Are bean to cup coffee machines worth the extra £?

[Mycatsmellsbad]

We usually have filter coffee which is alright but I’ve heard lots of good things about the fancy big grinder machines.

If anyone has one could you recommend me any? Are they worth it for the huge amount they cost? Are they noisy and faffy?

I've got the DeLonghi Elletta- bought on one of those Black Friday deals. It makes excellent coffee, is noisy but not faffy. Saved a fair bit of money by buying coffee beans in large quantities, rather than ground too. Definitely not a purchase I regret!

Do they take up much room? DH keeps looking longingly at them, but we don't have much counter space in the kitchen.

IMO you’d be better off just buying a coffee grinder and then making it in a filter machine/cafetiere. We had a bean to cup, (I don’t drink coffee but DP does,) it was expensive, took up half the counter and broke down within a year. Never again.

I have one that uses ground coffee and I definitely wouldn't go back to filter coffee from that. I don't drink enough to justify a bean-to-cup one though - I think you probably need to be drinking a fair amount to get value for money out of it (I'm only a one cup a day woman!)

I have a bean to cup machine and I really, really like it. DH talked me into buying it, but now I use it more than him. It's a Delonghi Dinamica

We have a Delonghi which we bought 4 years ago and is used daily. It's big but the coffee is lovely and saves ££ as we don't buy outside.

p.s. it is not faffy, I just need to fill up the water tank, add coffee beans and then select which coffee I want.

We've got the Sage Oracle Touch, which was ££££ - but we do love our nice coffee!

Yes it takes up some space on the counter, it has locking wheels which make it really easy to move around and pull out to fill up the water and beans.

For us it was worth the money because of the amount of use it gets. We've saved a fortune, usually spent in coffee shops.

I have a Breville grinder. It doesn’t take up much room. We use it mainly for espresso. It’s excellent and has many settings for grinding. It was well worth the price.

I used to have a Braun burr grinder. It was excellent as well, better for brewed coffee than espresso. It was German made, and i had it for 30 years before it finally broke. A burr grinder is fine for drip coffee, if it has enough power.

I got a DeLonghi machine that's not bean to cup, but then bought the grinder separately. Much cheaper and does the exact same thing, and really small so neater than a massive machine

The ones that take ground coffee what’s the benefit of those? Are they really any different to have a plunger filter?

The delonghi financial looks good - anything that’s easy is good in my eyes!

I have a cheap filter machine and a separate grinder so can use ground coffee or beans. I was thinking of getting a new all singing one but what’s the benefit of a bean to cup machine?

Dinamica not financial

And cafetière was the word I was thinking off for plunger filter!

I've got one of these
www.delonghi.com/en-gb/products/coffee/coffee-makers/pump-espresso/dedica-style-ec-685m-0132106168

Makes a great coffee. Different to plunger coffee that I also drink a lot and like very strong and black. Thinking about it, I'd probably get the same strength as the plunger if I used the two scoop fitting (used when I do two cups of coffee) instead of the one scoop. I use the machine to make cappuccinos.

Quick and easy to use, easy to clean.

Watching this as my normal cheap coffee machine recently broke. I'm currently using a cafetiere but did toy with the idea a bean to cup machine. I only have one or two cups in the morning and also don't have much worktop space so not sure I can justify. But I love the idea. (I do have a grinder so I could buy beans and grind them but hardly ever get it out of the cupboard to do this!)

Are they really any different to have a plunger filter?

It is different. Quicker too!

I have the Delonghi Dedica linked to earlier (Mine is bright red though). Nice and small on the work top.

They are worth it. We have the Sage bean to cup machine. It's fab. There is a group on Facebook for people that have one so it's worth looking on there for recommendations/advice

Also if you have friends round for coffee, how easy is it to make a few cups?

@soupdragon mine is red too! Not the current red, the style before. Did you also get the matching toaster and jug? I had to as it's my favourite red and wasn't going to be in fashion that long LOL

@everyonebutme it's easy to do multiple cups - just do the coffee shots first then do the milk.

Just thought of another question, it’s not clear from the description of either the bean to cup or filter ones that you can fill a decent sized cup. Dp has two of the sports direct sized mugs each morning (!) so I’d like to think they would cater for that...

I’ve just spotted the smeg coffee machine and whilst it’s not bean to cup and probably only fills a thimble at a time, it would look lovely on my worktop...

www.johnlewis.com/smeg-ecf01-coffee-machine/p3081576

@k1233 Mine is probably an older red too as I've had it a few years now. I don't have the matching toaster and kettle though :)

@Mycatsmellsbad if it's straight black coffee, you need to top up with hot water. If it's milky, you do the coffee shot (I do a double shot as I like strong coffee) then heat the milk up.