Malcolm Gladwell once claimed that it takes ten thousand hours to master something. I’m not sure that ‘practice helps’ is that insightful, and I don’t know that I’ve spent the equivalent of four hundred days testing coffee machines, but I do know that I’ve tried many of them.
So many in fact that I can’t even remember the exact number I’ve tried, but my editor, Molly, can confirm that as a team we’ve spent hundreds of hours in the test kitchen examining dozens of coffee machines.
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All this means I’ve turned the art of finding a good coffee machine into a faff-free science. After years of tests and who-knows-how-many pints of espresso, this is what’s actually important when buying a coffee machine.
1. Size
Perhaps a little obvious, but consider the size of the machine you want to buy. Before you roll your eyes, I don’t just mean checking you have a bit of space in the kitchen, but actually measuring. Lots of coffee machines are designed for huge US kitchen counters, with extra clearance to the cupboards above.
You can see in the image above that a Ninja filter coffee machine designed for the American market isn’t quite right for my British kitchen. Despite the larger-than-average cupboard clearance in my flat (brag, and yes, I am sad enough to have done the maths), it’s still awkward to use. I had to pull it out from under the cupboard every time I used it.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve unboxed a coffee machine to find it dwarfs all my other appliances, especially large coffee makers like bean-to-cup models. Sometimes I’ve had to sacrifice my toaster and kettle to find enough room, so it’s crucial to measure before some behemoth coffee maker takes over your kitchen. It tends to be the case that the more features on offer, the bigger the machine.
2. Key features
It depends on what you want, so you may not need all of these, but there are some key features to consider.
If you want a good espresso, the coffee machine should be able to create at least 8 bars of pressure for a proper espresso – ideally, it should be 9 bars. This spec is usually hidden somewhere on a product website, because PR departments won’t advertise that their machine can’t pull that much. The very best machines will have accurate pressure gauges so you can ensure the coffee is at the right pressure.
For milky coffees, you need either a steam wand or a milk frother. If you like to make your own latte art, you want a steam wand. If you just want a good latte without getting hands-on, get a milk frother or frothing jug – you won’t have to learn how to use a steam wand, which is also a pain to clean.
The best bean to cup coffee machines will have built-in coffee grinders, so you can have freshly-ground beans in the correct 16g portion without having to grind or measure them yourself.
A good bean-to-cup machine will combine all of these features, but they’ll be missing from ‘automatic’ machines like pod machines or filter coffee machines. It entirely depends on the coffee you want.
If you only drink black coffee, there’s no point in buying a bean-to-cup machine that can make machiattos and other milky coffees. Similarly, if you like lattes, you don’t want a filter coffee machine that makes black coffee by the gallon.
3. Fake features
I’ve had some snippy conversations with PR departments about this one: some ‘features’ are just marketing jargon. There are machines out there loaded with features that don’t actually do what they claim.
Any marketing that claims a coffee machine can make ‘cold brew’ in minutes is lying, because cold brew by definition requires hours of steeping. Many machines marketed with an ‘iced coffee’ function don’t have that at all; the machine just tells you to pull a hot shot of espresso over ice, which you can do yourself.
It’s often the case that a machine marketed as capable of making 30 coffees can really only pull shots of espresso in slightly different quantities. It’s worth reading reviews to see if these bonus features are actually useful or marketing sleight-of-hand.
4. Ease of use
That’s why it’s crucial to consider the difference between automatic and manual coffee machines. ‘Automatic’ coffee makers rarely taste as good as an espresso machine, but they’re much easier to use.
If the thought of faffing around with a WDT tool or antistatic spray bores you to tears, you need something automatic like a bean-to-cup or pod coffee machine, which will reliably churn out the coffee you want.
A key issue here, however, is that automatic coffee machine doesn’t really exist. Any machine that offers coffee ‘at the touch of a button’ is lying. A bean-to-cup or pod coffee machine is about as close as you’ll get, but these still need a bit of work.
