Expert tips for choosing your perfect coffee machine

Sam, our resident coffee expert, has put pen to paper (or should that be fingers to keyboard) to come up with some expert tips for choosing your perfect coffee machine. Over to you Sam...

Coffee is something that a lot of people love to drink. It warms our hearts and gives us the energy to handle the day ahead of us, but when it comes to buying a machine to make the perfect brew it can be a difficult task due to the sheer variety of machines on the market and all of the different styles of coffee there are. In this guide we hope to make it easier for you to pick out the machine that you will be using every morning as you roll out of bed.

The most important questions to ask yourself when buying a machine are:

1. How do you have your coffee when you got to a coffee shop?
2. Do you want a manual or automatic machine?
3. How much time do you have to make your coffee?

If the answer to the first question is a simple black coffee, then we would recommend a filter coffee machine. These machines tend to take more time to brew your coffee, but they produce a coffee that is much more intense in flavour than your average instant coffee. A good example of this is the Melitta Aromafresh Thermal Filter Coffee Machine. This machine is a very easy to use filter coffee machine that can make between 2-10 cups into its insulated flask which keeps the coffee warm before you decant it into your favourite mug. The machine also has a programmable timer feature which allows you to wake up and have a coffee there ready and waiting for you at the time that best suits you.

Alternatively, a great option for black coffee would be an espresso machine. Contrary to the slower brewing time of a filter coffee machine, these machines are faster due to the smaller amount of coffee that the water must pass through, while still having the same intense flavour that you are used to. A great example of this is the Jura ENA 4 Black Coffee Machine. This machine can make a great tasting coffee at just the press of a button with four different specialty drinks to chose from. Combine this with its small countertop footprint and sleek, rounded design and you have a great machine that you will never get tired of using.

If you usually have a coffee like a latte or cappuccino, that is where we move onto the second and third questions of do you want an automatic or manual machine? And how much time do you have to make your coffee? If you would rather have an automatic machine, then we recommend a pod based machine or a bean to cup machine.

A pod machine is a great choice for someone who hasn’t got a lot of time to make a coffee and are very easy to operate, a great example of this is the Magimix Nespresso Vertuo Next with Aeroccino as it only has one button to operate the machine. This is because each pod that you insert into the machine has a unique code that the machine uses to dispense the perfect amount of water for the pod you have chosen, and the machine reduces the time you must wait by its incredible 30 second heat up time. Combine this with the Aeroccino device that is paired with the machine to make some warm milk to put into any espresso that you make from the machine, and you’ll have a great tasting latte or cappuccino ready to drink in no time at all.

A bean to cup machine is also a great option for people who are on a time crunch and are also very simple to use. A great automatic espresso machine would be the Jura J8, a beautiful, Swiss made machine that has a great selection of 31 drinks to choose from and has the option to add a syrup of choice to the milk and foam for those who like a little extra flavour with their coffee. The machine uses its “coffee eye” feature to automatically adjust the selection of drinks you can have based on the size of the cup that you have put under the central nozzles which makes the decision of what to drink much easier for you. There is also a wide variety of features that this machine comes with to make the life of the user so much easier, from the intelligent water system that works alongside the water filter to make sure that you know when it needs to be descaled to the programmable switch off time to reduce power consumption that makes this machine perfect for anyone who enjoys coffee no matter how it is served.

For anyone who wants to channel their inner barista, a manual coffee machine is the best way to get started. For those who don’t mind spending the extra time to make their coffee, we recommend the Sage Barista Express. This machine has every essential that is needed for learning to make your coffee from scratch; it has an integrated grinder with 18 grind settings to really dial in the perfect consistency for the coffee beans that you are using and once tamped, the dial in the centre of the machine’s display tells the user how to adjust the grind or amount of dispensed coffee to really get the espresso just right. The extraction of the coffee will always come out even due to the low-pressure pre-infusion process, that uses 9 bars of pressure to ensure that none of the coffee being put into the basket goes to waste. After you have made your espresso, you then get the option to use the instant hot water dispenser built into the machine to make your americano or to use the powerful milk steaming arm built into the side of the machine alongside the stainless steel milk jug to steam your milk of choice and create a wonderfully velvety latte or cappuccino (depending on how you steam the milk).

Anyone who wants to speed up the time their manual machine takes, without any effect on the taste or consistency of the coffee, then best option for you would be the Sage Oracle Touch.  This incredible machine has a multitude of features to help speed up the production of coffee making. With its dual boiler system that uses PID technology, it takes this machine three seconds to fully heat and be ready to use and allows you to steam your milk at the same time as you make your espresso. The touch screen display also allows you to pick whatever drink you want to make as well as up to 8 customised drinks so that all you have to do is put the milk and espresso into the same cup. Where this machine really differs from the barista express however is its milk steaming arm which has a built-in thermometer that allows for a hands-free milk steaming experience that creates perfectly textured milk for whatever drink you have selected while still allowing you to put the machine into manual mode if you would like to steam the milk yourself.