Forget Blank Street special drinks, this new coffee machine from Philips can offer you over 50 drinks at the touch of a button – I tried it out to see how impressive it really is

Automatic bean-to-cup coffee machines are the at-home coffee appliance for people who want coffee shop style coffees without leaving the house. If you don’t want to learn any barista skills or mess around grinding coffee beans and steaming milk, automatic is the way to go.

When I reviewed the Philips 5500 Series LatteGo it was the top of the range Philips automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine at the time. And I was impressed with its large menu of 20 drinks. But that was until the Philips Café Aromis Series 8000 made its way onto the scene, offering over 50 drinks on the menu.

I think this bean-to-cup machine offers the widest menu of drinks I’ve ever seen and there are several drinks that I’ve never even heard of. I’ve had it in my kitchen for two weeks and still haven't gotten close to trying all the options.

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In a nutshell

The newly launched Philips Café Aromis Series 8000 slides in right at the premium end of the brand's automatic bean-to-cup range. The next best in the lineup offers a drinks menu of 20 drinks, so this model really does knock it out of the park.

It should be noted though that this new, more premium model is also £200 more at £849, which is a pretty hefty jump in price. And at this high price point it’ll certainly be out of reach for many households.

Price to one side, it’s got a lot to offer. The colour touch screen makes it effortless to navigate through the coffee menus. And tweaking settings like temperature, volume and intensity is an absolute doddle. Plus, you can even control it from an app on your phone.

The grinder is quiet and I enjoyed trying lots of different drinks. It’s brilliant for larger households with multiple coffee drinkers who can all save their preferences in a personal profile on the touchscreen.

The downsides for me are the milk texturing, which always produces frothed milk, even if the style of drink doesn’t require it. And I struggled to get a robust crema on an espresso. But these issues won’t bother everyone, so if you want a decent coffee and you’re not critical of the nuances, then this could be the machine for you.

Who tested this coffee machine?

Helen McCue

Helen had the Philips Café Aromis Series 8000 in her kitchen for two weeks. She used it daily to make coffees for herself, her husband, and guests. She installed the water filter that was supplied with the machine and used Exhale Speciality Organic Coffee beans, which is her go-to coffee brand.

And while she enjoyed trying out the large menu of coffees, she admits to being a creature of habit, drinking the same double espresso or flat white daily, so its huge menu would be wasted on her in the long term.

Unboxing and setting up

The coffee machine was delivered in a pretty hefty outer box. After shuffling it inside, I removed the smaller main box, and its cut out handles in the sides meant it was much easier to lift into the kitchen.

Apart from a few plastic bags wrapped around some of the parts, the packaging was mostly cardboard, so easily recyclable. And the clever design of the inner cardboard cradle, allows you to lift the coffee machine out of the box, using integrated cut out handles.

Unboxing and setting up the coffee machine so that it was ready to use, took just 25 minutes. Once it’s plugged in, the colour touch screen walks you through the set up step-by-step, so you really can’t go wrong. The machine is chunky and it’s not designed for small kitchens where space is at a premium.

My first impression is that the control panel is very user friendly, which is going to make this machine super easy and intuitive to use. With so many drinks on offer, the drinks menu could be tricky to navigate, but thankfully it’s divided into sub sections; hot with milk, black coffee, cold coffee, cold with milk, and hot water.

When you click onto a specific drink, the screen displays the volume of coffee/ milk/ water. For me, being able to see the ratio of coffee to milk for example, helps when trying to understand all the different coffees on the menu, and work out which ones I’m keen to try.

Additionally, the coffee and milk volumes are also adjustable for each drink, via simple sliders within the settings. Plus there are seven adjustable coffee strength settings to choose from as well as three temperature settings. You can also select an extra shot in your drink. Then all of your choices can be saved to your personal profile for next time.

I also downloaded the app and connected the machine so that I’d have access to all the functions offered there too. You can set up eight different named profiles for different members of your household or your regular visitors. And each profile can save up to eight favourite drinks, including personalised settings for each of those drinks.

The main coffee dispenser slides up and down so that you can adjust it for the height of your cup. My 14.5cm travel cup just slides under it when it's pushed to the top. And when it’s all the way at the bottom of its range, there's about 8.5cm between the dispenser and drip tray, which is much better for espresso cups and other shorter cups like cappuccino cups.

The machine switches on and is ready to use in under 10 seconds, or if you select the option for a start-up rinse. It goes through an initial warm up and rinse and takes just over a minute. Personally, I prefer a rinse and proper warm up before brewing my first coffee, so am happy to wait.

