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.
Espresso machines
Pump-driven machines that pull a real 9-bar shot, from a first lever to a plumbed-in dual boiler.
Buying guides
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
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.
Reviews
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.
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.
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.
Single boiler, heat exchanger or dual boiler
The three ways a machine makes brew water and steam at once, what each one costs you in waiting, and which one suits how you actually drink.
Buying a used espresso machine
Second hand is the cheapest route to a serious machine, and the fastest route to a boiler you cannot replace. What to check, what to walk away from.
Automatic or semi-automatic: which espresso machine to buy
What the two words actually mean, which variable each machine takes out of your hands, and how to choose by how you want to spend your mornings.
Baskets, gaskets and screens: the parts that change the shot
A few pounds of replaceable parts sit between your grinder and your cup.
Compact espresso machines for a small kitchen
A small machine is not a worse machine, it is a different set of compromises. What footprint, height and tank access really cost you, and what you keep.
Do you need a professional machine at home?
Almost certainly not, and the reasons are not about money. A commercial machine is engineered for a problem your kitchen does not have.
Manual lever machines, and who they are for
Spring lever against direct lever, what shaping pressure by hand really gives you.