Philips - Cadorna Prestige

Purchased a Gaggia Cadorna Prestige 1.5 years ago and simply love it. Make espressos, Americanos, Cortados, Cappuccinos, Lattes, Long Blacks, etc. One caution - you CANNOT put the brew group (internal mechanism that tamps, holds and extracts) into the dishwasher, you must rinse it under your kitchen faucet. The rest of the maintenance (descaling, cleaning brew group, changing water filter) is easy but necessary if you want it to last a while. Last I checked, we’ve made over 2500 coffee drinks the past 1.5 years, which comes out to 4.5 coffee drinks a day for 2 adults.

You can modify grind size and water-to-coffee ratio in the settings to dial it in to your liking. I do not find it weak, but definitely not as strong as the shots I can pull with my Gaggia Classic Pro Evo. But then again, the main use for this is “good consistent coffee drinks quickly”, not “craft coffee drinks that are glorious”. Compared to a Nespresso, which I have never owned but used extensively while traveling around Europe multiple times, I find the Gaggia Cadorna to be an upgrade in flavor for sure. The frother gives very good results but it’s not a steam wand; it siphons milk up with steam into a frothing chamber and through a nozzle, so it’s not a 1:1 replacement to milk frothed in a pitcher with a wand. But it froths very well and in large quantities for say a latte.

I’m pretty happy with my Gaggia Cadorna Prestige (2/2024), my only complaint is that I can’t program it to warm up in morning. I have to hit the on button and 60 seconds later it’s ready to go. It’s my second Gaggia in 20 years; the first was a Gaggia Syncrony Digital Compact. It did have a timer and turned on at 5 AM and turned off at 11 AM every day… It was a true workhorse and lasted 10+ years.

Forgive my 1-handed toilet typing. I really love my Philips 4300 lattego. The lattego carafe is by far the easiest milk frother to clean. I got it for $550 USD refurbished with a 90 day guarantee by Amazon prime/Seattle coffee gear. I also purchased a gaggia cadorna prestige, and a Philips 5400 to test side by side. Ultimately, the 4300 made the best shots and was the easiest to maintain:) I just took it to a house party and everyone loved their drinks. I even dialed in some decaf with my Rancilio rocky and used the bypass. Still going strong and cleaning is a breeze.

I have a Gaggia at home although a different model (cadorna prestige) and I don't have a single complaint against the product or the brand. Instead of buying online I had it bought through an authorised seller by the name of Spoton based in Mumbai. They shipped it to me (Uttarakhand) and sent someone for installation and explaining the features and use. Great machine. Reliable. Great coffee. Before this I was on a nespresso machine which I purchased 7 years back in France. It ran for 5+ years without issues and was a great little device for the price. Back then Nespresso wasn't officially in India so whoever was selling here, did it at a major premium so I just got it from abroad. Pods were expensive too since it was all imported by now they're officially selling in the country. If you don't wanna spend as much as the Gaggia, the nespresso machines are good as well. My only gripe with them was all the pods I would use were one time use and would create a lot of waste so not very environmentally friendly. Gaggia is expensive on the pocket too purchase but over time as you buy beans by the kilo, gets cheaper than the nespresso which has its proprietary pods you can't do without.

Gaggia Cadorna Prestige makes terrific flat whites once dialed in. My fave drink from this super. Also cappuccino XL is a must.

My DeLonghi Magnifica S just died after a good long time and we just upgraded to the Gaggia Cadorna. Love it! Best bang for your buck in a superauto. Second machine purchased from Whole Latte Love and they do great honest reviews and videos and have awesome customer service and prices. Lots of high end machines that have been factory refurbished and less $$$. Good luck in your search!

I have a Gaggia (Cardorna model, I think?) that has favourite settings for multiple users so you can save your custom settings. My partner is a bit of a coffee snob and did some research into it before hand, I could be completely off base, but they said the ceramic blades are better for not burning the beans or something. Anyway, it is good enough that we don't feel the need to go out and get barista coffee as often as we used to. You can use it to steam milk manually, but I am lazy and also have [one of these](https://amzn.asia/d/2gh5eWB) for when I can't be bothered. It's a good setup!