Help me find a coffee machine so that I am not embarrassed when I have guests!!!

[MsFogi]

We drink a LOT of tea but not coffee. I am becoming increasingly embarrassed when people come over to only offer them instant (or, at a push, cafetière coffee) so I'm going to get a coffee machine. I'm happy to spend a up to about £250 (obviously less would be better ), I want something that is pretty easy to use and not a massive faff to clean. So wise coffee-drinking-MNers can anyone suggest what I should get to be able to offer visitors a decent cup of coffee?

Cafetiere is more than ok if you use decent coffee in it. Personally I wouldn't go stovetop espresso, it isn't for everyone. My XH only ever drank stovetop, I hate the smell and the taste of it.

I've got something similar to this Delonghi, bought from their outlet for about £200 three years ago. Love it.

Prior to that I drank cafetière coffee. Much the same but this is easier.

What kind of coffee do you like drinking or perhaps the more pertinent questions is what kind of coffee do your guests like drinking? Some of Delonghi's bean-to-cup machines can be had for under 250, especially on sale. They make very nice espresso, which you can turn into americano with hot water from the kettle. Their milk frothing abilities are acceptable, but not amazing.

Ultimately what will make much more difference to the taste of the coffee is using fresh beans: everything from the supermarket will have spend weeks if not months in the bag after it was roasted. Luckiliy there are lots of different operations around the UK which will roast a coffee and ship it to you the same day; you might pay a bit more, but it's definitely worth it.

Let me begin by saying I am a tea drinker but am not adverse to a really good cup of coffee.

This means NOT Nescafe.

Over the years I have acquired a Gaggia
This is the model and my version of it is over twenty years old
www.puregusto.co.uk/images/big/GAGGIA-CLASSIC-Standard.jpg
I use this when I feel like being creative but it is large and bulky and lives in a cupboard. It also takes a lot of cleaning and faffing about and I do not always achieve greatness.....

I also have a stovetop. Don't use it. Coffee too strong for me
I have a Tassimo but the pods have changed a lot and I don't like the coffees from it now.
Another one in the cupboard :)

The go - to maker for me every time is my Cafetierre. Easy to use and I always have my coffees with single cream and never milk.

Good luck !

I also have a stovetop. Don't use it. Coffee too strong for me

You know you control how strong it is? You put less coffee in if it's too strong, or you put coffee in your cup then top up with hot water. It's in your hands, not the stove top's!

@MyOtherProfile

I also have a stovetop. Don't use it. Coffee too strong for me

You know you control how strong it is? You put less coffee in if it's too strong, or you put coffee in your cup then top up with hot water. It's in your hands, not the stove top's!

Yes I do know ! It's just that each time I have used it the coffee has been too strong and I only have so much patience. I have not ruled it pout completely as it is still gathering dust on a shelf

OP you are a much better host than me! I don't drink much tea (DH drinks loads of it) and neither of us like coffee. People that ask for coffee will have to suffice for me running over to the shop over the road and getting them some Gold Blend.

I always offer wine too!

We got a nespresso lattisimo touch. I never drank coffee till we bought (for DH) now I drink it all the time. We buy Costa pods from B&M, much cheaper than the official ones. It has a built in milk frother so also makes fab hot choc.

Cleaning is a button press after use, and wash the milk container a couple of times a week. Descaled it yesterday for the first time. Easy peasy, just used white vinegar, and again, it was just a case of press a button.

I'm very much a coffee lover and I don't have a machine. I use an aeropress, V50 or small bialetti pot for myself. For guests, if I need to make multiple coffees I use either this:

www.amazon.co.uk/Hario-Decanter-Pourover-Coffee-Brewer/dp/B00755F9Z4?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

or a larger bialetti pot, I make the coffee strong and then top up with hot water like an americano.

If they want a latte I heat and foam up some milk in the thermomix. I used to have a milk frother but it was just taking up space when the thermomix did the same job.

I don't like cafetiere coffee personally (I find it's always a bit sludgey) but I seem to be in the minority.

