Chefman Coffee Station Pro review: ambitious all-in-one brewing with mixed results

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: two-minute review

The Chefman Coffee Station Pro is a great idea. People like their coffee brewed in different ways, and it’s easy to end up with two or even three coffee machines on the counter to accommodate households with multiple coffee drinkers. For example, my husband usually drinks drip coffee, but occasionally likes an espresso. I rotate between drip, espresso, and iced coffee, depending on my mood and the weather. I also like my Nespresso machine, since the capsules are available in some interesting flavors I occasionally enjoy. I also drink a lot of tea, so an instant hot feature is welcome. We don’t often drink lattes or cappuccinos, but when our kids or guest come to visit, they often do. We could easily end up with three different coffee machines (plus a frother and a tea kettle) in our coffee nook, but the Chefman Coffee Station Pro can do all that and more.

Sounds like a dream, but unfortunately it doesn’t do everything well, or even acceptably. For example, it doesn’t brew Nespresso capsules fully or correctly, resulting in a weak and tiny brew. If you don’t need every single feature, this machine might be a perfect fit for you because it does a lot of things well. I tested everything and found that it did some things far better than others.

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: price and availability

• Available on Chefman’s website and other retailers
• Retails for $399.99 (about £300 / AU$570)
• Just one colorway, black and silver

You can buy the Chefman Coffee Station Pro on Chefman’s website as well as brick-and-mortar and online retailers like Best Buy and Target. The retail price is $399.99, which is about £300 / AU$570, though it’s not currently sold in the US and Australia.

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: specs

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: design

• Smaller than you might expect
• Has storage for accessories
• Ten in one machine

The Chefman Coffee Station Pro is designed efficiently so it has a lot of features in its reasonably-sized footprint. The machine providesten different brewing methods: espresso (with grounds or Nespresso capsules), cold press espresso, latte, cappuccino, milk frother, K-cup pods, carafe of drip coffee, drip over ice, cold brew, and instant hot water. You control everything with a touch-screen interface.

It comes with everything you need to make all of the beverages listed above. The big 100-ounce water tank fits onto the back of the machine. On the coffee side, you get a coffee filter holder and a reusable coffee filter basket. If you prefer, you can use paper filters instead. There is also a K-Cup adapter for brewing K-Cups. The glass carafe holds anywhere from four to twelve cups of coffee and it rests on a warming plate (which has a “hot” indicator light.) When you’re brewing a single serve K-Cup rather than using the carafe, there is a fold-down cup platform with a removable rubber trivet for resting a mug.

On the espresso side, you get a portafilter with three different filters you can put inside. There’s small filter for brewing single espresso, a larger one for double espresso, and an adapter for Nespresso capsules. You get a two-sided espresso tool, one side is a measuring scoop and the other side is a tamper. The included 16-ounce milk reservoir can be removed when not in use.

The Chefman Coffee Station Pro stores its own accessories cleverly. It has a hook on the side to store the portafilter and a compartment on top to store other accessories.

When you first set up the Chefman Coffee Station Pro, you’ll want to set the clock for the correct time. There is a Delay Brew feature so you can set the machine up when you go to bed and you’ll have a hot carafe of drip coffee waiting for you in the morning. The Keep Warm feature will keep your carafe hot for up to two hours.

There is a hot water spout, which runs separately from the coffee so you don’t have to worry about stale coffee taste mixing with your hot water. This is perfect for making hot chocolate, tea, and other hot beverages with ease. I suppose you could even use for making instant ramen or really anything you might need hot water for. It’s worth noting that it’s hot but not boiling.

As with any coffee machine, it does need to be cleaned regularly. Since this one has so many features, there’s more cleaning that needs to be done. Every time you use it, you’ll want to wash any accessories you use, run a clean cycle on the milk frother wand, and wipe down the exterior as needed. Of course you’ll want to remove the milk reservoir and refrigerate any unused milk right after use.

On a weekly basis, empty and wash out the water tank, empty and wash the milk reservoir, run a clean cycle on the espresso side, and flush the frother system if you’re using it daily. Every month or two, you’ll want to do a deep clean of the frother’s internal parts.

Roughly every 100 cycles (or 50 for hot water), you’ll need to descale the coffee, espresso, and hot water systems. The owner’s manual included detailed instruction on how to do all of that, plus you can find videos on Chefman’s YouTube channel for guided instruction.

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: performance

• Fairly easy to use
• Most of the features work well
• Some features don’t result in good coffee

In my testing, most of the drinks I made came out really well. Some came out ok, and some came out actually undrinkable.

Espresso

The espresso came out fine and it had a nice crema. It was pretty easy to do, just measure your grounds with the provided scoop, pour your grounds in the portafilter with the appropriate filter inside. Use one scoop in the smaller filter for a single espresso or two scoops in the larger filter for a double espresso. Tamp them down firmly with the included tamper, and then twist the portafilter into place. Select your drink from the touch-screen menu and you’ll have espresso in just a minute or so. I used a carefully measured flat scoop, and found the espresso to be rather weak, but your tastes may vary.

Espresso with Nespresso capsule

Using the Nespresso capsule basket in the portafilter, you can brew any Nespresso or Nespresso-compatible capsule. Note that this is only for the small original line capsules, not the larger Vertuo line capsules.

