Help me choose a coffee machine!

[redredwine40]

My mother has kindly offered to buy me a coffee machine for Christmas but I have no idea what I want! So I don't want a pod machine (trying to be environmentally friendly and also save money) so I'm thinking either a bean to cup or an espresso machine...

Budget is up to £500. I generally only drink black coffee in the morning then after lunch would like a latte. I like a large coffee though so I guess that an espresso machine is out the window?

Can anyone please help me?! I did look at the Sage Bambino but don't know if that's too much of a faff putting ground coffee in it each time....

Do you want manual or auto settings?

@Ozanj

Do you want manual or auto settings?

Auto would be good but I'm not adverse to manual

To be honest having been the owner of several coffee machines (and none of them ever really did everything I wanted), I would go for a bean grinder, cafetière and milk frothed. All separate.

We got the Siemens Bean to Cup machine at the beginning of the summer and we've been so happy with it. Nice hot drinks, you can use beans or ground coffee, lots of different drink options and good controls in terms of coffee strength etc...
It's often £599 but at the moment you can get it for £499 at John Lewis and Argos.

We have Delonghi Magnifica - put beans in top, water in container. Press for a cup of coffee.

You might need to empty grounds that have collected in plastic box and refill water. End of day, empty and wash up containers and drip tray. Once a month, we run descaling water through.

It makes espresso and froths milk, but we just make mugs of black coffee. Mega convenient.

Another vote for the Delonghi Magnifica, only downside is it has ruined take out coffee for me.

also have a delonghi, a magnifica s smart....it does a single espresso, two espressos, a cup and a long coffee

you can adjust the amount dispensed and it will grind more beans to suit

it also does hot water so if you want to stretch the coffee further you can do

and steam for frothy coffees

I love it and have been highly over caffeinated for about three weeks now!

If you have access to a Costco it's on offer at £299 instead of well over £400 on amazon.

Nespresso Creatista here. Love it. Makes every coffee known to person and the bit I really love, you can personalise everything; drinks really hot, milk really frothy etc.

As you don't want a pod machine, then you may well be putting coffee in your machine anyway. I have ordered a Bambino Plus, after doing some extensive research because it seems a good balance between espresso quality and ease of use, and the automatic milk frothing seems an excellent feature. It hasn't arrived yet though, so no personal judgement. This website really helped me make a decision. It goes through all the different kind of coffee machines (bean to cup/integrated grinder/separate grinder) and why you might want them, advantages and disadvantages.

I use an espresso machine for lattes, a gaggia one. You can steam the milk separately if you have time and want the froth or just put it in the microwave. For a black coffee you could boil the kettle. I use the double espresso holder instead of the single because I usually have large coffees.

I have a Delonghi Eletta Plus. Bean to cup machine but can also use ground coffee if you run out of beans which is useful as I often do!

I bought a Delonghi Delica machine 18 months ago. It’s not a bean to cup, you froth the milk yourself. I’m not a bean to cup fan, it never seems as “barista”. I have since opened a little coffee trailer and use the machine for it (I bought a second machine too as i can do 100 coffees a day on a sometimes) The standard is as good as the professional machine we had at the last café I worked at - it’s just a bit slower than the pro. It’s a really good machine for the price.

Another vote here for the Delonghi Magnifica. We've had ours for years and if it broke tomorrow I'd replace it with the same.

A phillips 4300 here. Love it, does everything. All the family have set preferences, bean to cup, milk frother. Got it for our family Christmas gift last year, it's used everyday multiple times. As someone else pointed out the only downside is it ruins take-out coffee now☺

Sage.they have both Bean to Cup and espresso with "basket".sellingin John Lewis.

My boss has a Sage bean to cup machine and it's his favourite thing in the world. If I was going to buy a coffee machine I'd buy one of those.

I don't drink milky coffee at all so am happy with an aeropress or V60 filter.

I have a Mellita bean to cup, it's very good, easy to operate and maintain.

Delonghi Delica, not a bean to cup but makes me a great espresso every morning using my fave Lavazza Gold coffee.

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow

also have a delonghi, a magnifica s smart....it does a single espresso, two espressos, a cup and a long coffee

you can adjust the amount dispensed and it will grind more beans to suit

it also does hot water so if you want to stretch the coffee further you can do

and steam for frothy coffees

I love it and have been highly over caffeinated for about three weeks now!

If you have access to a Costco it's on offer at £299 instead of well over £400 on amazon.

Is it straight forward to make lattes and cappuccinos?

I’m also looking for a bean to cup but that also takes ground coffee - hope I can tag along

Another fan of the delonghi magnifica S, and it has a little bypass hatch that you can put ground coffee into. We have beans in the hopper for general use but use the bypass for ground decaf, which I buy already ground. Great machine and more hygienic than the ones with milk containers.

Just an update, my Sage Bambino Plus arrived yesterday and so far I love it. It's simple to use; the automatic milk frothing works really well for both cow and oat milk. It does produce hot water for an americano, which online reviews were a little unclear on. Adding the coffee to the portafilter really isn't a problem and it comes with a little razor tool to make sure the coffee is at the right level. We also made hot chocolates with it last night. I am an obsessive researcher though, so I knew exactly what to expect when it arrived! If you have any questions about it then just let me know.

i've got a delonghi magnifica but it's been pretty much unused since i got it, because I can't get the milk frother to froth milk, and Delonghi's customer service is non-existent.

Ooo yes definitely get a bean to cup for that price. Lots of good advice on here.

Gaggia Brera. I don't have anything she's to compare it to but it is very good.