Drinking Coffee & Tea with Stylin' Capresso • We Blog The World

Let‘s face it — most people regardless of where you hail from either drink tea or coffee on a regular basis. Even if you’ve cut out all the caffeine, there are so many decaf options for both coffee and tea that it‘s hard to give it up completely. Simply put, there are just too many fabulous choices.

We haven’t looked at coffee makers in years, so we thought we’d test a couple of brands out to see their latest and greatest developments. Oddly enough, I hadn’t heard of Capresso before and…it‘s a great name isn’t it? A few of the key things we look for when we decide on a brand to review is: functionality and reliability and design. I’m always astonished how often a really functional product with great reviews doesn’t have the design elements down. Who wants an ugly black or silver appliance on their counter top? Given that these are the two top options for color, design begins to matter a lot.

Capresso CoffeeTEAM PRO Plus with Thermal Cafe

Let‘s start with the Capresso CoffeeTEAM PRO Plus, which comes with a thermal cafe. (there‘s an option for a glass cafe as well if glass is your preference). The CoffeeTEAM PRO Plus brings new technology for a bean-to-carafe experience. What does that mean in reality? It means a fresher cup of Joe in the morning without having to run to your favorite cafe which can be $4-6 a cup.

This Capresso CoffeeTEAM Pro Plus model machine makes ten cups and you can set it up to grind coffee in advance or you can do it right on the spot. Useful for those who have early morning starts, you can set it to grind the night before, or 15 minutes before you get up.

In addition to the sleek design, the biggest benefit for coffee snobs (and rightfully so), is that it freshly grinds whole coffee beans directly into the filter then automatically brews up to ten cups of coffee (or whatever you set it to). It has an elegant ergonomic handle and a drip-free pouring spout.

How many times have you poured a cup of coffee from your coffee maker and have coffee drip all over the counter (or floor?) This has happened often with many models we’ve had over the years so this is a great feature for those who have had the same frustrating experiences.

They also have something they refer to as a drip stop so you can pour a cup of coffee while it’s still brewing — quite frankly, every coffee maker should have this feature. It also comes with a permanent GoldTone Filter which is easy to both use and clean.

Other amazing features include its 24-hour programmable clock/timer with a super easy-to-read LCD display, so you can set it to whatever time you want your coffee to be ready the night before. Capresso offers other coffee makers which do not allow you to remove the water tank, however this gem has a fully removable water tank so you can easily fill it up, which is a godsend for those in a hurry.

The solid steel conical burr grinder has a removable upper burr as well. Their advanced slow burr grinding imparts minimal heat, preserving more aroma to the coffee, which we love early in the morning — it’s such a warm and toasty smell to wake up to each day. Another sweet feature is that there’s a two-step grind and clean chamber which automatically cleans the grinder after every cycle.

Enter the Oily Coffee Bean Setting

There’s a cool “Oily” coffee bean setting for slow feeding dark roasts and an improved bean container with low-friction, ribbed surface for easy feeding beans. They also include a fully removable 7-ounce bean container, which is easy to unlock and lift, so you can change out beans or access the burr for easy cleaning, which again is a nice feature for busy people on-the-go.

This top-notch coffee maker also has three fineness settings for light to dark beans so you can adjust the grinder to your preference (the darker/oilier the bean, the coarser the setting). YUM, right? While it has the fabulous grinder feature, you can also use it to make pre-ground coffee, flavored coffees or decaf and we use all three, so it’s nice to have both options available depending on your mood or the day.

Those into healthy living will be thrilled to know of their charcoal water filter which removes up to 82% of impurities and there’s an automatic shut off so you don’t need to worry about electrical issues or fires. And of course, they include an AM/PM Programmable Clock/Timer so you can set the coffee beans to grind and brew automatically.

It is widely known that fresh grinding your beans is the optimal way to prepare drip-style coffee, but for the first time, the CoffeeTEAM PRO Plus allows for complete access to the solid steel conical burr. Sweet, right? The intricate design of the conical steel burrs provides for a higher gear reduction to slow down the grinding speed below 500 rpm. Why does this matter and what’s the relevance? The slower the speed, the less heat that is imparted to the ground coffee which means that it preserves the maximum aroma of the coffee itself.

The two-step grind and clean process ensures no beans and minimal ground coffee are left in the grinder after use. Fully adjustable grind and cup settings make it easy to craft the perfect brew no matter your strength preference. In the box, you’ll get a GoldTone filter, a Charcoal filter, a Charcoal filter holder, a convenient coffee scoop, and an angled cleaning brush (nice touch). We actually use this brush regularly.

It weighs around 14 pounds and its dimensions are around 12.5 inches in length, 8¼ inches in width and about 16.5 inches high so you can plan accordingly for kitchen counter space.

Capresso H2O Steel PLUS Water Kettle

Since we love to entertain, we always have a coffee pot and a tea kettle going. It doesn’t make sense to use a stove top kettle anymore and hopefully all of you reading no longer do. Electric water kettles are definitely the way to go as they’re much faster, safer and more precise than any stove top kettle.

We love the elegant design of Capresso’s H2O Steel PLUS water kettle, which features a beautifully designed stainless steel pitcher and variable temperature settings for versatility when preparing different types of teas. This is a “must have” for all tea lovers.

This particular model has a 1.7 liters (57 ounce) capacity which is ample for most people’s needs. There’s an automatic keep warm function which maintains temperature for 30 minutes — this is a feature we absolutely love. After all, who has just one cup of tea? It’s nice to return to the kitchen a half an hour or so later and already have a tea pot full of warm water which heats up even faster.

There’s an automatic reheat function when cold water is added to the kettle. We LOVE that there’s a pause and pour a cup while heating and a removable micro filter spout. Two out of three of the last tea kettles we have tried out all dripped when we poured after the first month. We’re still into the first month of testing out this Capresso tea kettle, but so far so good thanks to its drip free pouring design.

On the side, you can see the water level through the window (ounce markings are noted) and there are illuminated buttons to show power on and off as well as the “keep warm” status, a feature I use all the time. There’s also a safety thermal cut-off as well.

For lighter teas, such as white or green varieties, a lower temperature is recommended, while darker teas will extract better flavor using higher temperatures. The automatic keep warm setting keeps the remaining water at the selected temperature until you are ready for your next cup. The H2O Steel PLUS will even self-adjust if additional water is added to the kettle during the “keep warm” cycle. The pause and pour feature allows the user to interrupt the heating process, without resetting the cycle.

In addition to heating water for tea, the H2O Steel PLUS is handy for brewing French press coffee or heating water for reconstituting dried vegetables and fruits, or with instant oatmeal, and soup mixes. Included are four temperature selections: 212°F which is recommended for black tea, 195°F which is recommended for oolong tea or coffee, 175°F for white tea and 160°F, which is optimal for green tea.

The Capresso H2O Steel PLUS kettle is stainless steel, weighs in at around three pounds and is about 8.5 inches long, 6 and a quarter in width and around 9.5 inches high. For more information including how to purchase Capresso products, visit their website.

Renee Blodgett

Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.

She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.

Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.

Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.