Tell me about your coffee machines

[Beetie1]

I have some money that I can treat myself with and I have decided I would like a posh coffee machine. I'm not too keen on the ones that use pods (single use plastic and all that). I know nothing about what coffee machines are available so tell me about yours, if you like it, and any pros and cons.

[mateysmum]

I have a Gaggia Classic. It's a machine that's been around for many years and is recommended on many coffee websites.
It's not fancy or especially stylish but does the job really well. I'm very happy with mine which I got barely used on Gumtree.
Some coffee aficionados swear by bean to cup machines but depends on your budget and how much space you have on your worktop.
I find Lavazza coffee works best in my Gaggia. Really like the Oro blend.

[CwtchesCuddles]

I have a senseo machine, it uses pods (like thick tea bags). We were in Spain on holuday in a villa and there was a senseo machine in the kitchen, we fell in love with it and bought one. They are very popular in other european contries but not so much here.
I love it because there is no mess and no plastic! I buy supplies on amazon.

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

De Longhi bean to cup machine. Adjust the size of cup or mug, strength of coffee, type of coffee. You can have a frothier or not. There’s usually a deal to be had somewhere.

[Beetie1]

@Foxyloxy1plus1 I like the look of the de'longhi machines. Which model do you have/how much did you pay? There looks to be a significant price difference between models. Also sorry if this is a daft question, but with bean to cup machines does the machine grind the beans in one section and then you put the ground beans in another section for it to make coffee? Or is it a case of putting beans in and pressing 'go'?

[Chottie]

Hi I have a De Longhi bean to cup model too.

You put the beans in at the back, fill the water container and switch on. There are lots of coffee choices, including a personalised coffee option. Select your coffee of choice and the machine grinds the beans, heats the water and makes your coffee. Once the machine is set up, it's just a matter of pressing a couple of buttons.

[Absolutepowercorrupts]

I have a De longhi bean to cup, with the hot chocolate attachment. It's fantastic. It wasn't cheap but I've no regrets at all. There are two compartments one for beans and one for ground coffee.

[ShirleyPhallus]

I have a gaggia also. I love it, but it does need to be descaled regularly.

Much prefer ones with proper coffee rather than pods

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

It cost about £300 ish. They say that they’re half price quite a lot of the time.

You put the beans in the hopper at the top, put the cup or mug under the spout, decide what strength coffee you want, whether you want espresso, latte, whatever and press the button. It beeps at you when it needs filling with water, when the grounds need emptying and when you need to fill the hopper with beans. All easy to do.

We buy beans from Aldi, usually strength 5, but 3 or 4 if they haven’t got 5. DH likes an espresso. I have My Coffee, which is standard strength in a mug. You just turn the dial.

It rinses itself with water periodically and needs cleaning out weekly. That DH’s job, but doesn’t take long.

Love my coffee machine.

[PontiacBandit]

Delonghi bean to cup here too, we love it. It's used every day, I love lavazza beans in it. It's so simple to use and no pod wastage. If it broke tomorrow, we'd buy the same replacement straight away.

[ShivaDestroyerOfEvil]

DeLonghi bean to cup here too. I love it. Bought for about £256 from memory from the DeLonghi eBay outlet store. Retail was £699 so a massive saving.

When it arrived it had made ten cups of coffee according to the on board stats. Full manufacturers warranty.

[HermioneWeasley]

Melitta filter coffee machine. Cost about £40. Makes great tasting and hot drip coffee

[ShivaDestroyerOfEvil]

This is mine. I initially ordered this one but cancelled my order I thought the milk thing looked a bit of a faff.

I didn’t realise the prices were always discounted somewhere but I love it, would buy it again if it broke.

