Russell Hobbs is quite a beloved British kitchen appliance brand, but I wouldn’t say it’s one that’s made much of a mark on the coffee machine scene. However, the Russell Hobbs Café Genie is an interesting new launch that could compete for a spot on our list of best coffee machines.
Its RRP of £229.99 puts it firmly at the more affordable end of the scale, and yet, some of the features listed, like a touchscreen menu of drinks, are usually seen in pricier models. So I was keen to put it to the test, to see whether the features on offer could deliver.
Product specs
Machine type: semi automatic espresso
Water tank capacity: 1.5 litres
Pressure: 20 bar
Drinks: single espresso, double espresso, latte, cappuccino, cortado, macchiato, flat white
Dimensions: H32.5cm x W22cm x D28cm
RRP: £229.99
In a nutshell
The Russell Hobbs Café Genie has a lot going for it. It’s a manual espresso machine that also offers the convenience of pods, as well as automatic milk steaming. The paired back menu of seven drinks is accessed via the straightforward touchscreen control panel and it’s very simple to use.
Milk is automatically steamed and textured, but no matter which drink you select, it’ll always be bubbly, so if you’re looking for glossy microfoams, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Similarly, while espresso is adequate, it doesn’t produce the well rounded flavour or robust crema that espresso aficionados will be seeking.
That said, this is a good value machine that makes drinks fast and packs in convenient features for busy people. So if you’re not a coffee snob and you want an easy-to-use machine for drinkable milky coffees, it’s a great option.
Who tested this coffee machine?
Unboxing the product
The first thing I noticed when I removed it from the box is that it’s quite a plasticky appliance. The portafilter doesn’t have much weight to it, and the tamper is very basic. However, other features like the intuitive touchscreen make up for some of the cheaper elements. And at this pricepoint, you really shouldn’t expect all the bells and whistles.
The colour is subtle and will suit plenty of kitchen styles. I like that when it’s switched off, the touchscreen is black and there’s no cluttered control panel, so it does look quite neat and streamlined. The on/off switch is tucked away at the side of the machine.
The included accessories are simple and easy to get to grips with. There’s nothing complicated or overwhelming, which is good, because the instruction manual is pretty basic.
If you’re buying this to use the Nespresso pod capabilities, make sure you stock up before it arrives because you don’t get any trial samples included in the box.
Impact on a kitchen worktop
The height of the coffee machine makes it ideal for sliding underneath wall mounted kitchen cupboards. However, when considering where you’ll put it, it’s worth noting that the water tank is at the back. It has to be lifted upwards to be removed, so you’ll need space to do that.
Alternatively, you could add water through the top opening using a jug if you have the space under your cabinets to get to it with a jug of water.
The footprint isn’t too big and when you slide it to the back of the worktop, it feels tucked back and leaves plenty of usable space in front. It’s certainly not one of the coffee machines that feels imposing on the kitchen worktop.
First impressions
Setting up was very straightforward. The manual offers up a list of all the parts that you should wash before using. And once these are all clean, dried, and correctly positioned back on the machine, you simply need to dispense water without any coffee grounds, to get the machine primed and ready to go.
I hit the double espresso button about five times, to make sure I’d run plenty of hot water through the system before using it for the first time. This ensures any dust from manufacturing is washed through.
Unlike some other coffee machines, this one doesn’t come with a water filter, nor is there an option to install one. The instructions state that a clean/ descale cycle will be prompted after 200 uses.
If you live in a hard water area, you may want to use water from a water filter jug, to reduce the build up of scale and help prolong the life of the machine.
The milk dispenser has a handy clean function that’ll run water through the milk nozzle to clean it, which means you can pop it in the fridge between uses.
On the whole, the touchscreen interface is very straightforward, displaying all the available drinks, for quick and easy selection. However, for any other menu functions, you ‘ll need to keep the manual to hand, as you’ll be required to press and hold various buttons or combinations of buttons.