This was a big fail, in my opinion. The capsule was only pierced partway, there was water left in the portafilter, and the resulting brew was sour and weak and had very little crema. It was not worth drinking.

In the photo gallery below, I compare the results of brewing the same kind of Nespresso capsule in both the Chefman Coffee Station Pro and my actual Nespresso machine. In both machines, I brewed it as a small or single espresso. The Nespresso machine results are on the left and the Chefman on the right in both photos.

Latte and cappuccino

Technically, a latte and a cappuccino are pretty different. Though they are both espresso drinks with frothed milk added, the proportions are different. A cappuccino is one third espresso, one third steamed milk, and one third milk foam.

A latte is one-third espresso and two thirds steamed milk with a light layer of milk foam on top.

You can probably tell from my photos above, they don’t look all that different. They didn’t taste all that different, either, though they were both delicious.

I also tried just frothing some milk and then brewing an espresso separately and putting them together. Again, it just made a lovely foamy milky beverage.

Cold-pressed espresso

This was just a fail, in my opinion. It was so weak that I couldn’t even drink it. Again, that’s just my taste, yours may be different.

Note that pretty much every time you do a cold-pressed espresso brew, the machine will prompt you to run a cooling cycle on the carafe side first in order to prime the machine for cold press. It’s not a big deal, but you’ll have to factor in the extra time and place a container under it to catch the flushed water.

K-Cup

Using the included K-Cup adapater on the carafe side of the machine, you can make any K-Cup you like. I actually thought the Chefman Coffee Station Pro did a great job with this one. I’m not generally a fan of K-Cups but this machine brewed it as well as any Keurig machine I’ve tried. Note that unlike a Keurig machine, you are using a separate adapter part that you’ll probably want to wash each time you use it before putting it away. So it is an extra step.

There is also an option to brew the K-Cup pod as cold brew. But I can’t recommend it, unless you like a super weak iced coffee. I used the same kind of pod, but look at the difference.

Drip coffee in carafe

The drip coffee came out great. It was easy to do, just like any traditional drip coffee machine. I used the metal and plastic reusable filter, but you could use a paper filter if you prefer. You have the option to set up a delayed brew, so you can get everything ready the night before and have a hot, fresh carafe of coffee when you wake up. The metal plate under the carafe can be set to keep your carafe warm for up to two hours, and an indicator light will let you know that it’s hot.

Cold Brew

The Cold Brew feature brews your coffee slower, cooler, and with less water in order to extract the most flavor and give you less ice melt. This came out very well. It does take longer to brew, and it does usually require running a cool cycle first, but the results are tasty.

Over Ice (in carafe)

The Over Ice funtion is a little different from the Cold Brew. It’s brewed into the carafe just like regular hot coffee but a bit stronger to compensate for ice melt. This worked fine, and it wasn’t watered down too much. However, it was less smooth than the Cold Brew method and more bitter to my taste.

Hot Water

Hot water comes from a separate spout, not through the coffee system. It works fine and just tastes like pure water with no hint of coffee taste.

I selected maximum temperature setting, but water measured just 163°F/73°C. So, it’s certainly hot enough to make hot cocoa, certain delicate teas, and perhaps your instant ramen. But it’s not that all that close to boiling water, which would be 212°F/100°C.

Should you buy the Chefman Coffee Station Pro?

Buy it if

You have a multi-coffee-drinker household

The Chefman Coffee Station Pro does it all: espresso, latte, cappuccino, drip coffee, cold brew, iced coffee, K-cup, Nespresso capsule, and even hot water on demand.

You don’t have space for many machines

While this isn’t a small machine, it’s certainly a lot smaller than separate machines for all of the different functions.

You want lots of options for guests

Even if your household doesn’t need all of the features, it’s nice to have just about any coffee option available for guests.

Don’t buy it if

You can get a simple espresso machine plus a drip coffee machine and a basic frother for less than this all-in-one.

You want all of the features to be great

Though there are a lot of ways to brew coffee beverages with this machine, not all of them produce a great result.

You have extremely limited counter space

Considering how many features it has, the footprint isn’t that huge. But it’s still quite a bit bigger than most coffee machines.View Deal

Chefman Coffee Station Pro: also consider

Ninja AutoBarista Pro Fully Automatic Espresso Machine

This machine lacks the drip coffee carafe function and doesn’t accept pods, but it has most of the other functions. Plus it has a built-in coffee grinder and comes with two different hoppers you can easily swap out.

Read myNinja AutoBarista Pro Fully Automatic Espresso Machine reviewView Deal

No pods here but you can make excellent drip coffee and espresso with just a tap. Use the built-in grinder or the ground coffee chute. The attached milk frother expands this machine’s repertoire to six figures. Yes, you read that right. The Terra Kaffe TK-02 connects to an app (and Alexa!) so you can start your brew before you get out of bed.

Check out myTerra Kaffe TK-02 review.View Deal

How I tested the Chefman Coffee Station Pro

I brewed and drank every kind of coffee beverage the Chefman Coffee Station Pro makes. I brewed a Nespresso capsule and a K-cup. I brewed espresso from grounds, both hot and cold-pressed. I frothed milk (barista-style pistachio milk) and added a shot of espresso. I made latte and cappuccino. I brewed a carafe of drip coffee. I made cold brew and coffee over ice. I used the hot water feature, tasted it, and measured the temperature.