Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro

Verdict

For those who love filter coffee and experimenting with a wide choice of beans, the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro is the perfect machine. Its integrated grinder makes it easy to make coffee, while its thermal jug keeps coffee hot for hours without needing a hotplate. Excellent coffee quality and a simple control system complete the picture.

Introduction

Done properly, filter coffee can outstrip espresso for taste, particularly with more delicate and subtle beans.

For the purest experience, the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro delivers excellent coffee automatically and keeps it warm without electricity, giving you delicious coffee for hours.

Design and features

• Removable water tank
• Integrated ceramic grinder
• Timer function

I’ve previously reviewed the Melitta AromaFresh II, which is a similar yet more premium product. While both look similar from the outside, the Therm Pro version adds a removable water tank and a thermal carafe.

Both are worthy upgrades in their own way. Starting with the water tank, having it removable makes refilling easier, particularly if there’s not easy access to the tank. This also ensured that I could easily clean the tank when I needed to.

There’s a slight difference in capacity: the standard AromaFresh II has enough water for 10 cups, while the Therm Pro has a tank for a smaller eight cups. This is down to the size of the jug, with the insulation taking up room. You can buy a hot-plate version of the AromaFresh II Pro, which has a 10-cup limit.

Next, we have the thermal carafe. This is a double-wall, stainless steel jug, which can keep coffee warm for up to two hours, all without electricity. It’s handy to have: I like to brew a jug in the early morning and have fresh coffee on top for a couple of hours.

Core to the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro is its simplicity in use. An integrated 250g bean hopper holds a standard bag of coffee, only grinding on demand using the ceramic grinder.

There’s a grind adjustment dial on top, moving between a finer and coarser grind. I tend to go finer to get a more intense flavour, but it’s worth experimenting based on your taste preference and the types of beans you have.

Operating the machine is easy. For standard brewing, you need a paper filter in the holder.

Fill the tank up to the level you want, following the simple markings, and then select the same number of cups on the LED.

It’s important to do this, as the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro empties its water tank each time it brews. Get a mismatch between the water level and the selected cup level, and you’ll have coffee that’s too strong or too weak.

There’s also a setting to adjust coffee strength from mild to strong. Again, I suggest experimenting based on your tastes and the beans that you’re using.

Now it’s time to step back and let the machine do its work. There’s a bit of noise as it grinds the right amount of beans, but then just a gentle bubble as hot water drips through the ground coffee into the carafe.

Once there’s a gentle beep, the coffee is ready to enjoy, and you can pull out the thermal jug and pour. An anti-drip system ensures that coffee doesn’t spill out.

Pouring is generally easy, but once the jug is almost empty it needs to be tipped past vertical to get the last drips out, otherwise it’s easy to leave a fair amount of coffee behind.

If you don’t want to have to do the job manually, the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro has a choice of two timers so that you can prepare coffee according to your schedule. The only thing you must remember is to fill the water tank to the right level and put a fresh filter in.

Once the machine has finished, clean up is easy. Removing the used grinds is simple, and with paper filters, you can place everything into compost or your food waste bin. The jug must be hand-washed, but that’s a quick job.

It’s worth cleaning the grinder from time to time, which is a fairly easy job, as it comes apart following the instructions in the manual.

The only other thing you’ll have to do is descale the machine when the descale indicator appears. It’s easy to follow the instructions in the manual to do this. Overall, there’s a lot less cleaning up and hassle than with a bean-to-cup coffee machine.

My only minor complaint is that, if you end up with a few beans at the end of a batch (not enough for a few cups), there’s no option to just run the grinder to clean it out. Instead, I had to begin as if making coffee but hit the stop button once the grinder was empty.

Coffee quality

• Rich coffee smell
• Perfect temperature for coffee
• Brings out the subtlety in beans

Part of the joy of the AromaFresh line is that it releases the smell of coffee brewing. I have my test machine in a cupboard, and the smell is just incredible, filling my kitchen with an incredible aroma that hangs around.

I started by making coffee with my normal test beans, Fairtrade Peruvian, which take a slightly darker roast. Delivered at 74°C, the coffee was the right temperature for filter, and my coffee was well developed.

Rich, earthy and with a pronounced acidity, I got a full cup of intense coffee, perfect for when I want something stronger.

Filter coffee is ideal for more subtle flavours. I roasted some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, going for a lighter roast. Without the bitter aftertaste of most coffee and with a gentle hint of sweetness, the Melitta AromaFresh II Therm Pro delivered a refined experience.

With the thermal jug, the coffee tastes the same an hour later, as it’s not constantly being heated.

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