To ask for coffee machine recommendations

[Onynx]

I love my coffee but our Nespresso Creatista has died so I'm looking to replace it. I would like to move away from pods completely but I haven't a clue what makes a coffee machine 'good' or what I should be looking for or avoiding in a new machine?

I have thr Delonghi Dedica and I would NOT recommend it for the following reasons:

• you cannot control the extraction time of each shot (you can via extensive programming but then you'd have to change it back...)

• if you even slightly over fill the arm by even a gram or two of coffee, the machine throws a tantrum and spits hot goundy coffee all over your kitchen

• for some reason the coffee that's made doesn't taste as good as the coffee from my mum's (cheaper but now discontinued) delonghi model. We are using the same coffee and live in the same village using the same water supply.

If I was buying again I would try their Stiloso model which seems similar to mum's.

I've heard wonderful things about bean to cup but they are expensive which is why I haven't yet!

I also don’t get the love for aeropress - too faffy and fiddly. When our Nespresso dies I think we’ll go for a Jura or a Miele. Annoyingly we don’t tend to drink milk based drinks so the milk frother is superfluous, but it tends to come bundled with the fancier bean to cup stuff.

My first cup of the day is in a cafetière, and then at coffee time I have espresso. I really want a Technivorm but can’t justify the kitchen counter space.

if you even slightly over fill the arm by even a gram or two of coffee, the machine throws a tantrum and spits hot goundy coffee all over your kitchen

Mine has never done that 😂

I also don’t get the love for aeropress - too faffy and fiddly

Same here, the one we bought for our son is now at the back of the cupboard. Next big clear out will see it heading for the charity shop.

@SoupDragon

if you even slightly over fill the arm by even a gram or two of coffee, the machine throws a tantrum and spits hot goundy coffee all over your kitchen

Mine has never done that 😂

Mine neither!

I'm no expert either but I have a Gaggia Brera. My husband spent WEEKS choosing it. It is excellent IMHO.

A delonghi bean to cup here and it is so worth it. It paid for itself within 18 months as I have stopped drinking coffee out.

Another vote for the Smeg espresso machine here. It uses ground coffee and is quick and easy to clean. Bought it two days before first lockdown and it has seen me through a year and a half of wfh!

I was going to buy my husband a nice coffee machine for his birthday. I thought I had settled on the sage barista express but now I am wavering.

Do I want that? Or do I want a Delonghi? Was looking at the Dinamica but I just don't know!

Another vote for the Sage Barista.

@lurkingdh

Haha essentially yes.

There's a little history behind it which is nice, they do also look good sitting there.

But yes it's a pour over method so you'll need a kettle that achieves that.

I think the key to the great coffee is the filter, the chemex papers are so thick they filter out any undesirable oils and flavours.
You get a really smooth coffee even without milk.

Really nice way to make a coffee, there seems to be a shortage of papers at the moment.
They're normally around a tenner for 100 so much more than normal papers but the difference in quality and thickness is massive.

I have a Delonghi Eletta Cappucinno bean to cup. It makes loads of other coffees than just the cap. It was expensive but I got it on Amazon prime day and so it was £700ish rather than almost £1000. It’s very easy to use and maintain. It is big though, so you need a good amount of worktop space.

We have this one:

www.coffeeitalia.co.uk/gaggia-cadorna-prestige.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-Nnr3_nS8QIVg-vtCh2Obw9xEAQYAiABEgJu3PD_BwE

It replaced our old Gaggia Titanium which was about 15 years old. It’s amazing!

Best thing I ever bought was a Moka pot. Cheap and makes the best cover ever 👍

Following as looking for the same thing!

Coffee even

We have a delonghi eletta machine and we love it.
I prefer milky coffees so use the milk frother jug every time.
It does cappuccinos, flat whites and macchiato as well as being able to customise your coffee.
We use it every day, it was expensive but a good investment. I couldn’t go back to instant coffee now.
It does take a bit of upkeep, deep cleans and descaling but theses are important to prolong the life of the machine .

We love our Moka pot too - i quite fancy one of the mint green Bialettis....

@Mustbeme124

We have a delonghi eletta machine and we love it. I prefer milky coffees so use the milk frother jug every time. It does cappuccinos, flat whites and macchiato as well as being able to customise your coffee. We use it every day, it was expensive but a good investment. I couldn’t go back to instant coffee now. It does take a bit of upkeep, deep cleans and descaling but theses are important to prolong the life of the machine .

I wipe mine down after use and it rinses itself before it shuts down anyway. I don’t use the milk frother canister but DH does, we just dismantle it and put it through the dishwasher on the top shelf. Piece of cake. We have about 4 coffees a day out of it on average and find it needs a descale service/replacement every month or so. Takes about 20 mins and is easy to do, the machine’s display gives you step by step instructions, there are also you tube videos on it and also there are written/diagrammatic versions on the leaflet in the descaler pod box. It’s definitely more work than pod machines, though they need rescaling too but the coffee is infinitely better.

*descaling not rescaling

My dh is a coffee snob but his aeropress is the only thing he needs, with a hand grinder.

I've had a LaPavoni lever machine for nearly 30 years. Had it serviced once in that time. Used every day at least twice.
Makes great coffee and looks better than any other machine around
Very expensive up front but they last forever.
Also bought DS1 one (on his request) for his 21st birthday.

Got a Delonghi Magnifica on a black Friday deal at least seven years ago - possibly more! It's great, as other posters have mentioned. My DP uses it all day every day. If it ever broke he would immediately replace it, regardless of cost. Best present I ever bought him!