Coffee maker... help!

[Shantay]

So Christmas is looming and I'm trying to find a coffee maker for DH that will make fancy coffees. The kind you need to buy pods for.

There are so many!! Can anyone advise which ones are good? I have no idea where to start as I don't drink coffee...

Are the pods super expensive?
Are they easy to clean?

Thanks!

Boswell - JDE do a recycling programme for Tassimo pods and some other coffee packaging
www.terracycle.co.uk/en-GB/brigades/the-tassimo-lor-brigade-r#how-it-works

I'd go for an aeropress and a coffee making class. Something like this

www.trymykitchen.com/cookery/uk/london-cooking-classes/coffee-making-class/

Recycling, if it is done, is only part of the story though. The manufacturing is wasteful too.

I'm not perfect in my environmental credentials by a long way but the pods seem so unnecessary.

I love my Tassimo for hot choc and americano type coffee - not too keen on it's lattes as I go for skinny milk normally.

Ours has a button that extends the water flow for additional strength. Other models in the range seem less easy to use in that respect

Don't get a pod machine... you're locked into an ecosystem of mediocre coffee. There're also catastrophic in terms of waste produced... the metal pod, then it's plastic coated. Theoretically possible to recycle it, but there's limited collection facilities/you have to send them off. Which uses large amounts of fuel and resources, which kind of defeats the point.

Get a hand grinder (or electric) plus Aeropress (£30 ish). You can then have the full scope of coffee beans on the market, from supermarket to poncy hipster roasterie. I get £1.80 ish Italian beans from Aldi and I make stonking coffee every morning

It's super easy to clean too. Pop the puck of coffee out into the compost, then it literally takes 3 seconds to rinse under the tap.

Buy a cafeteriere! The pods are environmentally unsound and coffee isn't great in them. Buy a grinder for real beans too.

My husband has spent weeks researching coffee machines and has just bought a Lavazza Magiaplus. I think this week it reduced by about £100 in John Lewis and hence why he suddenly bought it.

One other thing that concerns me is the use of palm oil in the chocolate, assuming it is the same as the other hot chocolates made by the big brands.

These machines are not looking very environmentally friendly, unfortunately. A shame as it would have made a good present for us.

Had a stovetop cappuchino maker for a while, it made lovely coffee, wish I had kept it now. It was a Bialetti Mukka Express. Might look at getting another one as I have been missing it lately.

We have recently bought the Magimix Nespresso 'with milk' model and it's great. We're still on the introductory free Nespresso pods but have tried theAldi ones which are reasonably priced and good. It was only after I bought the machine that I learned about the difficulty of recycling empty pods. I have since discovered that Nespresso do have the tech to recycle them properly so I save them into a big bag which can be dropped off at a Collect+ point

Re the hot chocolate I've found that two or three teaspoons of the good quality hot chocolate powder (I'm using Taste the Difference San Domingo drinking chocolate powder) made into a little paste with milk then topped up with milk from the frother is absolutely lovely so don't think you need to get pods for this and no horrible additives. I'm sure DD would approve.

I've owned a DeLonghi Magnifica bean to cup for 14 years... just replaced it with a new Autentica which does all kinds of whizzy stuff. Brilliant coffee and worth the price tag given how much coffee I drink

Bean to cup machines have had problems with cockroaches infesting them. See here

I’ve got an Italian stovetop mocha and a milk frother from Aldi.

Also think about recycling. Nespresso pods are aluminium and they recycle them. Tassimo I know are plastic and I wouldn't feel so good about that much plastic waste.
I love my nespresso.

Cockroaches?! We've had our BTC machine for eight years, solid use every day, and no bloody cockroaches anywhere near!

Also the coffee is so much better than those awful synthetic pods!

Another vote for the DeLonghi Magnifica.

We've had ours for years and it's paid for itself many times over. DH likes experimenting with different beans and we much prefer the coffee to the pods.

Really love my nespresso as it’s quick and the variety of pods is good. Nespresso were deemed to be anti competition and banned from cancelling the warranty of a machine that used generic pods- hence the explosion in everyone doing them.

Ones that do hot chocolate and the milk pods are a bit rank as it isn’t proper milk and just nasty. There are nespresso with built in milk steamers too so you can have steamed milk hot chocolates.

Bean to cup is where it is really at. But the nespresso is good for what it is.

www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-EC685M-Traditional-Espresso-Machine/dp/B06WGTZ874/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_d_pd_title&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforum-21

I have ordered this one for Christmas for my husband. We do have a Tassimo machine but it just seems so wasteful with the pods and over the years it seems to not taste quite as nice as that used to a bit more bitter I think.

Illy are a great bean choice for bean to cup... they're not too oily which can gum up machines and imho the coffee tastes very nice. I've tried expensive Costa and Starbucks Italian roasts and Illy still wins.

We have a Nespresso and a delonghi coffee maker. Not bean to cup but one of the posh ones (£30 in charity shop get in!). We also have a stove top and cafetierre

We like STRONG espresso.

I far prefer the Nespresso machine because the coffee is consistent and there is no mess. They also recycle the pods.

You can get compatible pods anywhere from aldi to harrods! I much prefer the Nespresso pods - i havent tried harrods at £45 for ten pods

I find the machine hit and miss but i thinkit very much depends on the coffee. Also its second hand so possibly not 100% on pressure?

Saying all the the best coffee for me is made on a stove top by an italian friend. However ive never managed it.

The only downside with the nespresso is it only really makes espresso. You can buy a milk frother for cappuccinos though.

They have bought out a version that takes bigger pods - we would have bought that if we were buying but our little pod machine is perfectly fine.

I have a Philips Senseo, which I love as the ‘pods’ are just like teabags, no plastic, no aluminium etc. However, at work we have a Nespresso and I love the blends so much more. My Philip has a plastic reusable thing you can fill with ground coffee, but I’ve not been able to find the optimum level of ‘ground’ for it so it makes an unholy mess - and dreadful coffee. I’ve just bought some different ‘pods’, so I’ll see how how they go.

I do the milk in the microwave at home & at work. The Nespresso is a lot creamier/foamier though, despite using the same milk, heated in the same way.

I love the IDEA of BTC, but unless it’s built in (like at the old house) it’s just SO much more faff and whilst I can do the poncy coffee performance, mostly I’d rather just shove a pod in and be done with it.

This kitchen is too bloody small for a fitted BTC or several machines, so I’m currently making do with Philip.

Sorry, absolutely NO help to you

Avoid tassimo machines - pretty much all of the coffees are rank.

Still trying to figure out how a Nespresso machine is so much faff and mess, unless I misread something?

I don’t drink coffee, but I gave DH an Aeropress a few years ago. He swears it makes the best coffee he’s ever had.

I wouldn’t get a pod machine due to the masses of single use plastic involved.

I don’t drink coffee, but I gave DH an Aeropress a few years ago. He swears it makes the best coffee he’s ever had.

It does. AND you can slip it into your tiny suitcase to take away on holiday.

Aeropress will give the best coffee. No need for pods. Or a V60 dripper.