Espresso machines
Pump-driven machines that pull a real 9-bar shot, from a first lever to a plumbed-in dual boiler.
Coffee machines
Every kind of machine, from a €30 moka pot to a plumbed-in dual boiler.
The machine is the loudest decision in your setup and rarely the most important one. This section covers what each category actually does, who it suits, and where the money stops buying better coffee.
All categories
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Automatic machines
Grind, dose, brew and steam milk at the press of one button, and what that button costs in the cup.
Manual machines
Lever and hand-pump machines where you control the pressure curve yourself.
Capsule machines
Closed-system machines: consistent, convenient, and locked to one supplier.
Pod machines
Soft-pod systems, the low-pressure cousin of the capsule machine, and the ESE standard that outlived the rest.
Professional machines
Multi-group, plumbed, commercial equipment, plus the prosumer machines that borrow from it.
Compact machines
Small-footprint machines for kitchens that have run out of counter, and what you give up to save the width.
Bean-to-cup machines
Machines with a grinder built in: what the convenience is worth, and where the built-in burrs hold them back.
Featured
Buying guides
What to buy, at every budget, and why.
Buying guides
Choosing a moka pot
Moka pot sizes in real millilitres, aluminium against stainless steel, induction, the Brikka's valve, electric models, and the gasket you will replace.
Buying guides
Choosing an espresso machine: the five questions
Five questions to answer before you look at a single model: milk, involvement, boiler, space and water, and the real budget once the grinder is counted.
Buying guides
Your first espresso machine under $500
Three machines under $500 and three different trades: the Gaggia to learn on, the Bambino Plus for milk, the Dedica to start. Plus the grinder you need.
Buying guides
From capsules to beans: making the switch
What leaving capsules for whole beans really costs and saves per cup, what you gain and lose, and three ways to do it depending on the effort you accept.
Buying guides
La Marzocco Linea Micra: what the money buys
A café dual boiler cut down for a kitchen. What the Linea Micra actually changes in the cup, who it is for, and who should keep their money.
Buying guides
The best espresso machines
Every machine here has pulled shots on our bench. Picks by budget, with the compromises each one asks you to accept stated plainly.
Articles
Real espresso in twenty centimetres
Small machines used to mean bad espresso. The compact category grew up, and the compromises moved somewhere more sensible.
Volumetric, paddle or button
How a bar machine decides when to stop a shot, why volumetric dosing drifts, and what a paddle gives back to the person holding it.
A commercial machine at home
Power, plumbing, drainage and heat: what a bar machine actually demands of a kitchen, and when the answer is to buy a smaller machine instead.
Bringing a 1970s lever back to life
A fifty-year-old lever machine is mostly brass, a spring and four seals. Here is the order to work in, and the two faults that mean walk away.
Lever machines: spring against direct
A spring lever pulls a curve the machine decides. A direct lever pulls the curve your arm decides. That single difference sorts every lever machine sold.
What a PID actually changes
A PID holds brew temperature to a fraction of a degree. That matters for a light roast and a repeatable shot, and much less for a dark roast in milk.
Reviews
Hands-on tests measured on the bench, and first looks at kit we have not tested yet, marked as such and never scored.
First look
Lelit Mara X V2: first look
A heat exchanger that watches its own brew temperature. What the Mara X V2's two probes, 1.8 L boiler and 58 mm group promise, and who it suits.
First look
Sage Barista Express Impress: first look
A Barista Express that doses and tamps for you: what the lever, the 25-step grinder and the 54 mm basket mean before you buy one.
Comparisons
Comparisons
Grinder or machine: where the first $200 should go
We put the same budget into a Baratza Encore ESP and into a De'Longhi Dedica, then tasted the results blind. One of them is not close.