Espresso machine buying guide

This is the only question that really counts. A bean-to-cup grinds, doses and brews at one button. With a portafilter machine you do those steps yourself, and the result depends on how well you do them.

There is no right answer. Anyone who enjoys the process gets more out of a five-hundred-euro portafilter machine than out of a thousand-euro bean-to-cup. Anyone who does not want to think about it at seven in the morning has bought an expensive irritation in that same machine.

With black coffee you can ignore the milk system and keep the money. With a daily cappuccino it is the part that decides whether you still like the machine in three years.

Automatic systems froth into the cup. Manual steam wands give more control and take practice. The biggest difference is not in the taste but in the cleaning: a system you can unclip and put in the dishwasher stays clean. One with a hose does not.

Measure the space before you pick anything, including the height to the underside of the wall cabinet — you have to be able to lift the water tank out and top up beans.

This rules out models more often than the budget does. The slimmest serious machines are around fifteen centimetres wide; most bean-to-cups sit around twenty-five.

Espresso machine prices swing widely through the year. The same model can cost two hundred euros less in November than in June, and the struck-through price in the shop tells you little about it.

That is why every product page states what a machine cost on the days we looked. While we have measured too little to say anything meaningful, it says that too — which is more useful than a verdict resting on nothing.