Melitta CI Touch Coffee Machine

This is the CI Touch ‘bean to cup’ coffee machine from Melitta. It’s been on my kitchen counter for weeks now, using it daily to make my coffee, and here are thoughts.

Out of the box, it’s quite a large machine with a size of 255 wide by 340 high and 450mm deep, so if you’ve got a 600mm deep kitchen worktop, it will take up the majority of that depth. However, it’s not too wide (although you need access to both sides). On the front and working top to bottom are various touch buttons for default coffees, hot milk, hot water, profiles and coffee strengths. Below that, a small coloured screen to the left and the right, a rotary push button which is used for controlling options. Centrally, a height-adjustable outlet for coffee, water and milk. The milk is plugged in via the side, and from a plastic tube that goes into the external milk jug. Below that is the drip tray which holds used water and coffee grounds, you can pull this out to clean and empty. To the very top, a cup warming plate with metal grating and behind that, the bean hopper and ground coffee shoot. To the left-hand side of the machine, is a removable 1L water tank and to the right is an access panel to the removable brewing unit, which is where the magic happens. I got sent the silver model, but Melitta also does an all-black version, which I haven’t seen in person but I do like the idea of it. Overall, it looks quite modern, sleek and sits nicely in my kitchen with my other appliances. 

Regarding features or specs, this is a bean-to-cup machine, so it has a built-in grinder that will grind whatever beans you wish, ready to pull a shot. If you don’t want to use beans, you can pour in already-ground coffee. It’s a conical steel burr grinder, with 5 levels of settings and it’s advertised as quiet, but it’s not really that quiet at all. Touch buttons for a quick selection of espresso, cafe creme, cappuccino and latte macchiato. Then the other touch buttons include milk froth, hot water, two-cup dispensing, my recipes and coffee strength. On top of those quick buttons, you can adjust the liquid quantity of those, plus within the menus adjust and create more types of drinks to suit your needs. The hopper, which holds the beans, 270 grams worth to be exact, is split into two, which allows you, if you wanted to, to have two different types of beans within the one-hopper and you can manually flick the switch between the two to select. It also has an adjustable outlet, so you can put mugs and taller glasses underneath it (some). It cleans itself, and descales, the brewing unit can be removed and cleaned, plus you can insert a water filter if you live in a hard water area. Power rating noted at 1400watts, with 15bar pressure and RRP in the UK is £700 from the Melitta website. 

The set-up was very straightforward, unbox, unwrap and plug it in. Upon first boot up, you need to set the time and language, then test the water for hardness, and tell the machine the result, which will then determine how often you need to clean it. If you have hard water, you can use a filter within the machine, or you can use bottled water and I highly recommend doing something, as limescale could kill this machine if you don’t keep on top of it. Then fill the water tank and hopper with beans and then start making drinks. 

If you press down the rotary knob, the options menu will appear. From here, you can adjust various things about the machine. You can go into one of the coffees, cappuccino for example and adjust it. You can change the coffee amount in grams, coffee strength in mild, normal, strong or extra strong. Temperature in low, normal or high, plus froth amount in too. There are also more coffees under recipes, including Ristretto. Lungo, americano, esspresso machiato, caffe latte and cafe au lait. 

‘My coffee’, has four presets. You basically pick a base coffee and adjust it to suit and save it. So rather than adjust the default cappuccino recipe, you can save your own cappuccino recipe, just in case you have people over who may not have the same taste as you. You can have your own recipe coffee, while they can have the default, and you’re able to create four of your own recipes. 

Other options via the menu are statistics, which is kinda cool, you can see how many drinks you’ve made, how many times it’s been cleaned etc. A care menu, options for manually choosing to descale, rinse and so forth, rather than waiting for the machine to prompt you to clean. Handy if you want to go above the default cleaning set-up. Then a few other settings too, changing the time, date and so forth. 

I’m a cappuccino man, so I need milk to make my coffee. That’s where the milk container comes into play. It’s a plastic container, with a lid and a straw. You put your milk in, the machine sucks the milk through the straw, heats it, does its thing and dispenses it into your cup to make your drink. It’s a sealed container, so I ended up filling it with milk, keeping the milk in it and putting the container in the fridge until the following morning. It’s very easy, it’s all automatic and produces some nice hot, frothy milk. 

In terms of performance, it makes a great cup of coffee, once you’ve finessed how you’re going to use it. And by that, I mean there is a learning curve on liquid quantity, strength, coffee-to-milk ratio etc, so once you’ve tried and tested all options, worked out what you actually like and either remember it yourself or set it as a recipe, it’s smooth sailing and very simple to make a coffee.

The golden rule is to check the liquid quantity or select it before you make a drink. Espresso, don’t select 120ml as I’ve done, it’s huge. Go sensible, 40 to 50ml. Espresso comes out beautifully, rich, creamy, nice crema when you swirl it around and it tastes good. Hot, or hot enough for me. I can take a sip and think yeah, nice, happy to put that on the table for a minute to cool. That is on the normal temperature option too, there is a hotter option if you want it warmer. 

Making a latte macchiato, the machine makes the milk first, then the coffee, which is how it’s meant to be done, which is good. 

Cleaning the machine is somewhat automatic and it will rinse, or flush through the system and pipes after every drink, if you want, as well as when you turn the machine off, or it turns itself off due to inactivity. You can then also run any of those cleaning processes yourself if you want to, as well as taking the brewing unit out and giving that a clean too. For descaling, the machine will prompt you as and when it’s time, and you’ll have to put a descaling tablet in the brewing unit it and let it clean itself. 

Cleaning is somewhat messy, you certainly need to wipe down the drip tray after each auto rinse, or it will leave a milky residue and not look that great. 

The hot plate gets warm, which is really nice but it does take a few minutes to get warm i.e. you need to turn the machine on, leave it for 5 minutes to warm up, leave it another 5 or so minutes to then even start to warm your cup, before using it. If, you want a warm cup that is. 

Noise, they mention a quiet grind. There is nothing quiet about it and I’m not sure it ever could be really. 

For me, I use my travel cup every day for work, it won’t fit underneath the outlet, nor will some taller glasses. So I ended up making a coffee in a jug, and then pouring it into my travel cup. That quantity too was an issue, one large coffee wasn’t enough, so I’d either have to top up with extra milk, or hot water, or do a double cup of coffee, but then that was two shots, so somewhat stronger than needed, unless I had a bad nights sleep. Again, it goes back to knowing what settings to use to get what you want. 

Overall, I think it’s a very good coffee machine. It’s tidy, it looks good in my kitchen. It’s near on fully automatic, one touch of the button and you can walk away. For regular coffees, it’s easy, if you want something bigger or different, there is a learning curve to be done. At £700, it’s an investment and if you want ease, this might be for you but at that price range, there are other options on the market and if you want to become a bit of a barista, there are options out there that can give you that coffee shop experience. 

For more info and to purchase, head over to the official Melitta website.