Drinks
Espresso
A short, pressure-extracted shot, normally 25-35 ml from 7-9 g in a single basket or 16-20 g in a double. Every machine here claims it; what separates them is steady brew temperature, enough pressure at the puck, and a basket that is not doing the work for you.
- SageBarista Express BES875A PID, a real wand and a burr grinder in one body, which is why it is the machine most people learn on. It is also messy to dose and makes you wait between brewing and steaming, and both are the price of the format.Espresso8.6
- GaggiaClassic Evo ProA commercial 58 mm group and a real wand at a domestic price, with a brass boiler since the E24 revision. No PID, so you learn to time the warm-up — and almost everything on it can be replaced by hand.Espresso8.5
- SageBambino PlusThree seconds from cold to ready, and an automatic wand that textures milk better than most people do by hand. Buy it for the milk and the speed; buy the grinder separately, because there isn't one.Espresso8.4
- RancilioSilvia V6A 300 ml brass boiler and a wand borrowed from Rancilio's café machines: steam that does not run out halfway through the second jug. Heavy, no PID, and a reputation built over nearly thirty years.Espresso8.3
- LelitAnna PL41TEMThe cheapest way into a PID and a brass boiler, which is the combination that stops you guessing at temperature. The 57 mm portafilter is the catch: almost no accessory in the shops fits it.Espresso8.2
- JuraE8Sealed, one-touch and built to repeat itself for a decade. The brew unit is not meant to come out, which is the trade: you get consistency and give up the ability to service it yourself.BeanToCup8.1
- PhilipsSeries 3200 LatteGoThe milk system is the reason to buy it: two parts, no tubes, and it rinses under a tap in seconds. Note the UK code — the /50 sold here has no iced-coffee function, whatever an American review tells you.BeanToCup7.9
- De'LonghiLa Specialista Arte EC9155A grinder, non-pressurised baskets and a wand the maker genuinely aims at latte art, in a body smaller than its rivals. Eight grind settings is the constraint, and 51 mm baskets limit what you can buy for it.Espresso7.9
- De'LonghiMagnifica S ECAM22.110Fifteen years on sale and still the bean-to-cup most British households end up with. The brew group comes out for cleaning, which is the feature that decides year five, and the two finest grind settings jam it.BeanToCup7.8
- De'LonghiDedica Style EC685Fifteen centimetres wide, which is the whole point: it fits where nothing else does. It ships with a pressurised basket and a panarello frother, so it flatters the coffee and caps what you can do with milk.Espresso7.0
- De'LonghiStilosa EC230The cheapest way to own a real portafilter machine, and it makes a better shot than its price suggests. What you give up is the milk: the wand is short, slow and the reason nobody makes a flat white on one.Espresso6.8
- NespressoVertuo PopThirty seconds from cold to cup, and genuinely decent coffee for a capsule machine. The machine is the cheap part: the running cost lives in the capsules, and the tank is small enough to notice.Pod6.5
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