Espresso makers

[JumpJockey]

I'm thinking of getting DH an espresso machine for his birthday. Does anyone have one they would particularly recommend/warn against? I would guess budget is up to about £400. Nespresso/other coffee 'pod' things would be thrown out the house in disgust, Clooney or no Clooney
Thanks!

Wow can they really cost that much? I have a couple of stovetop espresso makers, one is about twenty yrs old and was about two French francs back-in-the-day and the other is about half its age and price from Italy. I'd like a new one but not for that sort of price!

Think my bean grinder was quite expensive but has earned its keep. Is the coffee from those bean to cup things really better than the normal way?

mitchy - he has one of the stovetop ones (the ones like a little jug if that's what you mean?), but the coffee is never that nice so I guess we don't know how to use it properly! I did a quick look on the JL website and the ones that can do 2 cups at a time can cost really silly money, they start at about £150 but depends on if those ones are rubbish... :) I'm thinking of one where you grind the coffee yourself separately rather than bunging beans in and pressing a button a la teasmade. The more steps where things can go wrong, the riskier!

I have a dualit one, which is very good - it can do one cup or two, and has a large enough water tank so that you're not filling it all the time. It was about £199, I think. I use ground coffee, but I'm sure it takes the tea-bag-type pods too. I think it also has a milk frother, although I've never used it.

Had I been in charge of the espresso-machine buying, I'd have gone for a gaggia. They look fab.

I had a Krups one, which I thought was good. Then I sold that and bought a Gaggia and it is a totally different beast. It's fantastic, the coffee is wonderful and it's very easy to use and clean. Would thoroughly recommend the make. I have the little one but for £400 you could get a bigger, nicer one!

TheSkiingGardener

Any special occasion coming up AgentProvocateur? My Gaggia was only £120 on a deal from Argos. I dithered between that and the dualit for a while, but I definitely wouldn't recommend Krups.

Ooooh sounds good SkiingGardener - I'm sure he'd be super keen on Gaggia being a bit of a brand addict. When you say "the little one" which do you mean?

No special occasion sadly, and the Dualit one is still relatively new. It makes great coffee - it just doesn't look as nice as the Gaggia. (I am very shallow!)

We have the Ascaso Dream, it is a bit over your budget but worth every penny. i love it! it is nice looking too, we have it in red.

It's the Espresso Pure this one

The red looks lovely in the kitchen. Wish I'd got a red radio too now.

I thought about Gaggia but they had quite mixed reviews, think if they work well they are amazing but quite a lot of potential for going wrong and bad customer service i seem to remember reading..

They're owned by Phillips now which I'm hoping has sorted out the issues with part availability and service. I know that concerned me when I bought it.

Gaggia fans here! Plus Danesi coffee. Perfection every time except when you accidently throw away the little metal doodah that the coffee goes in and have to sort through the bins to find it....