If you have guests who like milky coffee, I'd get one of the above plus a milk frother. They would take up far less space than a coffee machine you'll only use once in a blue moon.

I'm voting for a bialetti stove top. The nicest coffee I've ever drank - so much so we've bought for others. They're inexpensive and you can make the espresso and then top up with water.
Lavazza is decent enough coffee to use in it.
As someone else mentioned - it's important to store the coffee in an air tight container and better still to open it fresh on the day you'll use it.

The Bialetti is just so cool looking isn’t it? All that retro styling. We bought one after using one on an Italian holiday. Sadly it doesn’t work on an induction hob so we have bought a different model. The advantage over the cafetière is the grounds are separate from the coffee so much easier to dump in your food bin / compost heap. Looks like JL have some reduced today.

I agree with you @evilharpy I find cafetiere coffee a bit sludgy / grainy. Bialetti coffee is smoother.

A Mochamaster is a thing of beauty and will get lots of admiration and also makes the simplest, tasty filter coffee where you can set it up and wait for a nice jug of coffee instead of faffing around with individual cups.

technivorm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/KBG-Select-Pastel-Blue.jpg

How about sirens the money on an insulated cafetiere and a coffee bean grinder? Then you will always have access to fresh ground coffee. Fresh coffee in a cafetiere would be more than reasonable for coffee lovers.

I have an espresso machine but it's a faff to make coffee for a table full of guests. Also I have friends with a bean to cup expensive machine who buy shit cheap coffee and it tastes crap. So much better to put the money into buying decent coffee beans and a grinder and use a cafetiere.

If cafetiere coffee is sludgy then the grounds are too fine. If you have an electric grinder you can adjust that.

I love coffee and have a metal (insulated) cafetiere from Sainsburys.
My coffee is delicious.
I buy ground coffee (medium strength) from our local shop (which is a bit posh).

I think people are missing the point that OP and her family don't drink coffee. The machine is purely for occasional use for guests and therefore a pod type machine where different styles of coffee can be offered with coffee always staying fresh in the pod would probably fit the bill better than a cafetière.

Ground coffee doesn't keep that long either so there will be a lot of waste from bags for ground coffee if no-one in the family is drinking it between social visits from friends.

@ChequerBoard

I think people are missing the point that OP and her family don't drink coffee. The machine is purely for occasional use for guests and therefore a pod type machine where different styles of coffee can be offered with coffee always staying fresh in the pod would probably fit the bill better than a cafetière.

Ground coffee doesn't keep that long either so there will be a lot of waste from bags for ground coffee if no-one in the family is drinking it between social visits from friends.

No one has missed the point. Buying an expensive, bulky and show-offy machine purely for occasional guests is insane. A cafetière - which she already has - or stovetop pot is fine.

No one has missed the point. Buying an expensive, bulky and show-offy machine purely for occasional guests is insane. A cafetière - which she already has - or stovetop pot is fine.

Totally agree.

Has our society really become so consumerism obsessed that anybody could possibly think it was a good idea to buy a pod machine when they don't even drink coffee themselves?

@Subbaxeo

A Mochamaster is a thing of beauty and will get lots of admiration and also makes the simplest, tasty filter coffee where you can set it up and wait for a nice jug of coffee instead of faffing around with individual cups.

They have these in a local coffee shop in bright colours, they really are lovely and the filter coffee they make is very nice. If I was going to get a machine I'd like one of these.

I drink a few cups a day and no longer have a coffee machine since the last one broke. I use a stainless steel cafetiere and am happy with it.

Ground coffee doesn't keep that long either so there will be a lot of waste from bags for ground coffee if no-one in the family is drinking it between social visits from friends.

You can keep it in the freezer.

We've got a Gaggia classic, it's outside of your budget and I wouldn't bother anyway. It looks pretty on the worksurface whilst I use a cafetière to make the coffee and an Aerolatte to froth the milk.

I would probably get some coffee bags