That said, there’s no adjustment for things like temperature, strength, or volume of milky drinks. The main thing that can be adjusted is the volume of espresso dispensed.
It’s fast to heat up when first switched on. If you switch it on without the milk container in place, it’ll only warm up to dispense espresso, and that takes on average 30 seconds.
Meanwhile, if the milk container is in position when you switch it on, the process of heating up takes about 60 seconds. And then it allows you to select milky coffees from the menu.
The ‘Morning Rush’ test
I timed myself making two milky coffees back-to-back using ground coffee. I timed the whole process, from turning on the machine, to having two cappuccinos ready. It took four minutes 20 seconds.
Adding coffee grounds, tamping them down as well as removing the used grounds before making the second cup, took a big chunk of the time. So out of interest, I also timed the same process using Nespresso pods. This time it took three minutes and 10 seconds.
User experience
For me, one of the biggest surprises with this coffee machine was how fast it makes drinks (if you don’t include the time it takes to add the coffee grounds or top up the milk dispenser). From selecting a drink on the menu, to the drink being served and ready to go, is under a minute for almost all drinks on the menu.
The fastest milky drink was a cortado which was ready in just 30 seconds. While the slowest was a latte, which still only took 60 seconds. But it’s worth noting that a lot of the drinks on the menu are quite short coffees.
Thankfully, for lovers of longer, milkier coffees, the latte it dispenses is a decent mug full. And while you can adjust the volume of espresso that’s automatically dispensed, there’s no option to tweak the milk volumes in the various drink recipes.
Milk can be dispensed independent of coffee by pressing and holding the latte button. This is handy if you want to top up a drink with extra milk or create your own drink altogether.
The issue I had when dispensing milk, was that just before milk starts to come out, a quick blast of water comes out of the portafilter area, which, if there’s no portafilter in position, can mean you get bits of stray coffee grounds in your cup. But if you leave the portafilter in position it’s not an issue.
Drink temperatures vary depending on the drink. A double espresso comes out at roughly 75C and the frothed milk is around 53C. So it follows that the temperature of milky drinks depends on the ratio of milk to coffee.
A drink with very little milk, like a macchiato, was quite hot, mine averaged 75C. Whereas a milky latte was one of the coolest drinks, measuring around 58C. And it’s worth noting that there are no settings you can adjust to change these temperatures.
The milk dispenser sits quite low, meaning it won’t reach into taller cups. A standard mug is about the tallest cup you can dispense milk into. Most travel cups and taller glasses are too tall.
The vibration of the machine during brewing has a tendency to move some cups, so I did have to pay attention, particularly when using lighter and smaller cups.
Some coffee machines I review seem to magically go through water at a rate that far surpasses the number of coffees you’re making. So I really liked the fact that the water tank wasn’t always running low. Water seemed to last a reasonable amount of time. On the flip side, filling it up is quick and easy.
I expected the machine to switch itself off after a certain period of time, but instead it goes into a low power mode, where the touchscreen display is dimmed. When it’s in this mode, you have to press one of the coffee buttons to wake it up. To switch it off properly, you’ll need to press the on/off button at the side.
How noisy is it?
At around 66dB, pouring an espresso is pretty quiet and unlikely to annoy anyone. The milk steamer is the louder process. This hit a maximum of 85dB on my noise meter, but averaged 74dB.
So while milk steaming is louder than extracting the espresso, it’s still not what you would call noisy. Plus when you take into account that all drinks are ready in 60 seconds or less, any noise created is only for a very short time and won’t be an issue for most households.
What’s the coffee like?
During the review I used Exhale Organic Dark(ish) Roast whole beans. This is my regular brand of coffee and the tasting notes, according to the brand, are caramel, stone fruits, red grapes and cola. It’s said to be ideal for espresso and gives a chocolatey, nutty flavour.
I used a separate grinder to grind my coffee beans as needed. The espresso from this machine was drinkable and pleasant, though a tad more bitter and less fruity than it is when I use my usual Sage coffee machine.
