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Philips LatteGo 2200 (EP2231/40) review

The Philips LatteGo 2200 is modern and at the same time simple in design. With a width of 25 cm , it is perfect for small kitchens. Because it is only 37 cm high , it is well suited under wall cabinets. You can pull out the water tank to the front.

compact bean to cup coffee machine – 25 cm wide and 37 cm high

Milk system of the Philips LatteGo 2200

Especially the innovative milk container makes the LatteGo models very popular. It consists of only two parts and comes completely without hoses. Compared to other bean to cup coffee machines, it is the simplest milk system that we have tested so far.
tested
have tested so far.

LatteGo milk container

only two parts and without hoses

The milk is fed upwards from the container via a narrow channel. It is then foamed in the round chamber with hot steam. The milk foam is therefore prepared directly in the milk container and does not enter the bean to cup coffee machine. This also facilitates
cleaning
as you will see later.

In this chamber the milk is foamed

The container holds 250 ml of milk which is enough for about 3 cappuccini. We always use cold milk with a fat content of 3.5%. This makes the milk foam nice and creamy. It also works really well with plant-based barista varieties. You can hang the milk container on the front left of the bean to cup coffee machine.

250 ml of milk fit in the container

Hook in with a flick of the wrist

Bean compartment

The bean compartment is located on the top center of the bean to cup coffee machine. We are very satisfied with the darkened and airtight lid. This preserves the flavor of your beans as much as possible. The compartment holds 275 g of coffee beans , with which you can prepare a good 30 drinks. Unfortunately, no indication appears in the display when the tray is empty. Thanks to the large opening, the compartment is easy to fill and since there are hardly any corners, the beans slide well towards the grinder.

darkened lid with circumferential rubber seal

275 g of beans fit in the tray

Water tank

You will find the water tank on the right side. It can be easily pulled out to the front – a great advantage for wall cabinets. Up to 1.8 liters fit into the tank, which is enough for about 15 drinks. As soon as the tank is empty, a message appears in the display. Ideally, you fill it up with fresh, cold water every morning. Then your coffee will be the best 😉 The opening is relatively wide, so you can fill the tank directly at the bean to cup coffee machine or under the tap .

the 1.8 liter water tank can be pulled out to the front

or fill up under the tap

Note in the display

Coffee and milk spout

If you push the coffee spouts all the way up, glasses up to 14 cm high fit underneath. Even a to-go cup is no problem with it. For small espresso cups you can set it at 8 cm height. However, the milk spout cannot be adjusted and is also a good 14 cm high. Smaller cappuccino glasses must therefore be well positioned so that nothing splashes off.

Coffee spouts: 8-14 cm, milk spout: 14 cm

Preparation times

After switching on, it takes pretty much exactly one minute until the LatteGo 2200 is ready to go. This makes it about 10 seconds slower than other bean to cup coffee machines. The bean to cup coffee machine uses this time to preheat and flush the lines. This also works very reliably – already the first drink is properly hot. Not every bean to cup coffee machine can claim that 😉 In terms of preparation time, the Philips EP2231/40, compared to other models from our
bean to cup coffee machine test
is pretty much average.

Display of the Philips EP2231/40

You operate the bean to cup coffee machine via a sensor touch display. This is slightly slanted so you can read it well from above. The keys respond quickly and reliably.

slightly slanted sensor touch display

On the far left, the buttons for the drinks are displayed: espresso, coffee and cappuccino. You also have a hot water button. Next to it you will find buttons to set the coffee strength (coffee bean) and beverage quantity (cup).

Underneath there is a button to activate the water filter . As soon as this is active, a blue lamp lights up. Next to it you will find a button for descaling. On the far right you have 3 indicator lights (one below the other). They indicate whether you should fill the water tank, empty the coffee grounds tray or check the brewing unit. As you can see, the display is deliberately kept simple and very clear.

Next, we want to show you the drinks. In the meantime, we’ll explain to you how to best set up the bean to cup coffee machine. In addition, we show you tricks how you can also prepare latte macchiato and Americano with the LatteGo 2200

Coffee strength & coffee powder tray

You can adjust the coffee strength via the coffee bean in 3 levels. The higher the level, the more coffee beans the bean to cup coffee machine uses. Press and hold the button to activate the coffee powder compartment . The bean to cup coffee machine then uses pre-ground coffee. To do this, place a spoon in the compartment next to the bean compartment.