Furthermore, I noticed that without the rinse and warm up phase, the first drink took 20-30 seconds longer to brew, essentially because it does still need to warm up.

Making coffee with the Philips Café Aromis Series 8000:

Since most coffees on the menu are espresso based, it’s crucial get this right when you're initially setting up and getting used to the machine. At first, the espresso started off quite weak, and lacking a proper crema on top. Initially I tried to adjust the strength settings in the menu, but it was clear that the grind size would also need adjusting.

Grind size is adjusted via a knob in the bean hopper. It’s recommended that the grind size is only adjusted one notch at a time, and you can only do it while the grinder is grinding.

It’s also recommended that after every adjustment, you brew 3-4 coffees before adjusting again. In the end it took me almost a week to get the grind size adjusted to the correct level, which was all the way at the very fine end of the dial.

It’s worth noting here that the noise from the bean grinder is one of the quietest I’ve come across, when compared to other automatic bean-to-cup machines I’ve reviewed. It registered 69dB on my noise meter.

The espresso tasted pleasant, fresh and fruity, and was very drinkable. Despite my adjustments though, I wasn’t able to create the rich, thick crema on top that I’m used to getting from my manual espresso machine.

The double espresso from this machine had an okay crema, but it disappeared long before I got to the end of the drink. With that in mind, if you’re an espresso lover chasing the perfect punchy espresso flavour, combined with a dense creamy crema, I would guide you more towards a barista style home espresso machine to tick all those boxes.

The espresso temperature on the default medium temperature setting was around 75C. This increased to 78C when I selected the high temperature option and dropped to 67-70C on the lowest temperature setting. So the temperature differences are minimal.

There are so many other black coffee options, whether you like a tall gluggable coffee, or a shorter, more intense caffeine hit, you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for here. As well as a double espresso, I enjoyed the Caffe Crema, a very drinkable black coffee that’s flavourful and balanced but not too intense.

Other black coffee options include popular drinks like a Long Black, or Americano, as well as lesser known, very strong black coffees like the Red Eye and Black Eye. The beauty is, you get to try them all.

The menu for cold black coffee is similar, but notably there are cold brew coffees added to the lineup. The cold brew is slow to make, even a small 120ml size dripped through so slowly that it took over five minutes to pour the drink, whereas the same sized iced Americano was ready in one and a half minutes.

The process of making these two iced black coffees is clearly different and that’s evident in the taste too. The cold brew is stronger, and by comparison the iced Americano tasted watery. But again, with 11 cold black coffees on the menu, coupled with adjustable strength and volume, as well as the option to add an extra shot, it's easy to create a bespoke drink to suit your own taste.

I also like that a lot of drinks include the option to size up for a travel cup, simply by pressing the travel cup icon.

Hot milk drinks

Given the number of drinks on offer and all of the adjustable settings, I was surprised that the milk texture isn’t adjustable. The milk steaming and texturing process only delivers frothy, bubbly milk. The biggest issue with this is that you get the same amount, and texture of foam on a latte as you do on a cappuccino or even a flat white.

If you prefer drink options with less foam, or those that should have a very fine microfoam like a flat white, you might be disappointed with the quality of milk texturing and the lack of any optional adjustment.

On the whole I enjoyed the hot milk drinks, and with so many adjustable settings, I believe most people will be able to create their perfect milk to coffee ratio and get a coffee strength that hits the spot. For me the biggest sticking point is the milk texture - it simply won’t be able to win over people who dislike bubbly foam on the top of their milky coffee.

The position of the milk spout is ideal for taller cups. But when I was using a short cappuccino cup, I did have to keep a close eye on the cup as the milk began to pour. The milk flows from the high spout like a waterfall, so when using a short cup there is a danger of missing it if you don’t position it correctly.

Milky drink temperatures ranged from 56 - 66C depending on the temperature setting selected. But other factors like the coffee to milk ratios and the temperature of your cup, will also affect the temperature of the finished drink.

When selecting just hot milk froth without coffee, the temperature isn’t adjustable. You can select one of five different volumes between 40ml and 320ml. There’s not an option to adjust the foam level, you will always get frothy milk. I poured out 180ml for a chai latte. It took 53 seconds and was 60C.

Cold milk drinks

For cold milky drinks, you have to use the dedicated cold milk carafe. Additionally, the screen prompts you to add ice cubes to the glass before the drink starts pouring. You can add as much as you prefer, but ultimately, the more ice you use, the colder the drink, but the more danger it’ll get diluted if you drink it too slowly.

