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[Music]
today we have a head-to-head we have two
little domestic coffee pour over robot
type things vying for your attention
vying for your praise we have two little
machines that do the kind of swirly poor
thing that you might do if you're making
a pour-over will they do it for you they
use technology to distribute the water
in a clever way in theory we're gonna
see if they work we're gonna see if
they're any good
on this side we have the beam a little
169 euro poorer of a machine and on this
side the brand-new Malita he posts which
is a very strange name that I don't
understand this comes in at 250 euros
but it does have a grinder built into it
we'll come back to that now both of them
are trying to do the same thing they're
just trying to do a good job in a pour
of a type setup but they go about that
in very different ways so I'll talk you
through how each one brews and at the
end I'll wrap up give you my opinion let
you know which one I prefer which one I
might recommend let's have a little look
first that we have the beam it is a
German company that make a variety of
coffee and tea stuff 170 euros is not
wildly expensive for an automated pour
over but it it does feel a little bit
cheap in terms of the fit the finish
it's a little bit plasticky as for how
it works the top here is your water tank
and it's interesting because it'll
actually keep the water in this tank
which we'll come back to in a second it
has a little kind of pouring nozzle
underneath that does the spinny spinny
and then here it's actually weighing
scale so this machine works off brew
ratios again it works off the 1 to 15 1
to 14 type thing not a kind of grams per
liter which remains a frustration of
mine in the world but when you're ready
to brew you would tear off your brewer
so it's at 0 grams and then you would
add some coffee
I should have about 24 grams of coffee
here so when I put that in
and put it back so go my 24 grams and
this thing works in the ratio and if I
go to the ratio setting it's 1 to 15 so
you can obviously work out the maths
involved there you can set your brew
temperature here which is 93 I'm going
to go it's for some reason running the
little swirly thing underneath I don't
quite understand that but it is now
starting to heat the water here noisily
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so we begin the brewing process with a
little bloom and you can if you want to
actually take this off and give it a
swirl it doesn't interrupt the
programming it doesn't cause the scale
to reset it doesn't freak out I'm sure
you let it be for this particular brew
now it quite often runs the little
mechanism that does the water
distribution when nothing's coming out
of it for reasons I don't really
understand and it does perk me slightly
because it's quite noisy so we're
brewing and if I'm honest if you're
watching this go up maybe you're
thinking what I'm thinking which is wow
that's really slow and the flow rate is
really slow on this and I think that's a
little bit of a problem and that is
noisy so it doesn't always do a superb
job even though the water thing is
moving around I'm actually getting all
the coffee looking at the top of this
there cut a crust layer it's not hugely
even now at some point it will probably
reheat the water in the top if it drops
below a certain temperature that's been
a kind of pattern of usage which is not
a bad thing that it's trying to maintain
as temperature as it goes
click we're done and again it's still
doing the annoying loud motor thing even
though it's finished I don't know I
don't know why it's doing that but
anyway a hit hit its desired weight it
did what we expect it to do it can do
its basic maths that's that's good
Wow it's slow though and that when this
shut up I'll tell you why that's a
problem genuinely no idea why it's still
moving let's get this little brew out
here if you play the flatbed challenge
on Instagram
you wouldn't be submitting this one this
bed is kind of a mess it's not in great
condition and that was bang on the
scales there's not a lot of choice about
where you put the brewer right it can't
be about where I put it that I put it in
the wrong place no no it's pretty clear
where you put the brewer so not a great
job at even extraction on this one but
more to the point that really low so
slow flow rate for me is an issue it
tends to push you to grind a bit coarser
and for me it lacks enough agitation to
really get lots of that fresh water
coming in in contact with the ground
coffee because I think you want some
turbulence in your brew you want some
churn and this just brews too slowly
then the end result it's not it's not
bad it just feels like this goodness
left on the table right like it's not at
the potential of the coffee or the setup
in a way the fact that it doesn't always
nail the brew in terms of distribution
of water is also particularly
frustrating it's not always bad but it's
often bad imitating a couple of other
things worth noting the solution of
heating the entire water chamber is is
quite a simple solutions quite an
elegant solution in a way but if you
don't put enough water in and you start
this Brewer and you walk away
it will brew as normal and it won't
throw out an error code it won't
complain about anything it'll just brew
and then just run out even if there's
still a little bit of water left in the
bottom of the brew it doesn't pull
absolutely everything through and then
because I need to put more water than I
need precisely for and brew in there
because it's tendency not to use the
entire brew chamber
well then I'm wasting energy I'm gonna
I'm gonna heat and not use one to two
hundred mils
water to stay on the safe side but this
solution of having a really accurate
dose is good but it doesn't work that
well in practice with this Brewer now
while I like the coffee cool down a
second I'll just run you through the
functions of this thing here you have to
be quick actually when you turn this on
that's the only time you can sort of set
the time settings so if you've missed