Coffee strength in 3 levels

Press and hold the button to activate the coffee powder compartment

Compartment for ground coffee

Adjust grinder setting

For the best taste, you should also set the optimal grinder setting. You will find the grinder regulator in the bean compartment. Here you have 12 levels to choose from. The smaller the level, the finer your coffee beans will be ground. The finer the coffee powder, the slower the water flows through the coffee puck and the more flavors it can extract from the coffee. Since we want as many flavors as possible, we set the grinder setting as fine as possible.

Grinder setting in 12 levels

You should only adjust the grinder by a maximum of one level during the grinding process. This prevents coffee beans from getting jammed in the grinder and damaging it in the worst case. If the grinder is set too fine, the coffee will drip into the cup instead of flowing. Then the coffee powder is too compacted and the water no longer passes through properly. By the way, we have achieved the best results on grinder setting level 4 .

Set beverage quantity

Next, we set the beverage quantity. It determines how much water is pressed through the coffee puck. Here again you have 3 levels to choose from for small to large cups. Unfortunately, we don’t see here how many milliliters we get at which level. This is different for each drink. Therefore, we weighed the amount for each drink.

Beverage quantity in 3 levels

Espresso

For the espresso, we set the coffee strength to level 3. Then the bean to cup coffee machine uses 7g of coffee powder. According to experts, this is the optimal amount for espresso.

We recommend that you set the maximum beverage quantity to level 2 (40 ml). Themore water is pressed through the coffee puck, the more bitter substances are released from the coffee beans. Therefore, for the best taste with as many flavors as possible, the amount of water should be as small as possible. We prepare a 40 ml espresso:

Settings: Coffee strength level 3, beverage quantity level 2 (40 ml).

After about 40 seconds, our espresso is also ready. We measure 75°C – this exceeds the required 67°C by far – very good. The crema has a light brown color is nice and dense and not too liquid. The espresso is well-balanced in taste and the nuances of our coffee beans come out nicely. For this price range really a good espresso!

Prepared in 40 seconds & 75°C hot

light brown, dense crema

Double cup option

If you tap a drink 2x, you activate the double cup option. Then two cups are prepared at the same time. For this purpose, the device performs two grinding and brewing processes. You can use the double cup option for espresso and coffee. Unfortunately, this function is not available for cappuccino, since the device only has one milk spout.

Activate double cup option by tapping the espresso button twice

2 Grinding and brewing operations

Coffee from the Philips EP2231/40

Next, we would like to prepare a coffee. To do this, we set the coffee strength to medium (2). For coffee, we recommend preparing a maximum of 120 ml per coffee puck. Therefore, again only the first two levels of the beverage quantity are relevant (level 1: 100 ml, level 2: 120 ml). If you want to prepare a large cup of coffee, you should better activate the double cup option. For our large 250 ml cup we prepared so 2x 120 ml .

Settings: Coffee strength level 2, beverage quantity level 2 (120 ml).

Activate double cup option for large cup – 2 x 120 ml

After just under a minute , our coffee is also ready. We measure 75 °C again – that’s really neat. The coffee is also good in taste and also has a light brown, fine crema. The flavors come out clearly and thanks to the short extraction, there are hardly any bitter substances.

75°C – neatly hot

Light brown, fine crema

Set temperature

If you want, you can also adjust the coffee temperature. To do this, switch off the bean to cup coffee machine and then press and hold the beverage quantity button. Now you can set the temperature in 3 levels From low to high. For our tests, we prepared all drinks at medium levels. As you have seen, this was also perfectly adequate.

the temperature can be adjusted in 3 levels

Cappuccino

For the cappuccino, we set the coffee strength to level 3(as for espresso). Unfortunately, the LatteGo 2200 does not allow you to adjust the amount of espresso and milk foam separately. Here you can specify only the total beverage quantity of the cappuccino. We will show you how you can adjust both separately in a moment 😉 First, we select level 3 (250 ml) for the beverage quantity.

Settings: Coffee strength level 3, beverage quantity level 3 (250 ml).

After just under 1:30 minutes, our cappuccino is also ready! We expect at least 67 °C and even measure 70 °C. This is very good and quite hot compared to other bean to cup coffee machines.

with 70°C a hot enough cappuccino

Now let’s look at the milk foam. You can see the bubbles are uniform and quite fine-pored. This gives the milk foam a slightly creamy consistency.

uniformly fine & slightly creamy milk foam

The cappuccino tastes good . However, it also has a minimally bitter note.This is due to the fact that the bean to cup coffee machine uses 60 ml of water for the espresso (level 3 beverage quantity). This dissolves too many bitter substances. To prevent this from happening, you can stop the espresso at about 40 ml by pressing the Start/Stop button. Another option is free programming.

