Coffee is one of the most important liquids in the UK – societally equivalent to petrol in demand, ubiquity and even in function (sort of).
The fuel of a nation can be made in a variety of ways, from short sharp pulls of sticky-fruity espresso via high-pressure barista machines to slow, smooth cold-brews and far, far beyond.
If you don’t already have a coffee maker of some description in your home, you ought to be looking for one – and if you do, you’re here in search of an upgrade.
Anatomy of a brew
Arguments about the merits and demerits of any one method of production can get hairy quickly, but are largely reserved for top-knotted baristas with coffee-bean hyper-fixations. There are few bad ways to make coffee, and responsibility for bad results lies, more often than not, with the person as opposed to the method.
Espresso is the essential base for most café coffees we enjoy, and benefits from a fairly prescriptive brewing process; 18 grams of ground coffee, compacted and subjected to 9-12 bar of water pressure at a 1:2 ratio makes the platonic ideal double espresso shot. Differences in everything from pull time to grind coarseness can dramatically impact flavour, for the betterment or detriment of your drink.
Alternative coffee-making methods
Most modern coffee machines attempt to replicate the high-pressure power of barista coffee machines, but on a smaller kitchen-worktop scale.
Many are successful, but there are other ways of extracting a brilliant brew from your beans. Immersion or pour-over methods are often maligned by casual drinkers, but can provide real and even machine-beating depth of flavour if approached properly.
Cafetiere brewing puts your water in more contact with coffee oils held within the beans, adding thickness and juice to your finished coffee where your espresso might be tarter, fruitier and cleaner on the palate.
How to shop for a new coffee machine
From all-in-one bean-to-cup mega-machines to peculiar hand-operated pressurised brewers, it can be challenging to make a decision. If you’re unfussy about the nature of their brew, a pod coffee maker simplifies brew-making and leaves you with a consistent-quality end product. Bean-to-cup machines can give you a fresher brew without sacrificing a chunk of your morning to crafting your cuppa.
Best coffee makers to buy at a glance
- Best automatic bean-to-cup coffee maker: Siemens EQ.700 TP705GB1 Bean to Cup Coffee Machine - £719, Amazon
- Best for budget bean-to-cup convenience: Philips LatteGo EP2236/40 Bean To Cup Coffee Machine - Black - £399, Currys
- Best for effortless black coffees: De'Longhi Magnifica ECAM290.22.B Evo Fully Automatic Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machine - Black, 419.99, John Lewis
- Best automatic espresso coffee maker: Russell Hobbs Distinctions Espresso Coffee Machine - £195, Amazon
- Best for turning your kitchen into a cafe: Breville Barista Max Espresso Machine - £299, Amazon
- Best for hygge vibes: Swan Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Machine - Gray - £98, Argos
- Best pod coffee maker: Lavazza A Modo Mio Desea Coffee Machine - £99, John Lewis
- Best for Nespresso lovers: NESPRESSO by De'Longhi Lattissima One EN510.W Coffee Machine - White - £215, Currys
- Best for pod coffee on a budget: Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio S Pod Coffee Machine - Anthracite - £65, Argos
- Best manual press coffee maker: ROK Espresso GC Classic Smartshot Manual Espresso Maker - £199, Maxi Coffee
- Best for strong coffee with minimal fuss: Barista & Co Strong Brew Coffee Maker - £33.99, Barista & Co
- Best for versatility: AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker - £35, Amazon
- Best for French-pressing: Barista & Co Core Coffee Press (3 Mug) - £34.99, Barista & Co
- Best stovetop coffee maker: Bialetti Moka Express (2-Cup) - £23.72, Amazon
- Best for sleek style: Lavazza Carmencita Moka Pot - Classic - £30, Lavazza
- Best for no-frills coffee-making in the wild: Royalford 6 Cup Moka Pot - £11.99, B&Q
However, many of us like to wield some control over the fate of our coffee cup, which leads us to more manual espresso-making affairs. Automatic espresso makers put milk-steaming and espresso-extracting in your hands. Unpowered coffee makers eschew the reliance on electricity and waste, allowing you to pull excellent extractions wherever you are in the world – and with a great degree of control, too.