that need to reset the time on the clock
you've got to turn off and on again at
the mains which is kind of weird so
you've got the brew mode which has
automatic and manual and auto will just
do 1 to 15 ratio at 93 degrees C
regardless it doesn't care in manual you
can program your ratio and you can
program your water temperature the way
that it does that though if you're still
in Auto and you try and change your
temperature you just can't which is kind
of frustrating so if you go back to
there switch it to manual now we've got
control over our very BP loud brood
temperature and that's now set and I
could go and change my ratio to 1 to 16
because why not you do have the option
to program it to come on in the mornings
that's pretty simple if you want to do
that that's kind of it that's the
functions that's the programming it has
a cleaning function where I presume it
just heats this up you put some descaler
in kind of helps to descale a whole set
up and it would just pump it through
let's have a quick taste yeah okay not
the greatest brew it has that slightly
uneven extraction taste we have a little
bit of hollowness and a little bit of
harshness at the same time it's a
slightly frustrating Brewer from that
regard it's not expensive it's got some
base functionality it doesn't try and do
too much it's not connected to bluetooth
it doesn't do the Internet of Things
stuff all of which I heartily approve of
but fundamentally I don't mind how it
heats the water and the issues there as
much as it doesn't do a great job at
delivering water well to agitate to
properly extract the cone below it you
could put like a hereo carafe under here
if you wanted to if you weren't a huge
fan of the kind of weird metal thing
that's a thing but I don't think that's
going to fix the fundamental problems
with this thing I don't think that's
really gonna suddenly get it a great
coffee it's 170 euros
and that feels both cheap and expensive
and one final point on build listening
to the motor work it just doesn't sound
like a high-quality long-lasting motor
in there
it sounds cheap and noisy and so my
expectations for longevity my
expectations for this not having issues
aren't high I'm not saying it's going to
fail
I just wouldn't be shocked if it didn't
last that long and now for the Melita
epass and this is clearly a part of a
wider launch of a couple of products the
higher end of things and seemingly their
own line of fancy coffees we're not
reviewing those today we're not
reviewing the slightly expensive but
very simple pour-over they're doing
we're reviewing this which is sort of a
lot design wise there's a few different
textures designs looks feels going on
here it's it's a lot and at the heart of
it is of course the classic Malita cone
shape but this is so fancy that your
filter papers they come in a fancy
envelope this look look at this and I
get my doodle mer D bossed later papers
now I'm told these are designed for a
faster extraction which i think is
interesting now this all clanks and
clicks into place in in various ways and
at 250 euros it's much more expensive
than the beam but and this is very
important but you get a grinder and
that's kind of a surprising choice for
me I guess that they're going for the I
have no coffee stuff and I want the
robot and I want it easy I want to grind
now and I just want one thing that I
plug in and I go and I guess that's an
audience but is that an audience
interested in automated pour overs I
don't want to know the decision to
include the grinder kind of Rex my head
it made this very expensive or at least
probably made it expense if I don't know
what this cost them but it's it made it
bigger and made it more expensive now
the grinder works in a kind of shocking
way to me as for grind control you've
got three settings really I'm sure you
could try and keep between them but
they're kind of designed to be coarse
medium and fine that's that's pretty
weird but okay so the way works is this
firstly you decide how much coffee
you're going to brew you've got down
here two four six or eight cups that's
the
and each cup is about 125 mils based on
the fact that four cups is half a litre
so little cups of coffee and on the
water tank on the side you'll see those
same corresponding markings so you
choose four cups let's make four cups
let's do that let's do half a liter then
you need to choose this strength right
thus you go to one two or three and what
this does is basically adjust the throw
for four cups typically the two setting
and the medium I would get about twenty
four ish grams and at the one setting
I'd get 22 and at the three setting I
might get 26 to 28 it's not super
consistent and that kind of variance
tracks all the way through so if I was
brewing two cups I'd have literally half
the amount it works it's reasonably
accurate in terms of it'll deliver you
twice as much as four as it will do it
too and twice as much again at eight if
you want that but but this method of
controlling it is bizarre to me you have
no real control over how much coffee
goes in and the reliability will be okay
or a time to grind it but not fantastic
and it wants you to fill the little
hopper with coffee and just go that way
which I don't recommend doing so if you
need to change coffee it's quite awkward
to get the coffee out if this is
confusing it's okay I I had my brain
broken a little bit too so let's let's
grind some coffee
so that's push grind a nut to be honest
these buttons down the bottom here are
not very satisfying to push so it's in
grind mode and I can set my dose I'm
gonna go for a strength of two out of
three and when I'm ready to go
I push go
we have ground coffee what it will say
is if you're not using the little basket
if you're not grinding into this if
you're trying to grind into something
else know that it has massive static
issues like like chaff gets everywhere
and that's very frustrating it's not too
bad if you're grating into the little
basket thing but anything else I would
not recommend it let's go on brew we've
got some coffee there and I've got to
say that medium setting is pretty fine
