REVIEW – I am a daily coffee drinker, and just about everyone in my household is one as well, and we have multiple types of coffee makers in our house. We have a Keurig, of course, with a milk frother built-in so we can have cappuccinos or lattes if we want. We also have a Nespresso machine, which has some delicious types of coffee pods when we want something a little more rich. And we love traveling to Italy regularly, so of course we had to have a Bialetti Moka Pot (one of the really big 12 cup ones!). But we have never tried a dedicated espresso coffee maker. It always seemed like a little too much preparation and clean up would be required to make a cup of espresso with one of those machines, but the Moka Pot requires alot of prep and cleanup as well, so I decided to give it a shot (pun intended). I tried the FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR espresso coffee maker, so let’s see how it turned out!
What is it?
The FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR is an espresso coffee maker with milk frother.
What’s included?
- FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR espresso machine
- Single steel mesh cup
- Double steel mesh cup
- Measuring spoon/tamper
- Funnel handle
- Nespresso capsule filter insert
- user manual
Tech specs
- Size: 14.2 ” tall, 13.6 ” deep, 8.9 ” wide
- Weight: 8 lbs
- Water tank: removable, 40.5 oz capacity
- Materials: stainless steel and plastic
- Pressure rating: 20 bar
Design and features
What you will notice right out of the box is that the FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR espresso coffee maker (herein after referred to as the ’20 BAR’), is that is feels really light. And my impression was that it was going to be ‘cheap’, or more specifically, cheaply made. The literature says that it is made out of ‘stainless steel’, and that is partially true. The front part of the maker where the LCD panel is located and the tray your coffee cup sits on are stainless steel. And the mesh cups and funnel are stainless steel as well. But the rest of the 20 BAR… the top, sides, bottom, detachable water tank, etc, are shiny plastic. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, but it does feel a little cheap when you handle it. Having said that, with a price of $99, I don’t have much to complain about.
On the front of the 20 BAR you’ll see the LCD Panel with a single cup and double cup button on each side. On the side of the unit you’ll see the round knob that enables you to switch between making coffee and frothing milk.
What I learned about espresso makers when I dug into this review is that the term ‘BAR’ refers to how much pressure is used inside the machine to make the espresso. Many other espresso machines you’ll find for sale are listed as having a BAR rating around 15 BAR to 20 BAR. Apparently, the higher the BAR rating, the richer the coffee. I only have this machine to go by, and I would say that the coffee coming out of the 20 BAR is pretty rich, at least for me. Another feature that FREE VILLAGE purports is that the 20 BAR has what they call ‘pre-infusion’, which they say uses low pressure to distribute the water into the coffee pod to fully saturate the coffee before applying full pressure to make your espresso. FREE VILLAGE also says that the unit comes with overheating and overpressure protection.
One of the things that I didn’t think about when I decided to try the FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR is that I don’t have any true espresso coffee cups. You know, the little bitty cups? When I use one of my standard coffee cups with the 20 BAR, as you can see in the picture below, it doesn’t quite fit. I have to wrangle it to get it up under the coffee funnel. You can remove the drip tray of course, and that will enable you to fit larger cups under there. But a word of caution. I didn’t realize the first time I frothed some milk that the steam generation of the 20 BAR generates quite a bit of water runoff that comes out from the bottom of the 20 BAR and into the drip tray. You can see those pics below as well. So the first time I frothed some milk, I forgot to put the drip tray back and water ran all over the counter!
A nice surprise with the 20 BAR is that in addition to the single mesh cup and double mesh cup accessories, it comes with a Nespresso pod filter so that we can use our Nespresso pods. A very nice surprise! It slides right into the coffee funnel just like the mesh cups, and if you turn it over it opens up to accept the Nespresso pod. Here are some pictures of that pod filter.
Finally, I will mention the milk frother. It works really well, and it heats up pretty fast when you turn it on, and it gets really hot so you have to be careful touching the wand with your hand. The 20 BAR doesn’t come with a milk cup of any kind, so you’ll have to use your own cup. The one thing that I wish the 20 BAR had was a longer wand for the milk frother, because when I use a coffee cup to froth my milk, I can’t get the wand far enough down into the cup as I want. So I have to turn the cup a little sideways to make that happen. It’s a small complaint, but I did want to mention that.
What I like about the FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR Espresso Maker
- Great price
- Easy to use
- Large water tank
What needs to be improved?
- A slightly longer milk frother wand
Final thoughts
If you want a dedicated espresso coffee maker that isn’t going to break the bank, this is a good choice. You’ll get good coffee out of this thing, and the milk frother works very good, although I do wish that wand was a little bit longer. It’s not that difficult to keep clean, and it takes up very little counter real estate. It’s easy to use, and at a price of $99 it’s a pretty easy purchase. Will this machine last a long time? I am on the fence about what I think regarding that. It does come with a 30-day money back guarantee, lifetime 24/7 support, and their website says you can get a free extended warranty for 12 months by simply filling out an online form on their website. So I suppose there is a little comfort in that. Overall, it’s a good addition to our coffee maker collection.
Price: $99
Where to buy: FREE VILLAGE website and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by FREE VILLAGE. FREE VILLAGE did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