Free programming

Here you can adjust the highest level of beverage quantity for each drink individually. To do this, press and hold the respective beverage button for 3 seconds until the 3rd beverage quantity level flashes.

Press and hold the beverage quantity key until level 3 of the beverage quantity flashes.

It is best to place a kitchen scale under your cup so that you can measure everything exactly. Then press the “Start/Stop” button. A good cappuccino consists of 100 ml of milk and 40 ml of espresso. Note that the volume of the milk approximately doubles when frothing. Thus, 100 ml of milk becomes 200 ml of milk foam. A 250 ml jar is therefore perfect.

First, the bean to cup coffee machine dispenses the milk foam. We stop the draw at about 100 ml via the Start/Stop button. Then the espresso is added. Here we stop the reference at 40 ml. These are precisely the quantities that are now being stored. The next time we select the highest level we will get the cappuccino with exactly these settings.

Stop the milk foam withdrawal at approx. 100 ml

Stop espresso withdrawal at approx. 40 ml

Latte Macchiato

If you want, you can also program the 3rd level of the beverage quantity of the cappuccino to the size of a latte macchiato. We recommend 150-200 ml of milk foam and 40 ml of espresso. Both are controlled via the Start/Stop key. If you need that extra caffeine kick, you can add an extra espresso afterwards.

Program large latte macchiato

Reset factory settings

If you want to return to the original beverage quantity, you can reset the bean to cup coffee machine to factory settings. To do this, turn off the machine and press and hold the Espresso button for 3 seconds until the coffee strength and beverage quantity indicators light up. Finally, confirm the whole thing with the Start/Stop button.

Press and hold the Espresso button (device is switched off)

Americano

Americano is a popular alternative to regular coffee with lots of flavor and few bitters. For this, you can simply prepare a 40 ml espresso and then extend it with 80 ml of water via the hot water button. To do this, simply use the outlet where the milk container is normally attached. Be sure to give the Americano a try. Promised it’s worth it 😉

Americano with the hot water button

Milk foam (cocoa)

Normally, you can’t just prepare milk foam with the LatteGo 2220, e.g. for cocoa. But with a trick it works anyway. To do this, select the cappuccino and activate the compartment for ground coffee (but do not fill it!). Now the bean to cup coffee machine will not grind and no coffee beans will be wasted.

Next, the machine will prepare hot milk foam for you. Before the coffee is added (or in our case, only hot water, since there is no coffee powder), you simply have to cancel the process by pressing the Start/Stop button. Ready =)

Milk foam trick

More drinks with the LatteGo 3200

You have a few more options to prepare a few more drinks with the LatteGo 2200. However, the settings on the display are relatively limited. Only with the more expensive LatteGo models does the manufacturer give you significantly more leeway.

For example, with the LatteGo 3200 you can prepareAmericano and Latte Macchiato at the touch of a button. The amount of coffee and milk foam can be adjusted separately in 3 levels. At
LatteGo 5400
you have a total of 12 drinks and even more precise settings.

LatteGo 3200 with latte macchiato and americano at the touch of a button

LatteGo 5400
With 12 drinks and many setting options

However, if all that is not so important to you, you can save real money with the 2200 model. Because all LatteGo models have the same grinder the same brewing unit and the same milk container. They mainly differ in the display and the setting options.

Housing & Material

Just like all other bean to cup coffee machines in this price range, the Philips LatteGo 2200 is mostly made of plastic. However, the individual parts are accurately processed and have a small gap dimension. Only the cup tray is made of stainless steel. The drip tray and water tank are easy to move in and out. The sensor-touch keys respond well to our inputs. Overall, a convincing quality for this price.

Stainless steel cup tray scratches relatively quickly

Philips EP2231/40 brewing unit

The brewing unit is the heart of a bean to cup coffee machine. Well-pressed pucks and a clean interior are therefore a sign of high quality and optimized processes. And the LatteGo models have been significantly improved over the past few years. The coffee pucks are well pressed and we also hardly found any coffee residue inside. Sure, there’s always a bit of coffee powder on the brewing unit, but that’s really the case with every brand. Overall, Philips has improved quite a bit here.

