by Mark Smiley
With specialty coffee drinks approaching $6 without tip, many consumers are turning to brewing their own at home. There are a plethora of options depending on your budget. If you want one of the best on the market that money can buy, consider the Terra Kaffe TK-02.
The retail price comes in at $1,595 so it isn’t for everyone. But, the savings add up if you brew your own lattes and cappuccinos at home. In fact, the app you can download that syncs with the machine provides a running total of the money saved by brewing at home.
The TK-02 is easy to set up out of the box and takes less than 15 minutes to assemble and prepare for brewing. When asleep, in our tests, it took less than 3 minutes for the machine to wake up from the previous day’s brews. In fact, the app can wake the machine so you can tap “wake” from bed and let it warm up. Also, the TK-02 can brew your favorite drink the same time every day with its programmable settings. It also allows for you to name the drinks with what seems to be an infinite amount of options.
How does the regular drip coffee taste? With the ability to add coffee beans to the hopper, the drip coffee is one of the best ever tested on a home machine. You are getting an authentic coffee house experience as the machine grinds the beans with every cup. Also, you can add ground coffee to a separate hopper. Just don’t forget to press the “pre-ground” option on the display.
The TK-02 includes a 30-day/150-brew trial and a 2-year/5,000-brew warranty. It also includes a simple to use milk carafe for lattes. You add the milk and then connect the hose to the machine and the TK-02 produces a latte in less than one minute. We recommend playing with the temperature settings because the default setting likely won’t be hot enough for the average latte fan.
The TK-02 also does a good job of brewing iced coffee which is a new feature on this model. Set your cup of ice under the chute and the drip coffee will brew directly into the cup, eliminating the need for a 24-hour cold brew in the refrigerator.
Speaking of the chute, make sure you lower it to the cup/mug before brewing as it can get messy without lowering. The TK-02 also intuitively knows when it is time to add water to the carafe (which includes a filter), empty the water tray, and empty the ground coffee bin. It is one of the simplest to use yet best tasting coffees from home you can find.
For more information on the Terra Kafe TK-02, visit www.terrakaffe.com/products/tk-02.