MEROL Fully Automatic Espresso Coffee Machine, 19 Bar Cafe Maker Built-in Adjustable Grinder and Manual Milk Frother Steam Wand, for Cappuccino Latte Macchiato, for Coffee Lover, ME-715, Black

READ MY 6 MONTH UPDATE AFTER THIS REVIEW. I hope my positivity and enjoyment of this new Merol Fully Automatic Espresso Machine continues for years and years to come. After all, this is my first automatic machine after 30+ years of manual machines starting with a cheap steam unit (pure garbage) moving to a Livia 90 (wonderful) then an Isomac dedicated espresso unit (fantastic E61 group) and graduating to a SanRemo E61 rotary pump beauty (awesome, powerful, quiet and beautiful). During all those years and right up until now I have roasted my own beans and been lucky enough to enjoy the freshest roasted coffee varieties in the world...with only one caveat...it has been a lot of work--worth it, but a lot of work. So you may ask, what does all this have to do with this Merol automatic review? Well, I decided to try and simplify my time and effort where coffee is concerned and I thought this might be the answer. Yes, I still have to roast the coffee but I don't have to pre-heat the machine (30 minutes), weigh, grind, dose and tamp the coffee, flush the group, pull the shot, knock out the puck, clean the portafilter, back flush the unit, wipe everything down and shut everything off...until the next go round. That being said and after much soul searching, research and contentemplation...I pulled the trigger on this machine. I was amazed and intrigued by the price (can a quality, automatic machine actually exist at this price point)??? Well from the looks of things, it can and does. The machine arrived packaged in a generic Amazon box with the obligitory single piece of crumpled brown paper that Amazon workers seem to believe has magical protective powers. Thankfully, the manufacture packaged the Merol inside of two tight fitting heavy cardboard boxes and suspended it inside of two soft, form-fitting foam end pieces with everything safely battened down to withstand the rigors of shipping. Unpacking the contents revealed the Merol in all its understated glory. This ain't the "full stainless steel 60+ pound espresso machine" you might be accustomed to; in fact, it is a rather nondescript black plastic sort of "blob" which might elicit a "what's that" question from the uninitiated. What it lacks in "shiny", it makes up in utility. The machine sets up quickly and easily, pretty much a "plug and play" scenario. I had downloaded and read the manual so I was already up to snuff on setup and cleanup before usage. Filling the bean hopper for grinding is easy, as is setting the desired grind coarseness. Just remember that finer is counterclockwise. The grinder is the conical type and does an excellent job of producing the uniform grind so essential to making superb espresso beverages. The water tank is ample and located on the left side; simply pull the tank with the handle so it leans away from the machine and add your two liters of neutral pH, low hardness water. The mechanical tamper, brew unit and separate puck hopper are housed in the right side of the unit. They are easy to access for cleaning and maintenance. So, with water and beans added and the desired grind selected, flip the toggle on the back bottom of the machine to turn it on. The front panel will illuminate and the machine will ready itself for usage. Be sure to have your drip tray in place and a towel under the steam wand as this initial start process begins. The machine will beep and pop and whirr all leading up to water being expelled from the steam wand and from the group head as the initial cleaning and priming processes take place. If the unit does not say "ready", repeat the process again, perhaps twice and you should get the "ready" necessary to continue on to making espresso. Next will come a series of selections to make relating to the amount of beans to grind, temperature of the water (90°c for me), extraction volume (40 or 50ml for me) etc., etc., etc.. The center knob allows you to scroll through the selections with two clicks needed to move between choices. These "menu" items remain in memory until you change them. The steam button, when pushed, will ready the machine to steam milk for lattes or microfoam it for cappuccino. If you are already familiar with microfoaming milk, you might want to pull the aeration sleeve down and off the steam wand and use the single hole tip directly. Place a towel under the steam tip to catch any water condensation in the wand. Push the steam button and IMMEDIATELY after the wand clears push the center button to stop the process. Ready your frothing pitcher with the tip just above the milk, push the steam button, raise the cup so the steam tip is just below the surface of the milk and begin frothing. I simply froth directly in the cup I am using. The menu will default to "20 seconds" but by turning the menu button to the right you can extend the time. Pushing said menu button will stop the steaming process if necessary. When you are satisfied with the texture, stop steaming and place your cup on the drip tray in front of (not below) the two coffee spouts in the grouphead. The spouts can be raised and lowered by gently pulling down or pushing up to attain the correct height. With cup in place push the extraction button (top right) and grinding will start. Turn the menu button left for less coffee and right for more. Additionally, you can readjust temperature and volume as the coffee extracts. The group will expel some clean water before the extraction starts. As soon as clear water stops but before coffee begins slide your cup under the spouts. Extraction will stop when your parameters have been met and your drink will be ready. The machine will go on to extract the puck, drop it in the bin, tidy things up a bit and then go into sleep mode awaiting your next command. This machine keeps you informed of your water usage and when to refill the reservoir as well as when to empty your puck bin. NICE! Here's the big revelation!!! This Merol makes one hell of a good cup of espresso and it does it in 1/25th of the time I used to spend making cappuccinos for my wife and I. Will it continue with these amazing results over the coming months or years??? Only time will tell. I will update this review if necessary as time goes on. For now, I am urging anyone who is considering purchasing an automatic espresso machine to give this one some serious thought. The price point can't be beat and neither can the results which I am currently achieving with the Merol. Try it, I'm betting you'll more than like it...I'm betting you'll love it. Please remember... the use of water with the correct pH and hardness, the grind selection and using the freshest roast, whole bean coffee will assure excellent results. What's coming out is only as good as what went in. SIX MONTH UPDATE!!! All right, it's been 6 months since I wrote my "First Impressions" review so an update is in order. This will be short and sweet. Everything is "RIGHT WITH THE WORLD" where this machine is concerned. It continues to operate flawlessly and makes such exquisite espresso it is truly amazing. Normally, a machine at this pricepoint would be somewhat "suspect" where it's components and durability are concerned but not this Merol. With all my coffee experience in roasting and producing high quality espresso and espresso drinks from expensive machines, I thought it impossible to find quality, dependability and excellent results from a much less expensive machine but this one has changed my mind, and rightfully so. What's not to like about a machine which offers consistent grind as well as consistant quality coffee in minutes. It really has given me nothing negative to say about it. You will need a little patience when steaming for Cappuccinos but if done correctly the microfoam produced is superb. No dishsoap bubbles here. Listen, if you are on the fence, perhaps not a dedicated espresso enthusiast but a coffee lover, you can start this machine and pull a shot into a cup of microwave heated hot water in about a minute for an absolutely freshly ground and brewed Cafe Americano you will truly love. Super affordable, decent looking, low maintenance, quick and easy to use with exceptional results all add up to the perfect machine for you and yours. Get it while you can! 5 STARS ALL THE WAY!

