compare, then I can only think of Apple's iPhone's super responsive display. You touch and swipe the display to get at the options - like hot or cold coffee, latte, cappuccino, mocha or espresso - or to input personal preferences. Yes, you can store up to 10 customised coffee choices under names of people who will drink them. If you like more milk than your husband, while your father prefers more froth in the milk, you can get the machine to memorise these individual preferences so there's no need to make adjustments every time someone demands coffee. One problem with most coffee machines is that they make you wait for another cup after one is made. This Miele helps with its ability to prepare two cups - of the chosen preference, no less - at the same time.
Place a cup under the spout and you'd think the milk will spew out. But the CVA6800 is a more refined being than that. Its CupSensor comes to life and moves the spout up or down to the correct height to prevent not only splatters but also to measure out the correct amount of milk and brew depending on whether you want a tall glass or a demi cup of coffee or anything in between.
Once the appliance determines it has got the dimensions of the cup correct, a running commentary on the display tells you the progress of your cup. You are informed as the milk hots up and the coffee beans are ground. A rich, characteristic aroma fills the room as steaming milk flows into the cup, as frothy as you have opted for and the spout then dispenses an ebony stream of coffee. The process itself will enthrall you the first few times if you have a transparent glass under the spout. Unlike an ink drop that spreads slowly in a glass of water, here you will see the coffee forming three distinctly-coloured bands in the container: white at the top, burnt sienna in the middle and caramel at the bottom.
The magic over, you drink your coffee. But tarry a bit. You need to clean the machine. No hard task, this. Just go to the display screen and press the EasyClean option and water silently flows through the coffee tubes and percolator as well as the spout, not only cleansing it, but descaling it of any lacto-caffeine bits too. Then it's all ready for the next cup of preferred coffee. What is a few lakh of rupees for so much of ease, right?
