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Coffee machine

2 replies

Katyrosebug · 23/06/2022 08:38

Good morning MN!

I want to buy DH a coffee machine for his birthday but I'm clueless as to what. He drinks at least 2 cups before he leaves for work in the morning and will take a flask, he drinks it throughout the day at work and will have a couple of cups when he's back home.
Looking to spend up to £200, what would you recomend?

OP posts:
maxelly · 23/06/2022 11:33

What does he use for his coffee now - a cafetiere, stove top, or instant? What's his order in a coffee shop, espresso, filter, flat white, latte, cappucino? I ask because there's basically two options that I like and are often recommended on here but they make quite different coffees....

Option 1 is a aeropress which is a little handheld gadget that makes very nice filter coffee - longer and 'thinner' than the expresso based coffees you get in Costa et al. Because it's not electric it's cheap (you can get the whole kit including the filter papers it uses for about £30) but for best results you should probably also get him a small electric bean grinder (although you can just buy ready-ground, it goes stale quickly and just isn't as nice as freshly ground), and if he's a latte/cappucino/flat white fan a milk frother/warmer would be a nice addition also. You should be able to get all that for your budget plus maybe some nice packs of beans or even a bean subscription for a few months?

Option 2 for if all that sounds a bit of a faff or he's a real expresso fan, a bean to cup machine is what you really want. £200 is probably not enough for a good new one but we have a second hand DeLonghi that had been refurbished that cost about that and it's really great, delicious coffee that comes in a variety of lengths and strengths at the press of a button, and it has an in-built frother for the coffee-shop style drinks.

Otherwise the pod machines (nespresso and tassimo etc) do make good coffee also, are very easy to use and are more within your budget for a new one but personally I don't think they're up there with the bean to cup for the quality of the coffee, plus if he wanted to make himself 4 or 5 coffees with it throughout the day the pods are pricey compared to just buying beans, you can get reusable pods that you fill with fresh-ground or ready-ground coffee which are more eco friendly too but I find them very fiddly and messy personally... the other options are an old-fashioned drip filter machine with a jug (perfectly nice and much more affordable, although see again my comments about ready ground vs fresh so you might need a grinder too) or a stove-top expresso pot or mocha pot (again I find these messy and too much faff for first thing in the morning before I've had my coffee but maybe that's just me!) - they do look nice though!

picklemewalnuts · 23/06/2022 11:37

As he drinks quite a lot, I'd avoid espresso machines. He wants to make a jug at a time, not a cup.

I'd look for a bean to cup filter machine. You get the advantage of an easy machine, with the taste of a good bean.

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