Philips Saeco Poemia review

Taste wise, the coffee was good, but not strictly the kind of taste we’d expect; the espresso shot was very smooth and lacked that hint of bitterness. We can imagine that lots of people would prefer this taste, but it’s not quite what we wanted. Temperature of the final shot was 55C, which means it’s drinkable immediately, although on the edge of being too cool.

Next we made a latte, turning the dial on the front to the steam position. This heats up the Poemia’s further. When it’s ready a light turns on and you can use the tap and steam wand to froth your milk.

The steam mode and long wand let you create tightly-packed foam

It’s a decent-sized wand and having control of the steam flow meant that we managed to heat our milk quickly, with a great combination of milk and foam. The foam was tightly packed and the taste was great.

As well as using the wand for milk, you can turn the hot water pump on and use the tap to dispense hot water. The Poemia doesn’t auto-vent hot water when moving from steam to hot water mode, so you’ll have to do this manually before you make another espresso to avoid burnt coffee.

Although the coffee that the Poemia produces is a little bit too smooth, for the price it produces good results and has an excellent steam function. You have to spend almost double on the De’Longhi Scultura to get much better results. If you care more about looks, you can buy the metal-cased Gaggia Gran Prestige, which is effectively the same machine, for around £40 more; if you want to save money, the Poemia is the better choice and wins a Budget Buy award.