it's funny that I would have anticipated
now I've got the pre wet button selected
so it will do a kind of bloom phase you
can turn that off if you want to but I
think we should do the pre wet which is
a much worse turn than bloom especially
when their coffee line is called bloom
anyway that's brew let's stop rather
little robot because it started there
now into bloom so we've had a little
blooming phase and that's nice
so the way it works is this you've got
this rotating arm that has three
different holes in it and at different
phases of the brew it seems to push
water out of different holes which I'm
actually kind of into I think that's
kind of a clever way of distributing
water not a bad-looking bloom look the
other way now so it tends to start in
the center so that first hole
distributes water and then later in the
brew as the cone rises it does a sort of
better job of using the other two holes
to sort of spread the water further out
now that was obviously a oddly loud brew
there was both a loud motor and then the
pok pok of kind of a ski me brew that
was kind of surprising that hasn't
always happened but that was not a
particularly pleasant sound now that was
a much faster brew than the beam like it
delivered water much much much much much
quicker which i think is broadly a good
thing and you know it's not gonna win
any flatbed challenge you know
competitions either but it looks in
slightly better shape than the resulting
kind of bed or of the beam as well and
one nice little touch here there's a
little stopper actually inside the cone
so that when I pull this out it doesn't
drip even though there is still liquid
in there and again
I want to like it but I don't I think it
does a better job brewing than the beam
does I think it distributes the water
well I think it delivers it at a good
speed you get enough agitation it is a
better Brewer than the beam but why or
why or why did you force me to buy this
grinder with it I really don't
understand it they don't seem to do a
separate standalone option it is with
the grinder or or or not at all that's
your choice it's it's it's it's the kind
of giant Darth Vader with gold accents
thing and and I don't love the look it's
quite imposing it shows dirt really
easily it shows chef really easily and
having a static problem that's not great
for me I don't love that the little
buttons of course the bottom I don't
think they're nice to push you don't get
any kind of feedback other than the kind
of beep that is a little bit delayed so
you can kind of double push accidentally
it's it's frustrating there's no real
control here right like there's no
setting at brew times is no setting a
brew temperatures
you're gonna put water in and coffee in
but you're not even going to control how
much coffee goes in the grinder is and
it's gonna be about 50 55 grams of liter
from the coffees I've used but hey if I
had a dark roast coffee my throughput
would be higher right like different
coffees grind at different speeds
depending on how hard how dense they are
it's a kind of head wrecker to me to
have this bizarre grinder with three
grind settings and no real transparency
into how much coffee of grinding each
time I want to like it more than I do
and those issues the frustrations the
bundling of the grinder for me is a kind
of disqualifying factor it rules out
most people who would watch this channel
who maybe have a grinder at home right
this is now an irrelevant product to you
because you're not gonna buy another
coffee grinder the people who want a
pour-over robot probably have a coffee
grinder I think I think maybe I'm wrong
and tell me if I'm wrong if you're
watching this anyway no no this is for
me this is this is my perfect machine I
did want to hear from you now all
ranting aside how is the coffee that
coffee does taste okay the taste okay
it's not it's not bad at all it's quite
nicely extracted it still a little bit
hot but it but it's okay and in theory
what I should do is I should load this
with the same grind
and from the same grinder as I did the
beam but that's such an odd test for a
machine that comes with a grinder right
what's the point of assessing this
directly against a unit that does
something in many ways totally different
for his the summary the beam it's 170
euros it feels a little cheap and
plasticky it's simple in its function
but ultimately I don't think it does a
great job in the distribution of water
it doesn't brew fantastically well the
Malita does a better job brewing it does
their little sort of spray head thing
here is quite nice I quite like the way
it works I think that's pretty clever
it does a good job but the decision to
take away all the control from how you
grind your coffee is maddening to me and
confusing you won't get the best out of
everything that you put in there you'll
be in the ballpark and it'll be
extremely consistent brew to brew but
you'll never I don't think get the best
out of everything except by luck now and
again if they just took out the grinder
if it was half the machine and half the
cost if it was a hundred and twenty-five
euros and it was just an auto Brewer
that would be a maybe that would be
interesting these were both paid for
thanks to the support I get from patreon
so many of you helped me out give me a
budget to go and buy a machine so I'm
not beholden to manufacturers sending me
freebies I don't feel like I owe them
anything and I can tell you what I think
is the truth about them give you my
unvarnished opinion I've been giving
them away I don't get to keep these but
I'm very grateful to patreon for
supporting me and this project but let
me know your thoughts in the comments
down below do you have one of these
already do you have similar thoughts to
me do you disagree with me I would love
to hear what you think what's your
experience so far are you loving it are
you hating it are you regretting it are
you delighted with it
leave a comment down below I'll say
thank you so much for watching I hope
you have a great day
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you
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