The Saeco Odea Go is a super automatic espresso machine from the Saeco manufacturer of fine coffee machines and espresso machines. I’ve written about Saeco coffee machines quite a bit lately it seems. I’ve written about the Saeco Odea line in general, the Saeco Magic, the Saeco Aroma and the Saeco Incanto. What can I say, I’m a huge fan of the Saeco line of coffee products. And the Saeco Odea Go is representing that brand quite nicely. You’ll recall from my general discussion on the Saeco Odea espresso machines, how much I love the face of these machines.
The spout, shaped like a long nose with the big round Cyclops’ eye is really a nice and elegant design. Not only that it serves the purpose of allowing us to use this Saeco odea go espresso machine with great ease and intuitive ability. So, this post is going to focus on just one of the two espresso machines put out by Saeco in their Odea line. We’re going to talk about the Saeco Odea Go. I’ll mention the many features and the small differences between it and the Saeco Odea Giro. So without further ado, let’s get to exploring this elegant Saeco espresso machine and see if we can’t make a tasty cup of espresso while we’re at it!
Features of the Saeco Odea Go
The Odea Go has a ceramic bean grinder, this allows for a small amount of coffee grind control. However, it requires a thin instrument and a little bit of finesse. Nevertheless, the default setting that the Saeco Odea Go comes with is fine for most uses unless you have a particular taste that you are going after. I personally like the idea of a ceramic grinder and can’t wait to buy one as a stand alone burr grinder for my manual espresso machine. When you think about it, there must be minuscule pieces of metal grinding off of a steel grinder that is making its way into your coffee. Not a big deal, but something that I think a ceramic grinder helps to combat. Apparently the Saeco ceramic grinder is highly durable and shouldn’t need to be replaced.
Since we’re talking about grinding and therefore coffee beans or espresso beans, let me take a moment to complain about a small thing, but it is its smallness that is my complaint. I’m talking about the bean hopper. Now most coffee makers or espresso machines suffer from this problem, it is not exclusive to Saeco.
But the Saeco odea go’s bean hopper is especially small, at only 6 ounces or 170 grams. That’s not even a half a pound. Now I don’t know about you, but I usually buy my beans in one pound bags. Is is too much to ask for a hopper to hold just one pound’s worth? I guess it must be as it seems incredibly hard to find an espresso machine that will hold that amount.
Okay, that’s my bitch for the day. Let’s move on to some of the other decent features that the Saeco odea go offers. The Pannarello wand allows for easy frothing of the milk and it also has a feature where you can use it just for hot water i.e. for teas and hot chocolates etc. This is a handy feature, as it pretty much does away with the need for a kettle. The water tank is a decent size at 50 ounces or 1.5 liters. Here’s an idea, take that extra space, cut it down and use the rest for the bean hopper. But I digress.
Saeco Odea Go brew group
The Saeco brew group which does the grinding, tamping and ditching of the spent grounds is removable for easy cleaning and rinsing. This is handy, as this is where most of the problems occur in home super automatic espresso machines.
The giro interface is what probably sets this espresso maker apart. It is the round dial on the front of its face. You can control whether you are brewing one cup of espresso or coffee or two cups of espresso or coffee. In addition, you can also control the strength of the brew as well as how large you want the espresso pour to be. From espresso, to large coffee and anything in between.
Lastly, the Saeco odea go offers their Rapid Steam technology to allow you to quickly steam milk from brewing in a matter of mere seconds. This cappuccino machine also had an adjustable tray so you can support different sizes of coffee mugs under the espresso spout. The water tank also comes fitted with a special filter which they recommend you use. Personally, if you’re a purist and you’re after the most authentic unadulterated coffee flavor you’ll likely use distilled water which won’t require a filter in your water tank and will very seldom require you to descale the machine.
Alrighty, so that’s the Saeco Odea Go in a nutshell. The only thing it doesn’t have is the OptiDose by Saeco which allows you to have greater control over the amount of espresso beans that it uses in each beverage you make. But for around $700 or less if you find it on sale, you can’t go wrong. The Saeco Odea Go is a great machine, very handsome and it brews terrific espresso.