Best coffee machines?

[Fuckallthetories]

I love lattes! ESPECIALLY oat milk and brown sugar ones…… for Christmas, I’d like to ask for a coffee machine, as we don’t have one.
it needs to be

able to use beans
not pods
can froth milk
can make different types of coffee
timer (so I don’t have to make it in the morning)
can just froth milk
£250-£300 price ranch, probably can stretch to £400 for the perfect one

thanks mumsnettters!!

Bump

I currently have a Sage Barista Express and it’s amazing. Not sure it’s within budget though, but you could look at a second hand or refurbished one?

Aside from that, I’ve always had Delonghi machines and can’t recommend highly them enough. The frothing wand is far better than Sage imo as you have more control over steam flow etc.

You’ll get a fab Delonghi within budget and whilst I haven’t had one with bean grinder (no idea if they do bean to cup and meant to be working so can’t Google!), you’d easily be able to get a decent grinder for beans, then just use the ground coffee.

Also not sure about timer facility as I’ve never had that on any coffee maker I’ve owned - but love the way your mind works; that’d be useful feature 😂.

Here’s the Sage - I also noticed there’s a refurbished option for £325 on Google search so could be in budget

www.johnlewis.com/sage-barista-express-bean-to-cup-coffee-machine/p3501284

Here’s the DeLonghi I had (in fact I’ve had 3 of these over the years!)

www.delonghi.com/en-gb/icona-vintage-ecov311-bg-pump-espresso-coffee-machine/p/ECOV311.BG

I have a Sage Bambino Plus and love it. It’s a small machine, but feature rich for its size and price point. It’s simple to use, will steam milk excellently automatically and can adapt to either freshly ground or pre-ground coffee depending on the baskets used.

It’s worth considering that it doesn’t come with an integrated grinder, so if you want to grind your own then you’ll need to invest more money into an espresso capable grinder. That suited me, as I wanted a heifer that would adapt for making other coffee methods as well as espresso. You can’t change brew temperature on the Bambino Plus, but that’s quite standard for entry level machine. Also, the Sage machines are designed differently to machines like the Gaggia ones, where modding and tinkering is common. Sage machines are designed so that you use them as they come.

It sounds like you want an espresso machine and I don’t think it’s common for them to come with timers, unlike coffee brewers which frequently do. You could grind your coffee in the portafilter the night before, but I wouldn’t recommend as the coffee would stale overnight. It doesn’t take long at all to grind and press the on button once you are dialled in. Black Friday is coming up, and it might be worth waiting for then. Coffebloguk usually has a list of which machines are on offer, and if you decide a Sage machine is what you want, then he’ll often have a discount code if you email.

We’ve got a Philips, which is probably nearer to your budget.

What I like

It has a milk frother
It has several different programmes
It’s fairly compact

Not so keen

The water thing seems to fill up quickly, which can be annoying

Oooh thanks! I like the look of the Delonghi one, and it’ll go with my new kitchen… it’s also the cheapest so might be able to get a bean grinder as well! Can anyone recommend a good one?

Not sure which Delonghi one you’re looking at, but whether or not it has pressurised baskets is important to which grinder you need. Basically, if your espresso machine has pressured (Sage call them dual wall) baskets which is what most entry level espresso machines come with, then the grind matters less as the pressure required to make espresso comes from the basket. If the baskets are unpressurised then the pressure to make the espresso comes from the fine grind size and tamping, so the grinder becomes important. I have a Sage Smart Grinder Pro which I picked up for around £100 when it was on offer and that’s perfect for me.

This article here goes into more depth on grinders, but basically, you can get away with a cheaper grinder if your baskets are pressurised.