Learn how to use the menus and program the Gaggia Cadorna Barista Plus, Cadorna Milk and Cadorna Prestige.
In the following video, you will take a deeper dive into the menu and learn how to customize beverages to your specific taste and create favorites and profiles.
How to Use Menus and Customize Drinks on Gaggia Cadorna Espresso Machines
Introduction
Once you've gotten through the initial setup of your Gaggia Cadorna series machine, the next thing to go over is how to navigate the drink screens, as well as what to do once you've selected a drink and have that it's corresponding menu pulled up.
In this article, we are going to cover how to program your own settings and save them to profiles, in addition to looking at the different parameters you can change for both coffee drinks, as well as and one-touch milk drinks on the Cadorna Milk and Cadorna Prestige. We will also take a look at how to program your machine to brew with preground coffee using the bypass doser.
Menu Buttons
Before delving into programming your machine's different drinks, you first need to understand what the different buttons and screens mean. Each Cadorna series machine machine uses a suite of 11 buttons: three on either side of the main display, and five across the bottom of the display.
The five main buttons on the Cadorna series of machine are:
- On/Off: Turns machine on and off
- My Favorites: Shortcut to profiles that can store custom drink settings
- Home: Return to the main display with beverage options
- Clean/Setting: Access the cleaning and general settings menus
- Start/Stop: Start and stop your machine from proceeding with various functions
The six total buttons to the left and the right of the main display correspond to a variety of different functions, depending on what menu has been selected. For example, if you're at the home menu, the buttons will correspond to different drink options, and/or the option to switch to-and-from additional pages with even more beverages you can make.
Drink Parameters
Once you've selected the drink you desire to make and have pressed the corresponding button, you will advance to that drink's menu screen, and the buttons will now operate as means of customizing the parameters of that given drink. While these parameters can vary slightly based on the drink you have selected, the majority of the drinks offer the ability to customize the following parameters:
- Coffee/hot water volume
- Temperature (Low, medium or high)
- Save to My Favorites
- 1 or 2 Drinks
- Preground coffee
- Aroma strength
2 Drinks Button
While at the drink parameters menu for a given beverage, the icon commonly located in the top-right of the screen will correspond with the 2 Drinks Button. If available, this lets you tell your machine to brew a drink twice in a row.
For Gaggia super automatic espresso machines like the Cadorna Barista Plus, Cadorna Milk and Cadorna Prestige, brewing a double drink consists of grinding and brewing twice. This really sets Gaggia machines apart because, for other brands, a double drink typically only means doubling the volume.
My Favorites/User Profiles
If you've gone through the trouble of customizing the parameters of a certain drink and want to save your settings, the Cadorna series of machines has a My Favorites function that can do just that. The bottom-left icon on a given drink's menu screen is one way to save and store a set of drink parameters. Just press the button to be taken to the My Favorites screen, where you can then assign your drink to one of four User Profiles. Each User Profile is designated with a different color, so multiple people can store multiple drink preferences with ease.
Another way to access the the My Favorites menu, is to press the "My Favorites" button located below the main display screen. Press the My Favorites button and it will allow you to access User Profiles. If you've already saved drinks to one of more profiles, you can access them by pressing the button that corresponds with the user profile they have been assigned to, then pressing the button to access the previously customized drink you want to make, then press start!
You can also add drinks directly through this menu by pressing "Add Beverages" and following the steps that display. Please note that you can only save one customized version of a given drink for each profile. For example, if you have already saved a customized Espresso Lungo drink to the green profile, you cannot save another Espresso Lungo drink with different parameter to that same profile.
Programming Specialty Beverages
The next thing we're going to take a look at is how to program specialty beverages like the one-touch drinks available on the Cadorna Prestige, as well as the Americano, which is available on all Cadorna series machines.
Of the specialty beverages available on the Cadorna series of machines, the Americano is the only option that is available on all models. If you select the Americano drink option, you will see on it's beverage menu that the 2 Drinks Button has been replaced the option to customize the volume of hot water desired. What this means is you can customize the amount of coffee and hot water separately, and your machine will brew both volumes separately, true to an authentic Americano. This unique function allows your machine to pull the sweetest and best parts of your shot, while also being able to smooth things out with extra water, if desired.
Similar to an Americano, if you go to the beverage screen for a milk specialty drink like the Cappuccino, you'll notice that the top right icon is no longer for the 2 Drinks Button. But unlike the Americano, the top-right button allows for customizable milk volume. Just set the volume you desire and your machine with prepare your coffee and milk separately.
Beverage options including Espresso, Coffee, Espresso Lungo, and Ristretto do not have options to customize hot water or milk volume separately. All four do have similar drink parameters and preparation methods, with the only difference between them being the volume parameters of the coffee that can be brewed. This is also the case with the remaining milk based specialty drinks, albeit with the inclusion of milk in each beverage.
Flat White
One beverage exception when it comes to the parameters you'll be able to set, is the Flat White. To make a Flat White, your machine will grind and brew twice. This is yet another special function offered by the Cadorna series of machine in terms of providing authentic versions of specialty beverages.
Preground Coffee
Another thing to mention when it comes to using preground coffee is that if you choose to utilize the bypass doser, you cannot use the 2 Drinks Button.
Hot Water & Milk Only
Lastly, your machine can also dispense hot water only, as well as frothed milk only, on applicable models. To dispense either option, find and select Hot Water or Frothed Milk from the beverage menu and select it as you would any other drink. Once at the menu of your desired beverage, just customize the volume of the hot water or frothed milk you wish to make and press start! This is great for making tea or hot chocolate.
Related Articles: