Sunday, January 25, 2015

Specialized Perfection: The Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe Delivers!


The Good: Froths milk fast, Easy to clean, Carafe is virtually indestructible, Safe, Inexpensive
The Bad: None that I can find
The Basics: An impressive and efficient product, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is the ideal home appliance for frothing milk!


A few months ago, my wife bought me a very thoughtful gift, a home espresso maker. The key selling point for her, in giving me the gift of the Mr. Coffee Café Espresso Coffee Maker (reviewed here!), was that – in addition to brewing thick, espresso coffee, it had its own frothing want for steaming and frothing milk. Unfortunately for us, within two months of starting to use that Mr. Coffee device (I really should go back and downrate it . . .), the component that broke first was the frothing side of the unit! And, while the good people at Mr. Coffee replaced it, we were pretty soured on the product and my wife wanted to insure that we always had ability to make delicious coffee beverages. So, she (for my birthday) picked us up an Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe.

And it is perfect.

Seriously, this has rapidly become the kitchen device we use most, outside our Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker (reviewed here!). The Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is one of those perfectly-designed, specific kitchen appliances that is utterly extravagant, surprisingly affordable, and quickly improves one’s quality of life (for those looking to give up the fast-food coffee expense by brewing at home, this may easily help one stick to one’s resolution/goal!).

Living in the middle of nowhere as I do, my love of fancy coffee came into conflict with my desire to be a hermit. My wife figured out that for my tastes in fancy coffee, all I truly needed was a good coffee maker (I came to the relationship with that!) and a good milk frother. Fortunately, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe has managed to meet all our needs. For the initial cost of $39.99 on sale, we have had almost daily coffee delight. Within a month of daily coffee with frothed creamer, our Epica frother had paid for itself (vs. buying coffee out of the house!).

The Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe from Epica is a two-piece electric appliance that is specialized for taking ordinary cream or milk and both heating it and giving it more volume (frothing) it by agitating it. The Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is comprised of a stainless steel and plastic base and the actual stainless steel carafe.

The base is a simple four inch in diameter plastic disc with a cord that plugs into a three-prong wall socket. The cord is only twenty-five inches long, so there is very little room to stretch this out from the wall socket. This is handy and there are no issues with keeping the base level, despite the cord being fairly stiff. There are three soft-rubber feet on the underside which both protect finer surfaces from any sort of scratching from the plastic bass. Moreover, the rubber feet provide friction so the unit is remarkably stable and does not move from any flat surface I've set it upon. Considering the whole point of this gadget is to froth milk, this is probably a great idea and I have found that it works quite well.

Atop the disc is a raised, contoured disc, which is where the carafe itself attaches to the base. The base simply plugs into the wall and sits where one leaves it.

The actual Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe portion is a six and a quarter-inch tall stainless steel pot that is accented with dull black plastic for the handle and has a removable clear-plastic lid. The carafe sets on the base and when together, they are very stable and hard to tip over. The carafe has a capacity that is significantly greater than the 8.5 oz. that the max fill line indicates (there has to be room for the milk after it has been frothed) and when filled to the max fill line, it takes 1 minute, thirty seconds to heat and froth!

Operating this is so simple it almost defies explanation: fill with milk or creamer to the minimum or maximum fill lines (the difference is essentially one or two cups at a time), place the carafe on the base (assuming it's plugged in), depress the upper “heat and froth” button on the side of the carafe (it lights up red when active) and wait. The unit shuts off automatically and starts blinking a neon blue light when frothing is complete.

For those who want a cold coffee drink, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe has a cold-frothing option. Able to handle more milk, the Epica can be refilled, then press the lower button and in less than two months, the frother froths up the cold milk/cream!

And then all you need to do is pour your frothing milk out, though what the Epica does not mention is that one needs to have a rubber scraper of some sort. Otherwise, one gets only the unfrothed milk out of the Carafe. I recommend a soft, silicone scraper to prevent scratching the Teflon inside the Carafe. The 1” wire whisk inside the Carafe does what it promises exceptionally well.

This is as close to idiot-proof milk frothing that one can possibly get.

Cleanup is also incredibly easy. First, pull out the wire whisk from inside the Carafe. It pops out easily enough and rinse it. I’ve never had it once end up with any sort of curd or butter from agitating, no matter what type of cream I have used in it. After that, rinse out the unit. The carafe rinses out easily, so long as one washes it out right away. With nothing sticking to the Teflon inside the Carafe, it is simple to clean.

As for the base, a damp cloth cleans that up (unplug it first).

This is one of those devices that does exactly what it promises and I have to say, I like that it is made of stainless steel, so it fits my décor perfectly. The Epica frother does not even get hot on the outside, which is pretty impressive.

Easy to clean, affordable, and durable (we’ve used it daily for almost four months now, usually two or three times in a day!), the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is perfect!

For other fun kitchen gadgets reviewed by me, please check out my takes on the:
Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle
RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper
Norpro 3919 Mini Cheesecake Pan

10/10

For other kitchen appliances, please visit my Appliance Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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