Past these informal distinctions, your next favourite coffee maker is a matter of personal taste, and of what convenience looks like to you. To us, convenience looks like having 16 excellent coffee-making products of entirely different forms, laid out before you and reviewed on their abundant merits…
Shop now
Best bean-to-cup coffee makers
Siemens EQ.700 TP705GB1 Bean to Cup Coffee Machine
Best: automatic bean-to-cup coffee maker
The same precision that guides Siemens’ engineering and manufacture of complex medical equipment guides their design of practical household appliances and is very much on show with their range of bean-to-cup coffee makers. This is the EQ.700, a fully automatic machine on the cutting edge.
It starts with its design, a sleek, smart gunmetal form. The control surface is a swanky ‘iSelect’ touch-screen, with an easy-to-navigate menu and a plethora of fun options to discover.
Its function carries the theme, with a wide array of different coffee recipes available at the swipe of a finger – facilitated by a built-in milk system (which takes milk from a separate jug via hose, allowing you to keep your milk fridge-fresh between brews) and a smart water pump that perfectly measures pressure and amount for each brew.
The hopper for the coffee beans is huge – and huger still is the water tank, enabling you to make many faff-free drinks before needing to top everything up. The EQ.700 also benefits from Wi-Fi connectivity with Siemens’ Home Connect app, which allows you to set your coffee brewing from your phone, smartwatch or even a voice assistant like Google Nest.
Between this, the 11 custom user presets and the pan-global menu of instantly-accessible coffee recipes, the EQ.700 is pure luxury in coffee maker form. The quality of the coffee it produces is incomparable to other automatic bean-to-cup solutions, and its top-dollar functionality is almost excessive. Watch this become an indispensable part of your future kitchen.
Buy now £719.00, Amazon
Philips LatteGo EP2236/40 Bean To Cup Coffee Machine – Black
Best for: budget bean-to-cup convenience
Philips is another household brand with fingers in many different domestic pies, including the LatteGo EP2236/40; an automatic coffee maker with all the bells and whistles you’d hope for. There’s a 275g bean reservoir, which connects to a ceramic grinder with 12 coarseness settings; there’s an automatic brewing system giving you up to 15 bars of espresso-pulling pressure; and there’s an on-board milk system there to layer your drink with dense creamy foam.
The LatteGo EP2236/40 is extremely user-friendly, with three preset beverages – and finer settings to tweak temperature and grind coarseness – accessed by a single button. The unit is also easy-clean, with an easily detached milk system and an internal cleaning cycle (also accessed by a single button press).
With little else required of you than topping up the bean hopper and topping up your milk, this is a great choice for the less technologically adept of us, and at a budget price point.
Buy now £399.00, Currys
De'Longhi Magnifica ECAM290.22.B Evo Fully Automatic Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machine, Black
Best for: effortless black coffees
De’Longhi’s coffee-maker-making expertise has garnered praise from consumers, and its design ethos praise from global design awards.
The Magnifica ECAM290.22.B Evo cuts a sleek form, marrying De’Longhi’s trademark design with a futurism befitting of a fully automatic bean-to-cup machine. This bean-to-cup machine is, of course, a simple affair to operate. A top-mounted control surface displays the various functions clearly, making espresso-pouring a single-button affair.
This machine does not have an in-built milk system like other competitors, making it much better suited for black coffee or espresso lovers than for those of a milkier persuasion. However, there is a milk frother unit attached, which is controlled by the swing of a dial. While slightly finicky to use, it satisfies a need well – and makes this an ultimately versatile maker.
Get this for an uncompromisingly good black coffee.
Buy now £419.99, John Lewis
Best automatic espresso coffee makers
Russell Hobbs Distinctions Espresso Coffee Machine
Best: automatic espresso coffee maker
The new Distinctions Espresso Coffee Machine is an ideal worktop machine for the domestic espresso expert.
The Distinctions has distilled the espresso maker down to some highly useful core functions, accessed by satisfyingly clicky buttons on the front of the unit. You can use presets to deliver one-touch espresso shots, or command your own coffee-making destiny with a manual mode that puts you in charge. Either way, the unit boasts a 15-bar pressure pump for concentrated espresso-pulling power.