The espresso crema was often a bit bubbly rather than thick and silky. I’d say the flavour will satisfy people looking for a decent espresso, but who aren’t reaching for perfection. And if you’re primarily having it in milky coffees, the nuances become less noticeable anyway.
Since there’s also a portafilter designed for Nespresso pods, I made coffee using pods as well. I’m not a huge fan of the flavour of Nespresso pod coffee. But what I would say is that the Nespresso portafilter is a great additional feature that does a good job of extracting the espresso. It’s perfect if you’re time poor and want the option to make pod coffee on those busier weekday mornings.
Thermal stability
To check the thermal stability of the coffee machine, I made five single espressos back-to-back. The idea is to check whether the drinks get progressively hotter and if so, by how much.
The first one was 72C, the fifth one was, impressively, only a little warmer at 74.5C. So it wasn’t a massive jump in temperature, which was a good result.
The ‘Wet Paint’ test
When assessing a coffee machine’s ability to steam milk, we’re looking at whether it can produce the silky microfoam that’s perfect for latte art. This is often described as looking like wet paint.
This automatic milk frother makes bubbly milk rather than a thick glossy microfoam. And that’s the case whether you’re making a cappuccino, latte, or flat white. And there’s no ability to adjust the foam level.
What’s it like to clean?
The matte plastic finish of the coffee machine doesn’t show fingerprints or small water stains, so on the whole, it stays looking quite clean and you can get away with a quick daily wipe after use.
The drip tray is very small, but I didn’t find this to be an issue. It rarely needed emptying as, unlike some other coffee machines that funnel water from internal components into the drip tray, this one is purely there to catch any drips from the portafilter or cup.
I like having the option to rinse through the milk spout after use. Simply by twisting the control dial into clean mode and selecting clean on the touchscreen, it’ll automatically rinse out the milk spout so that you can pop the milk tank back into the fridge without any gunky milk building up and causing blockages.
I was slightly frustrated that when removing coffee grounds from the portafilter, it wasn’t possible to dislodge a fully formed puck of coffee straight into my food waste caddy. When I did try this, the whole metal filter basket would fall out. So instead, I had to scrape the coffee grounds out with a spoon after each use.
The drip tray and the filter baskets can go in the dishwasher, but everything else has to be washed by hand.
Descaling
A full descale cycle takes about 45 minutes from start to finish. Thankfully it’s not a very hands-on process. Other than filling the water tank with water and descaler at the start, all you need to do is stay close in case your waste water vessel gets too full and needs emptying.
Then halfway through, you have to reset everything, this time with plain water in the water tank. And start it again, to complete the process a second time but without the descaler. All-in-all it’s simple and automated, but not super quick.
The machine should prompt you to run one of these cycles every 200 uses. So how frequently you need to do it really does depend on how much you use the coffee machine.
How does it compare to similar machines?
The Lavazza A Modo Mio Desea is an Ideal Home favourite that’s similarly priced. It’s a sturdy pod machine with a built-in milk frother. And it’s a great alternative option if you don’t intend to use ground coffee. There’s no preset drinks menu, but it’s easy to create your favourite drink nevertheless.
If you like the idea of a more hands-on approach, the Sage Bambino is an excellent beginner espresso machine. It’ll set you back an additional £100, but is capable of delivering a well-rounded tasty espresso, and you get to froth your own milk and create your coffee just how you like it.
Should you buy the Russell Hobbs Café Genie Espresso Machine?
I think at this price point, the Cafe Genie really sets itself apart with features like the automatic milk steaming and touchscreen drinks menu, as well as the option to switch between ground coffee and pods. It nicely straddles the line between espresso machines, pod machines, and automatic coffee machines.
The compromises are that there aren’t many adjustable settings. Milk is bubbly and frothy, it can’t create barista quality microfoams, but that’s the case with the majority of automatic milk frothers.
While it doesn’t produce the best quality espresso I’ve ever had, it’s decent enough to please most people. In conclusion, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced coffee machine that packs in the features, it’s absolutely worth considering this one.
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