Please recommend me a coffee machine

[Itsketotime]

My requirements…

• doesn’t take up too much space
• under £100
• versatile
• not too faffy to use

I don’t have a preference as to bean/ground/pods so would welcome advice on the options too.

Thanks!

Nespresso!

Never nespresso! Bad for the environment & mediocre coffee

For your requirements, I’d get a stove top pot. With a milk frother (bodum, goes in microwave & dishwasher) if you want frothy white coffee

Aeropress, plus a decent grinder like an Aergrind. Just over £100 for both.

www.amazon.co.uk/Aerobie-AeroPress-A80-Coffee-Maker/dp/B000GXZ2GS/?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

madebyknock.com/products/aergrind

We have recently got a dolce gusto and it's good. It doesn't take up a lot of space on the worktop (we got the genio s or plus), lots of different types of pods and they do a recycling scheme. Dp who is the main coffee drinker is happy, dc like the hot chocolates and I have had a few nice lattes though still mainly drink tea.

Swan retro espresso machine. Somewhat faffy but so worth it, I won't go back to a pod machine.

www.moccamaster.eu/kbg-select/

Don’t know how to link , but I love our mocca master - I’m a big fan of filter coffee, though!

John Lewis do an own brand one that does espresso, cappuccino, latte.

It’s £100. I have a grinder from Krups.

@BurscoughBooths

Never nespresso! Bad for the environment & mediocre coffee

No they aren't. An average use of a Nespresso machine uses the equivalent of 3 aluminium cans a month. Alu is infinitely recyclable Do you hand wring over the environmental impacts of your tins of tomatoes or beans?

Don't get a complicated machine unless you like complicated coffee.

If you mostly drink coffee based on strong, black with or without added milk and sugar then a stovetop mokka will be perfect. Maybe £30 if you opush the boat out and the something like Lavazza red packet ground coffee

By one from a shop and check how the top fits. You want to be sure that the steam hole does not sit under the handle.

Then all you have to recycle is the packet the coffee came in.

And it is small, easy to clean and takes minutes to use. By the time the kettle has boiled the mokka should have started to 'perk'

Coffee pods are made of composite materials, and while they can theoretically be recycled, the fact they have to be stripped of each individual component makes the recycling idea worse than useless... ie it takes more resources to recycle them than to dispose of and make from virgin materials. Plus they have to be collected from the customer's doorstep, requiring vast amounts of fuel for the logistics of the collection operations. So wasteful, dressed up with greenwashing.

@BahHumbygge

Coffee pods are made of composite materials, and while they can theoretically be recycled, the fact they have to be stripped of each individual component makes the recycling idea worse than useless... ie it takes more resources to recycle them than to dispose of and make from virgin materials. Plus they have to be collected from the customer's doorstep, requiring vast amounts of fuel for the logistics of the collection operations. So wasteful, dressed up with greenwashing.

Such are the shortcomings of recycling.

And yet the science says that barista made, bean to cup and drip/filter coffee is worse for the environment as it needs twice as much coffee and significantly more energy to produce a single cup over Nespresso. We are obsessed with the waste we can see and forget about that which we can't.

A Nespresso pod has 1g of aluminium. Even if I threw away every one of them It would the same wastage per month as if I put 2 coke cans (15g of aluminium) in the non recycling bin.

I've got a tassimo my way & have bought refillable pods. We use one for coffee & one for hot chocolate, plus I have a hot water disc for making tea, herbal teas etc. No pod wastage, we can use the coffee of our choice (Illy) & no crappy powdered milk, for a latte which is what is drunk most, milk in microwave for 40 seconds, shot of coffee & it layers up just like from a coffee shop.

I think you can buy reusable pods for the majority of machines now.
I have a second hand De Longhi espresso machine and its nothing fancy but does the job. I use locally roasted ground coffee in mine.

I have a Tassimo (not sure which one - fairly basic model and was reduced to £40 just before Christmas). I shall definitely be investigating the reusable pods as hadn’t heard of them.

www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/cep5152b/beko-cep5152b-coffee-machine?refsource=apadwords&mkwid=sZXosZAgv_dm&pcrid=309827946160&product=CEP5152B&pgrid=61716201993&ptaid=pla-537788270146&channel=googlesearch&gclid=Cj0KCQiAoY-PBhCNARIsABcz772h5KJYH4fBcNGdgukpxnMUJ2OVnFnK5ospukmnRwJXNTADPvCMh7IaAoXiEALw_wcB

Makes really decent espresso, and you can use ese coffee pods in it too. Has a milk frother, which I've never used as I have a dualit milk frother/warmer.

I would never recommend a nespresso or other coffee pod machine, not just because of the environmental harm, or the extra cost and pain in the arse when you run out, and the fact that they’re all invariably shit coffee, but because you also ingest nanoparticles of plastic with the shit coffee.
I have a Delonghi Dedica. It doesn’t take up much real estate on the bench and it’s been MUCH better than other, more expensive machines I’ve owned. (Once you program it the way you want it. Read the instructions!) The cleaning cycle is a doddle and doesn’t take long either. I live in Aus, so no idea of the cost, but it wasn’t much here. I do recommend that you get a coffee grinder and grind your own beans to a courser grind, or buy from a roaster/cafe. (Mine makes damn fine coffee with a 4.25 grind. Any finer and it either takes too long to come through or it chokes.)

I got this one from JL but just spotted it slightly cheaper on Aldi: https://www.aldi.co.uk/de%27longhi-stilosa-espresso-maker/p/717657573950500?gclid=Cj0KCQiAoY-PBhCNARIsABcz770U7iGOybBUNtjVPia-nVsZIMiM0yaKxmLpxCldfHfjpxkdQoBlFEaApLNEALww_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

It makes lovely espresso and has a milk frother attached (also good for hot chocolate). You can put ground coffee or pods in it, we use the Illy espresso stuff.

It's absolutely brilliant and has been used every day since I bought it a year ago. So easy to clean and takes up very little space. Honestly if it eventually broke I'd buy the same model again!

We've got a beautiful La Pavoni coffee maker lovingly brought home from Italy...and it sits on the counter gathering dust. DH is the only one who drinks coffee, and he uses a one-cup cafetière from Bodum, which he is delighted with - he wouldn't even consider a machine. Seems super simple to me.

I love my nespresso but the milk one latissima or some such is more expensive than the little one that will meet your budget.

Aero press all the way. Super simple, beautiful coffee and you can compost the grinds and filter paper. We generally drink it black but if DH wants a latte we have a separate plug in milk frother. My folks have a super fancy coffee machine and the aero press wins hands down on taste in my opinion.

Eden project sell compostable pods that you can put in with your food waste recycling.

Placemarking. We're using a Boden cafetier, it makes ok coffee but I would like to try something else.

What @BurscoughBooths or @BahHumbygge suggested. Nespresso coffee is definitely mediocre in comparison, not sure why but it is.

I have a De'Longhi Dedica and it's really good. Small footprint on the worktop and easy to use. It is about £150 though so above what you wanted to pay.