Everyone knows that super-automatic espresso machines are the perfect coffee solution for anyone who wants excellent brewed espresso at the touch of a button.
What everyone doesn’t necessarily know, however, is that certain super-autos are also the perfect solution for the household divided: if you live with others who do not share your specific taste in espresso drinks, now’s the time to start getting excited.
We’ll be overviewing two Gaggia espresso machines, each of which has the power to assign drink customization options to one of four distinct user profiles. So everyone in your home can get their flat white, latte macchiato, or cappuccino exactly the way they want.
The Gaggia Cadorna Prestige
$734.30
The Gaggia Cadorna Prestige offers the kind of functionality you’d expect from bean-to-cup machines at a much higher price point. It’s got an automatic milk frother to make deliciously foamy lattes and cappuccinos, a function to produce hot water for tea, and an intuitive user interface with some of the most tactilely-pleasing buttons we’ve had the pleasure to press.
Our focus here, of course, is on the ability to easily set drink preferences to one of four user profiles. Within each drink’s customization menu, there’s an option to save any changes made to a specific user profile. You can also add drinks to profiles from their individual screens.
Customizations available on the Cadorna Prestige include coffee strength, coffee volume, milk temperature, and milk volume.
Practically, this means you can save all your favorite beverages to brew exactly the way you like them to…and so can up to three other people who live with you. Rather than spending valuable time adjusting settings every time you brew, you can simply navigate to your profile and brew the drink of your choice the way you like it with the touch of a button.
The Gaggia Accademia
$1,399.30
If you love the profiling abilities of the Cadorna but want even more customization options for your espresso drinks, the Gaggia Accademia is the machine for you. It has all the same functionality as the Cadorna but adds the ability to adjust pre-infusion and the texture of the foam the integrated milk carafe produces.
Just like on the Cadorna, the Accademia allows you to save beverage customizations to one of four different user profiles. You can do this either from the default drink customization menu, or by navigating to the “Favorites” menu and adding beverages one by one.
The Accademia trades the rubber buttons of the Cadorna for an intuitive and easy-to-navigate touchscreen which, depending on your predilections, could be an upgrade or a mistake.
As touchscreens go, however, the Accademia’s works well. It registers touch quite accurately and its glass face is easy to clean.
Get Profiling
Blogs and videos are great and all, but if you really want to see the Cadorna Prestige or the Accademia in action, you should schedule a Coffee Cast! It’s a totally-free, one-on-one Zoom call with one of our experts where they’ll demonstrate product features for you (or help you troubleshoot issues you’re having with the machine you already own).
FAQ
Can Super-Automatics Make Good Espresso?
Super-automatic coffee machines can make excellent espresso. Both the Cadorna Prestige and the Accademia (discussed above) have Product Recognizing Grinders that automatically adjust the dosing to match the type of roast you’re brewing. This results in more nuanced extractions, especially when brewing specialty coffees.
Super-automatics are unlikely to be able to coax the subtle flavors of single-origin coffees from its extractions quite as well as a master barista could, however they also brew much more consistently than the average home brewer.
All in all, you might say super-autos have a higher floor but a lower ceiling than a semi-automatic in terms of brewing potential.
Does Your Favorite Coffee Shop Use a Super-Automatic Espresso Machine?
The machines at your favorite coffee shop automate some of the process of brewing espresso, but they’re not super-automatics. The baristas don’t need to grind or tamp the espresso—the machines do that for them. They also use auto-frothing wands (similar to what you’d see on a Breville espresso machine), so baristas don’t need to worry about frothing technique.
The baristas do, however, actually assemble the drinks themselves. Super-automatic machines, on the other hand, brew and dispense steamed milk directly into your cup.
What is the Biggest Drawback to a Super-Automatic Espresso Machine?
The biggest drawback to a super-automatic espresso machine is that it won’t be able to extract all the nuanced flavors of specialty coffees like a professional barista would. This is, of course, only an issue if you drink espresso straight and have a taste for esoteric, single-origin roasts. If you just want a good cup of coffee in the morning (or if you enjoy milk-based drinks), a super-automatic won’t give you much to complain about.