I measured the temperature of an Iced Galao, it was 11C when first poured over a handful of ice. The ice cubes quickly chill it further and after just a minute in the glass, it was already down to 8.5C and getting colder the longer I left it. It’s absolutely possible to enjoy proper iced coffees from this machine and it’ll really come into its own on hot summer days.

Like the hot milky drinks, the cold milk carafe is only capable of dispensing frothed milk. So again, when I did a side by side comparison, the iced latte had the same amount of foam sitting on top as the iced cappuccino.

I tried several iced milky coffees and they were all enjoyable. Ultimately apart from temperature, the cold drinks are just as customisable as the hot drinks, so you can tweak the strength as well as the coffee and milk volumes, to get your cooling iced coffee just how you like it.

It does also dispense cold frothed milk without coffee, which can be used to create other non-coffee drinks with syrups for children for example. There’s even a cold babyccino on the menu.

Hot water

When the milk carafe is removed, the spout doubles as a hot water dispenser. You can select 100-300ml when dispensing hot water. 300ml was about right for my favourite mug and it took about 90 seconds.

Hot water on the medium temperature setting was only 75C, so a bit cool for most types of tea. On the high temperature setting I was disappointed that it didn’t get much hotter, the water in the mug was almost 80C.

Most of us Brits wouldn’t consider ditching the trusty kettle and getting all of our hot water from a coffee machine, so with that in mind it’s a decent temperature to top up a coffee, or to make a fruit or herbal tea.

Using the App

I think the app is absolutely worth downloading and connecting to. It offers additional features and settings. But for me, I just don’t automatically reach for my phone when I want to make a coffee, so I rarely selected my coffee and started brewing via the app. Let’s not forget you still need to place a cup under the spout and attach the milk carafe, so it’s usually simpler to use the touchscreen.

What's it like to clean?

After pouring a milk based drink, it didn’t automatically prompt me to rinse the milk dispenser, which is unusual for an automatic coffee machine. Most other machines I’ve reviewed are quite insistent in prompting you to do this. So to rinse it, I had to go into the settings and select the milk carafe rinse, which is a bit more long winded.

On the plus side, the milk carafes are really quick and easy to rinse clean under the tap. I like that there are no fiddly tubes to clean out. They come apart easily into three pieces and are some of the easiest to clean that I've come across.

The coffee spouts are automatically rinsed when the machine switches off, so ideally you need to leave a cup or container under the spout, otherwise it makes a mess of the shiny metal drip tray area.

You can choose whether it also rinses during the start-up/ warm-up phase. I switched this on because I like it to get a rinse before it dispenses the first coffee of the day, but as I stated earlier, this does increase the initial start up time to just over a minute.

Other regular cleaning tasks include emptying out the grinds and the drip tray. And then there are the less frequent tasks like rinsing the brew unit or descaling the whole machine.

As with most functions on this machine, the clear on-screen instructions and prompts will guide you through these cleaning processes, so nothing is ever too tricky or confusing. I ran the descaling programme, it took 20 minutes from start to finish, but was very easy.

How does it compare to competitors?

The De’Longhi Rivelia is still one of my favourite automatic bean to cup machines. In contrast to this model, it offers a smaller footprint on your counter and a more paired back coffee menu. It makes a great coffee, is easy to use, and can also produce some cold coffee recipes. Its RRP is only £100 cheaper though.

The Ninja Luxe Cafe Pro is an Ideal Home favourite, and you should look in this direction if you want an all-singing all-dancing machine that’s a tad more affordable. The trade-off is that it's semi-automatic, meaning you have to get a bit more involved, but not quite to the level of a manual espresso machine.

Should you buy the Philips Café Aromis Series 8000?

If you’re a household of two adults who each drink the same coffee day in day out, then you really won’t get the most from this machine. It’s designed for coffee lovers who enjoy switching up drinks with the seasons, and for larger households where everyone's varied choices are catered for.

There’s a particular joy in scrolling through the menus and sampling different coffees. You won’t get the same feeling from an espresso machine or pod machine. And simplicity is one of its key strengths, it’s effortless to navigate the choices, create the various coffees, and customise settings.

That said, the price is a potential stumbling block and hardcore espresso lovers would do better with a more traditional style espresso machine. Meanwhile, if you’re particular about your milk froth and want the option of froth free milk or silky microfoams, this isn’t the machine for you.