Review: KitchenAid KF8

Few brands have the iconic status of iconic American brand KitchenAid, founded back in 1919. They are primarily synonymous with their mixers that are beautiful to look at, easy to use and last a lifetime. The company’s first fully automatic espresso machine, the KF series, aims to continue these virtues. The result is an uncomplicated machine for those who are curious about coffee, but not coffee nerds. And on the warranty front, KitchenAid offers a 3-year warranty and 10-year repair guarantee.

Simplicity over complexity

The KF8 is the largest (and most expensive) machine in the series. Like its smaller siblings, the construction is metal with a plastic top. The design is minimalistic and modern, but doesn’t feel premium in the same way as the Jura Z10, for example.

The KF8 has the features you’d expect from a fully automatic espresso machine: temperature setting (important if you want to make modern, light-roasted coffee), dual outlets for both coffee and milk so you can make two recipes simultaneously, multiple profiles for different recipes and an easy to empty bean hopper. The latter is rarely seen on anything other than Sage machines, but should definitely be an industry standard so you can easily switch between different beans. There are even wheels underneath the machine so it can be easily moved around the kitchen counter. Again, something we primarily know from Sage Oracle.

It differs from the KitchenAid KF7 in a few ways. The screen is larger (5‘ instead of 3.5’) and it is optimised for plant milk. When KitchenAid says the KF8 has 40 recipes, they mean that it has the same 20 recipes as the KF7 + a plant milk variation for each. The smaller KF6 has a 2.4’ (non-touch) screen, fewer recipes and single rather than dual outlets.

The screen on the KF8 is among the best on the market, if not the best. Although you can find bigger ones, it’s hard to find clearer displays. The image is razor sharp and the screen is very bright. Even very expensive espresso machines surprisingly often have low-quality screens, so this is a positive surprise.

KitchenAid doesn’t want to target coffee nerds, but those who are curious about coffee. Therefore, the user experience is very simple. The amount of coffee, temperature and texture (the ratio of water to coffee) can be changed before the coffee is prepared and then saved or added to one of six profiles. There aren’t a lot of unnecessary variables to tweak and the focus is on simplicity rather than precision. A coffee nerd would probably prefer raw numbers to words like ‘body’ and ‘strength’. KF8 is incredibly easy to navigate. It’s far more logical than the Jura Z10 and far less technically intimidating than the Siemens EQ900.

Top quality coffee

The heart of an espresso machine is the grinder, and the KitchenAid KF8 has it spot on.

Even the cheap beans from the local discount store taste delicious, even as pure espresso. The bitterness is minimal and the texture is creamy and luxurious. The grinder has eliminated most of the imperfections and you can easily drink cheap, dark-roasted coffee and still feel like you’re getting a luxury experience. Not bad. The grinder measures up to the best fully automatic ones in the industry, such as the Jura Z10.

Even the expensive, fairly light roasted beans come into their own in the KF8, in this case an anaerobically fermented bean (my favourite) from Honduras. The beans tasted caramel sweet with a nice acidity and citrus flavour. A good and complex espresso that didn’t require much from the machine other than setting it to the highest temperature. The KF8 doesn’t have more features than cheaper machines, but it’s easy to get good coffee out of it, which certainly compensates. And it’s even very quiet when grinding and brewing! An espresso is ready in 45 seconds and a cappuccino in 1 minute and 23 seconds.

Great milk, annoying cleaning

The included milk jug holds a full 0.8 litres. However, it’s the type of jug where the lid doesn’t fit properly on top. A trend I neither understand nor appreciate. There is no way to customise how much or how little foam you get in your coffee. You have to choose either frothed (as in a cappuccino) or steamed (as in a latte). However, both are extremely satisfying, both with regular milk and plant milk. The texture of the latte in particular is among the best on the market and is soft and pleasant with a good consistency. As with almost all fully automatic machines, we’re not quite on par with a latte frothed in a coffee shop, but we’re closer than most other machines on the market.

The same is true with cappuccino foam, which is mousse-like without being crunchy. If the goal of buying a fully automatic machine is delicious recipes with milk, it doesn’t get any easier or better than with the KF8. I don’t really miss further customisation of the milk texture when the presets are as good as they are here.

On the other hand, the most annoying quality of the machine is that the milk system cleaning sequence (which takes about 1 minute) requires you to go through the same educational 3-step menu every single time.

Conclusion

The purpose of a fully automatic espresso machine is to get great espresso as easily as possible. The KF8 succeeds in doing just that. Although there aren’t many features that you don’t get in a machine for less than half the price, the espresso quality is enough to make the KF8 a worthwhile purchase. Especially when the user experience is as good and clear as it is.