[isseywith4vampirecats]

another endorsement for the delonghi bean to cup ours is about six years old and still working well my OH orders his beans from a place in Swansea but that's because he used to live there and likes the blend from them

[MsRinky]

I have a Melitta DeLuxe Filter as well, it's brilliant. It's the cheapest machine approved by the European Coffee Brewing Centre, and the coffee is delicious. Basically everyone who has a coffee at my house goes out and buys one, which is handy for me as I don't have to drink any more crap pod coffee from overcomplex machines on my return visits. And when you read studies about coffee being good for you, they always mean filter coffee.

It's not quite a beautiful as the Technivorm ones (works the same though) but it was a LOT cheaper.

[ShivaDestroyerOfEvil]

I just buy whatever is on offer at Ocado bean wise. Last week it was 1kg of Cafe Direct Espresso beans for £12.

I don’t like Aldi’s beans, I find them a bit bitter compared to everything else I use. They are also quite oily, which is really easy to spot next to another type of bean when you are filling up.

[PaddyF0dder]

We’ve got a pretty basic Nespresso machine with a separate milk frother.

I absolutely accept that the environmental impact is... not ideal. I love it though. Great coffee every time.

[HidingFromDD]

After a massive amount of research I've just bought delonghi dedica espresso pump machine. It's not bean to cup, you have to grind beans separately, and also froth the milk yourself, but I like that I can decide which beans to use each time, and also experiment with the milk. Very pleased with it but it is more manual than the bean to cup machines

[AGoodPodcastAndANiceCupOfTea]

We already had a Bosch bean grinder so decided against a bean to cup machine but also we found that the cost of the bean to cup was such that we could only really afford a bottom of the range one whereas we were able to buy a good quality espresso maker with a milk warmer and frothed. We chose the Delongi Dedica and we love it. It's really neat and stylish and it makes great coffee. I'm not in love with the grinder though and desperately want one that will allow us to remove the ground coffee much more nearly!!!

[Beetie1]

I've had a look at the de'longhi dedica and I might be swayed... looking at the bean to cup ones I think the lower price range is what I could afford which would be a model where you have to steam the milk yourself anyway so with the dedica it's just the bean grinding I'd be doing extra and I could live with that. As a side question - when you grind beans how long could/would you keep any excess after grinding to use in the machine? Can they be kept 'fresh' in the fridge/freezer for later use?

[Nyx]

We have the dedica and we love it. We buy ground coffee for it and I like trying different kinds. It has a small footprint which is what I liked about it, my kitchen is very small. My sister now has one as well and neither of us has any complaints whatsoever.

[ViveLEntenteCordiale]

We have a nespresso with a milk frother - it's more than 10 years old and is still going strong so was well worth the money. I agree it's not great environmentally but it works well for us economically as we only drink coffee a few times a week and the pods keep for ages. I do recycle them and we've actually just bought some reusable pods because a friend gave us some very nice coffee beans - they are fine though it's a bit of a pain working out how fine to grind the coffee.

[icelollycraving]

We used to have a Delonghi bean to cup, it was great until it went wrong within about two years I think. John Lewis let use exchange it, we then went for Sage fancy pants separate bean grinder and barista. Think those two were around £1250. It is good but a real ball ache to descale which the Delonghi wasn't.
We need a new one now, had that for around 6 and a half years. Don't want to spend that again!! We must really hammer our coffee machines.

[jcurve]

We have a Delonghi Magnifica bean to cup & previously had a Gaggia Classic. We use the Delonghi more than we did the Gaggia because it’s quicker and less cleaning up. I’ve had mine for coming up to 3 years and it’s been faultless. We tend to get posh beans from Monmouth etc but that’s just us.

[CatMuffin]

Melitta filter machine. About £30. I like the ease of cleaning. Just throw the paper filter in the compost and rinse the jug and filter holder or put in the dishwasher

[ImperfectTents]

I have a delonghi dedica. Currently selling for 160 on amazon. It makes great coffee. I had a gaggia for years but the company has changed hands so when i needed a new one I changed to delonghi. I love it. I have a separate grinder which is fine