Both need to be loaded with coffee. Both need to be flushed with cleaning modes, and both should be emptied and hand-washed at least once a week to prevent coffee grounds from turning mouldy. It’s not back-breaking labour, but it’s not automatic, and never as simple as flicking on a kettle.
5. Cleaning
Cleaning coffee machines can be pretty tedious, too. It’s a small thing, but lots of otherwise great coffee machines have finicky cleaning programmes for descaling and hand-cleaning the pipes. Some particularly annoying examples have their own special cleaning tablets or chemicals, which is really just a way to get you to spend more money.
The best bean-to-cup and pod models have easy cleaning modes, and a good espresso machine should be easy to clean by hand. Simpler methods like cafetières are often dishwasher-safe, which saves a lot of hassle.
6. Value for money
With pod coffee, you should consider whether a pod subscription is actually worth it long-term. Take Nespresso as an example; at the time of writing, a sleeve of Stormio Vertuo pods costs nearly £7 for ten pods. If there are two of you in the house drinking a coffee each per day, you’ll get through that in a work week. A coffee a day for a month is more than £40, which quickly adds up in the current climate.
You can get much more coffee for your money with whole bean or ground coffee; a cheap 270g bag of supermarket grounds should yield roughly 16 coffees, and they tend to taste better anyway. If you’re dead-set on a coffee machine, the most cost-efficient way to do it is to use an espresso, filter, or bean-to-cup machine.
Appliance companies won’t thank me for this, but you should bear in mind if it’s worth buying a machine at all. Lots of people get by on instant coffee and milk. I usually have some fancy coffee machine on loan to review, but I rarely stop drinking instant; it’s cheap and faster than a machine, so I’m drinking it while I write this piece. It’s not delicious or glamorous, but it’s much more cost-effective than a £600 coffee maker, especially when some of them aren’t even that good.
Which coffee maker would I buy?
I think the old ways are the best. If you want a lot of strong coffee, you can’t beat a cafetière. The Espro P7 (£105 at Borough Kitchen) has remained as good as it gets since the first time I tried it years ago. If you want to save a ton of money, try the Bodum cafetière (£16 at Amazon); it’s under £20, and while it’s not as fancy as other options, it will make a litre of very good coffee. For stronger coffee, try a moka pot – Bialettis (£36.69 at Amazon) are iconic and what I use, but Vonshef (£15.99 at Amazon) is way cheaper.
Easily my favourite coffee maker is an Aeropress, which I reviewed a range of last year. Aeropress is affordable, portable, fun to use, and makes delicious, unique coffee. It’s faster and cheaper than most cafetières or moka pots and tastes incredible. There’s an ongoing cost with filter papers, but that’s negligible compared to pod coffee subscriptions. The only drawback is that it’s single-serving (unless you buy an Aeropress XL (£87.08 at Amazon)).
For an espresso machine, keep it simple. The Sage Barista Express Impress, which we’ve reviewed has everything you need and nothing else; beginners and pros alike can get a lot out of this machine.
Drip coffee shouldn’t be fancy either. I’ve long loved the mid-century design of the Moccamaster KBG Select, which is easily the best filter coffee machine we’ve tried, but your wallet is better off with a cheap machine like the Russell Hobbs Buckingham (£44 at Amazon).
For milky coffees, the De’Longhi Eletta Explore is the best I’ve ever tried, but painfully expensive; the Melitta Latticia wowed me recently for much less, though it’s not as stylish.
For a pod coffee machine, I’d go with the Nespresso Lattissima One EN510. It makes latte and cappuccino and uses the original Nespresso pods – I think they taste better than the Nespresso Vertuo pods or competitors like Tassimo. The original Nespresso pods are an industry standard; if you want to try coffee from Grind or Rave, you need a machine that takes the originals.
Though you have to navigate jargon and marketing tricks, there are some great coffee machines out there – you just have to know what you’re looking for.
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