Best Home Coffee Machine?

[Blossom4538]

For a tired Mum of a child with SEN!

Just for ease of making and good coffee - lattes/cappuccinos

Have a bit of a Costa/Nero/Starbucks addiction….

Thanks x

With the proviso that I only make espresso, I have formed the view over about thirty years of experience that there is Gaggia, and there is everyone else. We currently have a Gran Gaggia Prestige, now about five years old, and it churns out two or three great espressos a day. It's all the machine I need.

I actually find that the coffee (and water) used makes far more of a difference than the machine. If you are trying to make coffee with grounds that just aren't to your liking, then no machine is going to make them palatable to you.

The pod machines (a Nespresso or Tassimo) are very popular and quite affordable but I think if you can afford it a Bean to Cup machine is the best, we have a DeLonghi Magnifica which are quite pricey new but can be picked up second hand on Ebay for a reasonable-ish price and they last for years with the occasional descale/service.

Very, very easy to use (just put the beans in the top, the water in the back and press the button for the strength/size of coffee you want and has a milk frother for lattes/cappucinos), cheaper than a pod machine to run as you can buy big sacks of whole beans rather than the pods which I found pricey, the coffee IMO comes out hotter and stronger than in a pod machine (we had a Nespresso which made tasty coffee but always a bit towards lukewarm, whereas the DeLonghi comes out lovely and hot esp if you use hot milk).

Plus of course the pods are not great environmentally (I know you can get refillables but I find these so fiddly and messy, I always end up with grounds all over the place ) compared to just using whole beans. The cleaning on a bean to cup is easy too, it runs its own rinse cycles regularly so you only have to empty the grounds which come out in a neat little compacted square so not messy even for clumsy-hands me!

A good latte is all in the milk, not so much the coffee. (Controversial viewpoint, I know.)

Definitely nespresso. Our machine is 5 years old and still going strong. May not be best for environment but do recycle capsules…….. And couldn’t be easier to use and no grounds to sort out!

Another vote for bean-to-cup machines and for the Delonghi. The coffee is fresher when ground to order. I like lattes and tend to heat a cup of milk in the microwave and add a couple of espresso shots from the machine. Not in UK so use UHT milk. Does UK milk microwave well?