Which of these coffee machines would you buy?

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Never had a coffee machine before. I know I don’t want a pod machine. Not sure if I need one with an inbuilt grinder, or could just use pre ground coffee or even buy a separate grinder? I mainly drink flat whites and also mochas so not sure if they can all do those.

A- breville. Looks nice. Doesn’t have an inbuilt grinder but does have a milk compartment. Not sure if milk compartments are an advantage over using a jug?

B- delonghi. This one is cheaper and compact but I think does what the breville does but no milk compartment. But a jug is cheap enough and maybe easier to clean? Popular on Amazon.

C - bean to cup. So this one has an inbuilt grinder. Maybe not as nice looking as the other 2. I did read an article saying some people avoid inbuilt grinders because if it breaks you need a whole new machine, rather than just a new stand alone grinder.

We have the bean to cup one at work and it makes fantastic coffee. I drink mine black so don't know how good the milk frother is though.

I believe that bean to cup would give you the best flavour but I can't say if you'd notice the difference. I don't think I would.
I like the look of the breville one because the milk frother can be used for hot chocolate. Plus you can use ESE pods which I think are ok for the environment? I'm researching too its like a full time job!

I have a very similar one to your option C - it's a De Longhi Magnifica bean to cup, but with slightly different buttons on the front. I love it. DH was sceptical initially but has now been totally converted. We've only had it a couple of months so not sure about the grinder breaking etc, but it's just so easy!

Bean to cup definitely. I press 2 buttons to get freshly ground coffee every morning. I don't bother heating the milk just pour from fridge to the cup.

Grinding the beans separately is a royal pita, they are not ground enough or too much, can't get the coffee into the machine without it going everywhere and is a nightmare to clean

Thank you. Looks like the bean to cup is the one then.

Bean to cup, we have a delonghi one similar to C but with a milk frother, 4 years and still going strong.

Delonghi bean to cup. Worth it! My husband and I mark our coffee machine anniversary. Five years now, no regrets.

We have the DeLonghi Magnifica S and I love it . It is £££ though.

Does anyone have either the delonghi magnifica or the sage bambino plus? Both of these are around £300ish and seem to have good reviews...

I ended up buying the delonghi magnifica and I do love it now. It took me a while to work out what I needed to do. Thought it was faulty at first as I hadn’t appreciated it will blast some hot water through before it makes the coffee each time as a cleaning thing. So I wasn’t sure why I was getting sludgy coloured water 😁🙈

it’s easy to use once you read the instructions or watch a YouTube video. Coffee tastes good. It’s easy to clean.

We upgraded from B to C (both not identical, but similar machines). Very happy with the upgrade, plus beans work out cheaper per cup than capsules.