I have been using this MEROL ME-715 Espresso machine now for over a week. The coffee it makes is great. With only minor adjustments to grind and brew strength, I get a perfect tasting cup of coffee every time. The frothing will take some practice. I got it down after only practicing with water first for about 10 minutes. Watch a youtube video on frothing milk. It helped a lot. I would highly recommend this machine to anyone who likes Espresso coffee but doesn't want to do the grind/tamp/level/lock/brew thing. This machine once setup makes a cup of coffee with the press of 1 button and is ready to brew in 60 seconds. It is a big machine but worth the space.

I bought this machine a little over a year ago (January 2024). I loved this machine so much. It was perfect. It worked so beautifully, smoothly, and made delicious coffee. The steamer wasn’t my favorite and the milk would froth okay, but it wouldn’t get warm like other frothers I’ve used in the past. My parents, who have had very expensive machines in the last, even preferred this over those! I was so excited about this, because the value for money was excellent. The only other issue I had with this machine, aside from the temperature of the milk frother, is that the grinder seemed to have extra residue in the basin, that was mixed freshly ground unused coffee with the used wet ground coffee. I sent them an email and they were prompt, very helpful, and sent a video on how to fix it. It was a little confusing and not at all intuitive or user friendly, but it was fine! I really appreciated their customer service and it didn’t matter to me because I loved the coffee. However, in January of this year, 2025, it stopped working. Just completely stopped! Again, I sent an email, and they sent me a video with instructions for how to clean the grinder, in a language I don’t understand. Still, I was grateful for their prompt reply and I followed their directions based off the video. It still doesn’t work at all. It’s clearly a design error and it should not be this way after only a year. It’s very disappointing.

I had owned a Saeco Vienna Plus for many years and love it. It was a work horse. It finally quit and I was seriously looking for a good used one to replace it. After realizing that they all are getting old and hard to find parts for, I decided to buy a Phillips automatic espresso machine. Worst thing I ever did. It was horrible right out of the box. The pucks were soup and no crema and before I could adjust it the directions said I had to brew 125 cups first. WHAT? I boxed that thing up faster than you could blink and sent it back. The Merol is not only cheaper but a million times better. Thick crema first cup, nice dry pucks and pretty dog gone good coffee. My advice would be to watch video's if you are having problems. It helped me to figure out everything on the machine and it's basically pretty simple to use. I LOVE, LOVE IT!!!

After about 40 pulls I'm impressed by the ease of setup and just how fast and consistently this machine makes a decent cup of espresso. This machine is my first fully automatic. I've had two Breville semi-automatics with built-in grinder (nice heavy stainless machines but the tubing is all plastic) and the second is still going strong. I also use a plumbed La Spaziale that is 100% manual. The fuss required to carefully grind and dose for the La Spaziale machine in order to get a nice crema offsets the convenience of having it plumbed. The coffee coming out of this equals either of those machines. The menu options for this product are sparse, with no option for a double from a single puck. The only way I see to accomplish something similar is to use less beans per pull and then pull consecutive shots. The machine is light plastic but doesn't move around during use. The near $400 price tag is a little high given the cheaper look of plastic construction and limited options. $350 or less would be about right.

We really love this machine. It makes great coffee and is very easy. There were a few things with the operation that seemed weird at first, but we got used to it and it works fine (like adjusting the beans and water level as it's in process). My only 1 gripe is that I have it set at the highest temperature and I wish it would get just a bit hotter. Update: about once every couple of months the grounds in and around the inside of the machine really build up and I have to pull out the inner-workings and vacuum them out. I bet I get at least a cup and a half of grounds that were wasted. Still makes good coffee.

The froth wasn’t working good, it would warm up the milk but it didn’t froth. I had to return it.

I want to say that the customer service with this company is beyond expectations. I bought my machine and it was leaking from the bottom. I contacted them and immediately Li Dai emailed me asking what the issue was. Once he saw that my purchase was legit he took no time in getting me a new machine. I absolutely love this machine. It's so easy to use. You can dial down the settings to make your favorite cup of coffee. My sister has a very expensive espresso maker and she is always coming over asking me to make her a cup. She wishes she would have bought one of these. So far so good.