Heart – the brewing unit

Grinder

All current Philips bean to cup coffee machines have a ceramic disc grinder. Philips estimates the durability to be at least 20,000 grinds. At 5 cups a day, that would be over 10 years of use. On level 3, the beans are ground finely and evenly. By the way, we measured an average of 69 decibels during the grinding process. This is not exactly
quiet
but not particularly loud either. An average volume for bean to cup coffee machines in this price range.

the coffee is ground finely and evenly (level 3)

Now we’ll show you how easy it is to clean the Philips LatteGo 2200. Most important is the cleaning of the milk system, brewing unit and drip trays. The total effort per week for cleaning is about 20-25 minutes. For this estimate, we have assumed that you prepare around 20 drinks.

You should also regularly descale your bean to cup coffee machine. How often you need to descale depends on the water hardness and whether you use a water filter. The Decalcification takes about 30 minutes and the effective effort for you is 5-10 minutes.

Clean milk system

According to the instructions, you should clean the milk container after each use. It’s really quick: just empty out the remaining milk (dump it into milk carton), separate the container into 2 parts and then rinse thoroughly with warm water and detergent. Since the container has no hoses, it only takes a minute to clean it again.

Rinse thoroughly with warm water

Alternatively, you can even clean it in the dishwasher. We would recommend that you do this at least once a week to remove any residual milk fat.

Milk container may be placed in the dishwasher

A quick rinse at the touch of a button, as with the
Philips LatteGo 5400,
is unfortunately not available on the LatteGo 2200. We really would have liked to have these! Then you could also store the container overnight in the refrigerator. Despite all this, it is a very easy to clean milk system and less complex than most other bean to cup coffee machines.

Overall, cleaning the milk system takes about 10 minutes per week if you prepare drinks with milk foam every day.

Coffee grounds tray and drip tray

When the coffee grounds tray is full, an LED lights up on the display. If the drip tray is full first, a red float rises up through the drip grid. Then you can simply pull out the containers to the front.

Indication on the display: Empty coffee grounds tray

Up to 12 coffee pucks fit into the bean to cup coffee tray – which is neither a lot nor a little compared to other fully automatic coffee machines.

12 coffee pucks fit in the container

Around the container is the drip tray. The water from the rinsing processes collects there, as well as a few coffee residues. This is the case with almost every bean to cup coffee machine.

You should empty the containers after 3 days at the latest and rinse them thoroughly once a week . You can also simply put them in the dishwasher, as the parts are dishwasher safe . Since the drip tray has a few corners and is not as easy to wash out, we usually put it in the dishwasher.

Overall, the time required to clean the bowls is about 2 minutes per week if you put them in the dishwasher and about 5 minutes if you rinse them by hand.

Cleaning the brewing unit

The brewing unit of the Philips EP2231/40 can be removed in just a few steps. To do this, switch off the bean to cup coffee machine and unplug it from the mains. Then take out the water tank and open the service flap behind it. Then press the “Push” switch to the right and slowly pull the brewing unit straight out.

Remove brewing unit via push switch

Just like the LatteGo 5400 we are also positively surprised by the interior, because there are hardly any coffee residues to be found.

However, we did find some coffee residue on the brewing unit, just like every bean to cup coffee machine we’ve tested so far. In comparison, there are neither very few nor many coffee residues here.

We find a few coffee leftovers with every bean to cup coffee machine

For an optimal taste of your beverages, you shouldrinse the brewing unitwith clear water 1x per week according to the instructions. Please do not use detergent, because some moving parts are rubbed with grease to make them run perfectly. Since the brewing unit has some corners that are not ideal to reach, we recommend you use a cleaning brush or toothbrush.

It is also important to lubricate the brewing unit with silicone grease about every 2 months to keep everything running smoothly. The best way to do this is to watch our
cleaning video
with many helpful tips. In addition, there is also the option to remove coffee grease from the brewing chamber with a cleaning tablet.

All in all, cleaning a Philips brewing unit is a bit more time-consuming than with other manufacturers. You can expect an effort of around 10 minutes per week.

Decalcification

For soft water you need to descale every 3 months and for very hard water about 1x per month. It is important that you use the enclosed test strip and set the water hardness on the bean to cup coffee machine. Only then can it remind you in time to descale.

If you use a water filter throughout, you only need todescale after 5,000 cups , according to Philips. Even at 10 cups per day, you will only need to descale after 1 1/4 years.

The decalcification takes just under 30 minutes. Since there is no display, you have to follow the steps in the instructions or simply watch our video. Here we explain step by step what to do. The effective effort for you is only 5-10 minutes.

You still have a question yourself or tips for other users about this device? Then feel free to leave us a comment.