Coffee machine

[empitness]

Hi all, posting here for traffic. Me and DH are occasional coffee drinkers and like the idea of having a coffee machine. I want to buy a coffee machine, within a reasonable budget upto £170. My problem is that there is so much variety and I don't know what to pick. Some of them are very reasonable but the replacement pods costs a lot, some are filtered and so on. Please help me select a machine , which is not expensive to run in longer term ( like buying pods and all).
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

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Hello, this thread is a little old and some of the recommendations might be out of date. If you’re looking for up-to-date advice on the best coffee machine money can buy, take a look at our round-up of Mumsnetters’ favourites. MNHQ.

[BoobleMcB]

For a pod machine definitely Nespresso! So easy and the pods are at most £3.30 For 10. And they're actually decent coffee.

Aeropress and French press aren't comparable. More effort goes into them and that's not what you want for a quick, easy, no clean, no fuss decent coffee

[HundredMilesAnHour]

I have a Gaggia Titanium (and previously had a Gaggia Babyclass) but with the OP's budget and only occasional coffee drinking, I'd go with a good grinder such as the Wilfa:

workshopcoffee.com/collections/hardware/products/wilfa-grinder-cgws-130b

and a cafetiere or Hario V60 (I prefer the V60 personally). I find Aeropress too fiddly.

Nespresso is tolerable but not amazing. As for Tassimo, I'd rather go without. Cheap and nasty stuff!

[Flumpernickel]

Nespresso 100%! Amazing (if you select the good coffees so try and get a taster pack), easy to clean, easy to reorder, easy to use and easy to recycle the pods if you ask for the bag. For the price, ease of use, consistent taste etc, you cant go wrong.

[LeannePerrins]

I agree that cleaning a cafetière is a PITA - the grounds are always too wet for the bin and too solid for the sink, and we don't have a compost heap.

But FWIW the aeropress pops out a perfect, neat little puck of compressed coffee grounds. You fire it straight into the bin and rinse the unit and that's literally it.

I can make coffee from fresh beans in about one minute longer than it takes to use a pod machine, but I do appreciate that this isn't for you if you want a plug'n'play solution.

[Flumpernickel]

Oh, and dont make the mistake of buying the highstreet nespresso compatible pods. They are shit. Nespresso pods only.

[Flumpernickel]

Tassimo is bleurgh.

[perhapstomorrow]

Another vote for a delonghi magnifica. Much prefer the coffee from that to most high street chains. We bulk buy beans from Costco. The Columbian beans have a good mellow, medium flavour.

[Ohyesiam]

I really love coffee, couldn't start the day without it, but don't like aeropress at all. To me it really ruins coffee. So try before you buy

[Sgtmajormummy]

I'm currently doing the rounds of 3 different types of coffee machines and can see the good and bad sides of them all so here goes...

1. Bialetti stove-top mocha pot. Makes seriously strong espresso. Cheap but messy and relatively slow.
   
2. Dolce Gusto Pod machine. Cheap to buy but expensive pods. OK for occasional use. Wide variety of drinks and the coffee is good. Environmentally unfriendly. I bought some refillable pods on Amazon but they need to be packed tight and are messy.
   
3. De'Longhi machine. Less than €100 six years ago and makes great coffee. Compatible with ESA pods (those crappy little cushions) but I just use good ground coffee.
   

1. We now want yet another machine and I'm considering this

[Chickydoo]

I use the rombouts (sp) and Waitrose equivalent little plastic cups with coffee grounds at the bottom.
Just pour in boiling water for an Individual fresh coffee. Not environmentally friendly, but no faffing about with gadgets.
Mind you, I could have brought 10 or more coffee machines for the amount I've spent on the plastic cups.

[justilou]

I have a Deloghi Dedica. I love it. It doesn't take up three quarters of the bench and doesn't have a cleaning cycle that takes hours and constant coming and going. It has a small reservoir for water and needs re-filling more often than a bigger machine, but has enough pressure to make a really good cappuccino.

[LeannePerrins]

Chicky you need some of these. I've only ever found them in Sainsbury's but they are brilliant. Much less wasteful and bulky than the plastic ones.

[Scholes34]

We've a Gaggia for espresso and steamed milk, a filter coffee machine (AEG machine, still going strong after 36 years), a number of cafetieres in various sizes, but if I had to keep just one, it would be the Italian stove top Moka pot (as also suggested by Smeaton). That's just a mere 35 years old, and you can take it camping!

[Scholes34]

But whatever you do, for the sake of your children, grandchildren and the planet - avoid the pods!

[KenAdams]

I've had all of the pod machines and they don't even compare to the Magnifica as it's freshly ground.

[LadyPenelopeCantDance]

Have a look at this Dulce Gusto for £35. Great price and cheapish pods as well. Lots of Amazon reviews too raving about it.

<a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00J5ERXZM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499380361&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=dolce%20gusto%20coffee%20machine&dpPl=1&dpID=41fSPtv5upL&ref=plSrch&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00J5ERXZM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499380361&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=dolce%20gusto%20coffee%20machine&dpPl=1&dpID=41fSPtv5upL&ref=plSrch&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[LakeFlyPie]

I've heard many good reviews of Aeropress but IME there's no crema.
What's the point in that?!

[GimbleInTheWabe]

DP is the head barista at his coffee shop. At home we have a Sage by Heston grinder and use a chemex which makes fab coffee. The chemex is a pour over/drip filter so you weigh and grind the beans then pour boiled water over the beans through a filter in to the chemex.

I am a coffee snob granted and would never buy an nespresso or similar, imo the coffee they produce is utter shite as are the little whizzy milk things they sell. And yes the pods are terrible for the environment.

[GimbleInTheWabe]

Aeropress could be a good shout though. They're really cheap, ~£30 if I remember rightly, you do have to buy filters for it but they were cheap too and we haven't run out yet. You can use ore ground coffee in it if you wanted to (though fresh ground whole beans is much better) which would be quicker/more convenient.

[ItsAMackerel]

Another vote for our Delonghi Magnifica. Have had it about 4 years and the coffee is excellent.

[BlondeB83]

We have a Gaggia bean to cup - it's amazing but it cost about £500

[okthenigiveup]

I took ages before deciding to buy as it was expensive but
Have a small Jura. Cost £500, 9 years ago but it self cleans, maintenance easy and so still going strong.
It's bean to cup, has milk frother too and coffee is great.
Put the coffee grounds on the roses!
We still love it.

[MargaretCavendish]

We have both a pod machine (a Dolce Gusto) and a cafetiere - I use the cafetiere whenever making coffee for more than one, but I like the pod machine for making just one. I don't really understand why people are so obsessed with the plastic from the pods - obviously it isn't ideal, but other equally environmentally unfriendly domestic uses of plastic get a lot less hate. For instance, a pod uses a lot less plastic than the tray for a ready meal - but, while eating a ready meal daily isn't great for other reasons, I've never heard anyone rang about their environmental impact. I think there's a weird snobbery about the pod machines which is justified through their environmental impact.

[caffeinequick]

I love my nespresso. You can normally try them in places like John Lewis.

[BlahBlahBlahEtc]

I have a Tassimo. It's fine but nothing fancy. Pods are usually on offer at supermarkets aswell.