The Cuisinart Programmable Espresso Maker has a programmable button that allows you to customize your brew to your specific tastes. It is relatively inexpensive, easy to use, has one of the largest water reservoirs, and has the longest warranty period of all the machines we tested. However, it received low marks in our espresso and frothing quality tests.
Cuisinart Programmable Espresso Maker EM-200: Performance
For coffee lovers, we’ve found that the most important thing about a home espresso machine is its coffee quality. Unfortunately, in our taste and quality tests, this model earned the lowest scores of all the machines we reviewed on this very point. We hired a professional barista to help our reviewing team conduct the tests. After making and tasting the espresso, they gave both the quality and frothing a score of 4 out of 10. Our barista also noted that the frother works better when you remove its nozzle. So, this single-serve coffee maker is unlikely to satisfy the standards of coffee connoisseurs.
It did score well; however, in our ease-of-use evaluation, it landed an 8 out of 10 on that test, mostly because of the simplicity of its design. All the buttons and controls are easily accessible at the front of the coffee maker. Once the machine is turned on and heated up, you can start making one or two cups of espresso with a single button push. There’s also a program button to customize your espresso, pulling it to fit your unique tastes. It’s unclear how this feature works immediately, so you’ll need to consult the user manual for instructions. But once you know how, it’s very simple.
This espresso machine has one of the largest water reservoirs out of all the machines we tested, at two liters. Only one machine, the Gaggia Classic, has a larger tank at 2.1 liters. It also has the longest warranty period we encountered in our reviews: three years. Most of the other machines only have a one-year warranty.
There are a couple of features we expected to see that were missing. While this espresso machine comes with a milk frother, the Gaggia doesn’t include a jug to hold your milk. So you’ll have to buy a jug separately or make do with the cups you already have in your home–both inconvenient. It also lacks an auto-shutoff feature, so you’ll need to double-check that you’ve turned off the machine every morning.
Should you buy the Cuisinart Programmable Espresso Maker EM-200?
At the end of our evaluation, we found the Cuisinart Programmable Espresso Maker to be good and worthy of consideration. Still, the final results will be disappointing if you're a coffee connoisseur. The device does have some useful features, but nothing makes it better than other espresso machines we reviewed.
