Kaldi Single Serve Coffee Machine from CBTL
Suggested Retail: $149.95
On sale for $98.85 at Amazon
Box of 10 capsules: $5.50
Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf’s addition to the single serve coffee market is their line of CBTL machines. Recently, I had a chance to test out the CBTL Kaldi and put it through some thorough testing.
As I tested the single serve machine, I looked how easy it was to use and clean. I did extensive taste testing of the drinks it produced. And as I used it, I debated if it could complete with the biggest player in the single serve machine market, the Keurig and their K-Cups
What I Liked About It
- Easy To Use (Once I Got The Hang Of It)
- Makes More Than Just Coffee – Espresso, Tea And Other Drinks
- Easy To Clean
At first, the Kaldi is a little intimidating. It doesn’t look like any other single serve coffee machine that I’ve used before. There was the bar across it and I didn’t know what to do with it. Plus, the capsules just dripped into the machine, instead of being placed into the brewing area right above where the coffee poured into the mug. However, it wasn’t long before I figured it all out and realized how simple it is to operate.
Once I got used to it, the Kaldi was the easiest single serve coffee maker that I’ve tried yet. I loved the drop down space that holds up to 15 spent capsules and the large drip tray area. Both were easy to remove and clean (dishwasher safe).
The Kaldi gets two thumbs up for being able to make more than just coffee and tea. I was able to make cappuccinos, espressos, mochas and many other drinks that are probably better than what the average coffee shop makes. The Kaldi leaves the Keurig in the dust with it’s limited coffee and tea offerings.
What I Didn’t Like About It
- Only Fits Small Mugs
- Messy
- Limited Offerings
- Why Is There All This Beeping?
My only major complaint about the Kaldi is that I could only fit normal or smaller sized coffee mugs into the brewing tray area. There’s no way you could fit a coffee tumbler and brew it directly there. I ended up brewing it into one mug and pouring it into my traveler. Their website says that it fits a variety of sizes but I have to disagree.
I mentioned above in the “pros” section that the Kaldi is easy to clean. What I didn’t mention is that it needs a lot of cleaning. It drips long after the “finished” beep and if you pull out your mug too soon, you’ll end up with a lot of coffee in the drip tray, not in your mug.
The largest problem that the Kaldi faces is that it’s a challenger to the Keurig. They have the most varieties of coffee and tea capsules of any system, which at one point was rumored to be 200 different types. The CBTL only has 14 different types – six for coffee and four each for espresso and tea. They were good, probably better tasting than the average K-Cup, but it’s hard to compete with that many different varieties.
The Kaldi beeps a lot. It’s a loud beep that sounds like a digital clock or timer. It beeps when it’s finished brewing, which I like. However, what I don’t like is when it beeps for no apparent reasons. It took me a few minutes to realize that it was beeping because it was low on water. To make matters worse, it beeps until I refilled the water. Two or three beeps would’ve been enough, I didn’t need a constant beeping that started to sound like an alarm clock.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I like the Kaldi. It’s easy to see that it’s a high quality machine, that was easy to use and quickly brewed high quality single serve coffee machine. There are a couple of tweaks that I would make to it, but I think overall it’s a good machine and a worthy competitor to the Keurig.
Have you tried the CBTL? What did you think of the Kaldi? Are you thinking about buying a Kaldi? Is there anything else that you would like to know about it?
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