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Gaggia’s Carezza Deluxe is a super-stylish espresso machine that you’d be proud to have on display. As well as looking great this coffee machine is neatly designed, with the large 1.4L water container pulling out from the front. This means you can keep the Carezza under a relatively low cabinet and refill it without having to pull it forwards.
Using the machine is simple. Once you’ve turned it on, an indicator light is lit when the Carezza is up to temperature. There’s also a temperature gauge that shows you the machine heating up. It’s a nice design detail, but with no markings on the temperature scale it’s not particularly practical. While the Carezza is heating up, you can pre-warm your cups using the warmer on top of the machine.Once you’re ready for coffee, it’s a matter of filling the group handle with your ground coffee or ESE pods. We used ground coffee for our testing. Gaggia recommends that you don’t tamp the coffee grounds into the pressurised group handle and doesn’t provide a tamper in the box. We found that a light tamp actually produced better results, so it’s worth buying a tamper if you go for this machine.
The group handle is slightly sprung, so when you clip it in place into the group head and let go, the handle springs slightly to the left. It makes it a little trickier to line up the spouts if you want to pour two cups of coffee.
With room for mugs up to 95mm tall, the Carezza can fill into practically any cup. We had no problem getting our regular test mug under the machine, so it’s good news if you want to make longer drinks, such as Americanos.
With the right tamp, the quality of the coffee is very good. Decent flow through the coffee grounds means that you get a great crema that’s reddish-brown in colour. We found the crema was a little bubbly to the side where the coffee poured into the cup, but far from bad. Taste was very good, with the bitter nuttiness of the coffee coming through, while the temperature of 63C was just about right.
For frothing milk there’s a second button to heat the Carezza up to the right temperature. The temperature gauge shows you the temperature rising, but it’s the indicator lighter turning on that gives you the full information. The steam wand is long and a tap gives you control over the flow, so it’s easy to get the right combination of hot milk and froth. The machine doesn’t auto vent, so make sure you get rid of the steam if you want to pour another espresso in order to avoid burnt coffee.
As well as for frothing, the wand can also be used to dispense hot water. All you have to do is turn on the pump and use the tap to control the flow. It’s useful if you want to top up a drink, say for an Americano.
The Gaggia Carreza makes great coffee at the right temperature and looks fantastic, too. It’s one of the best machines that we’ve tested, but the De’Longhi Scultura produced slightly better coffee in our tests and is cheaper.
