Product Review of the Hamilton Beach 40729 Espresso/Cappuccino Maker

If you're like a lot of people, you just can't get your day started without a good cup of coffee. In the past two decades, there has been an incredible boom in the number of chain and independent coffee shops, so there's a good chance you pass one on the way to work. For the regular Folgers and Maxwell House crowd, this has generally represented a shift away from the standard brew-at-home coffees to the more upscale, professionally prepared brews; quality coffee shop equipment combined with fresh roasted and ground beans provides a superior cup of joe to almost anything you can do at home. And the coffee shop craze has also resulted in an increase of European-style espresso drinks. 

It's not just your standard drip cup anymore; lattes and cappuccinos, cafe au laits and Americanos are now the preferred beverage, providing the jolt of super-powered shot of espresso Americans are now demanding in their wake-up ritual. But for a long time, it's been hard to get that coffee shop taste at home; cappuccino and espresso makers have been either too expensive or too hard to use, which means you might have been shelling out as much as five bucks a day just for your cappuccino. But now, finally, Hamilton Beach is offering a home cafe machine that makes it easy to get your Starbucks fix without even leaving your kitchen.

At around $80, the Hamilton Beach 40729 Espresso/Cappuccino Maker bundles everything you need to make your favorite mixed coffee drink at an affordable price. First the basics. Pretty much every mixed coffee drink features two main ingredients: espresso, the super-strong, super-fine ground variety of coffee bean, and steamed or frothed milk. A latte, for example, is a single shot of espresso paired with three parts steamed milk; a cappuccino combines equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and frothed milk. Enter the Hamilton Beach 40729's two main functions: brewing espresso and steaming milk.