The steam wand is situated on the right-hand side, and controlled by a side-mounted dial; potential pitfalls arise for the left-handed, but if you perch your unit just right in your kitchen, this becomes a non-issue. The wand is easy to manipulate, and the steam easy to control – giving you every opportunity to perfect your latte art without flat milk to contend with.
Between the simplicity of the unit’s operation, the creaminess of its end results and the reasonable RRP, the Distinctions Espresso Coffee Machine is a winning choice for domestic barista-style coffee.
Buy now £195.00, Amazon
Breville Barista Max Espresso Machine
Best for: turning your kitchen into a cafe
The Breville name stands in high repute amongst other consumer brands across the country. Its mastery of the humble kettle was sure to lead it to the more complex demands of the espresso machine.
The Barista Max is a bean-to-cup affair, featuring a bean grinder with 30 coarseness settings and a controlled heating system that also services a ‘keep-warm’ area atop the unit. There’s a pre-infusion cycle to bloom the coffee in the portafilter, two presets for single and double espresso shots, and a manual mode for the scales-wielding coffee purists amongst us. The temperatures are consistent, and the steam system is surprisingly effective; the steam wand is long and articulable enough to make steaming your milk as easy as anything. The results are practically barista-quality.
Buy now £299.00, Amazon
Swan Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Machine - Gray
Best for: hygge vibes
Swan’s quintessential Britishness pervades even in its recent line of stylish pieces inspired by Northern European. The Nordic range is chock-full of matte colour-ways and wood-effect detailing, reaching for a hygge-ish feel that brings comfort to the kitchen – and includes the Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Machine amongst its numbers.
This espresso maker has distilled its functionality down to three buttons, a dial, and a temperature gauge. One button turns the unit on, another engages the espresso maker, and a third pre-heats the milk steamer system; the dial controls the steam release valve. Between these simple controls, making a foamy, rich cappuccino is a breeze. The Nordic also comes with two sizes of portafilter basket, so you can make coffees for one or two with ease – and there are no drink presets to contend with, so you can choose whether or not you’d like to over-extract for a longer coffee.
The Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Machine is simple to use and produces a fine coffee. It doesn’t hurt to look at, either.
Buy now £98.00, Argos
Best pod coffee makers
Lavazza A Modo Mio Desea Coffee Machine
Best: pod coffee maker
Lavazza started in the 19th century as a Turin-based coffee roastery. Its swift ascent to the global coffee market made it a household name, forever attributed with great-quality at-home coffee – and great, accessible barista coffee, too. Lavazza’s A Modo Mio pod coffee products have been lauded since 2007, and continue to be, with new coffee makers greatly expanding the versatility of the brand.
This is the Desea, its latest pod coffee maker and a significant upgrade on its legacy coffee maker devices. Its simple touch-sensitive interface belies a much niftier functionality, which makes this a particularly fun form of pod coffee maker.
One half of the unit’s interface is devoted to drawing espresso, with four pre-set lengths for one-shot, double-shot, long coffee and a manual pour mode. The other half is dedicated to an exceedingly smart milk-frothing system, with three coffee presets – short cappuccino, long cappuccino and latte macchiato – and a just-milk frothing option. A further button for each section boosts the water temperature and foam amount respectively.
The milk-frothing system is smart on account of its intuitive design. A milk-frothing jug is supplied with the unit, which mates to the machine via lid with attached steam wand and frother. When you insert the jug, the Desea detects it and enables only the milk settings; when the jug is absent, only the coffee settings can be accessed. This makes using the Desea foolproof, even groggily-eyed at the crack of dawn.
The smart, all-in-one functionality of the Desea makes it a phenomenal entry in the pod coffee space, and a mightily satisfying machine to use too. Well-built, sturdy, easy to use and uncompromisingly good at everything it’s designed to do: at this price, the Lavazza A Modo Mio Desea is quite simply a steal.
Buy now £99.00, John Lewis
NESPRESSO by De'Longhi Lattissima One EN510.W Coffee Machine - White
Best for: Nespresso lovers
De’Longhi has made a name for itself designing sleek coffee-makers for the globally-recognised coffee-pod brand and George Clooney-fronted vehicle Nespresso. The Lattissima One EN510.W is a pod-coffee-upgrading machine as well as a pod coffee machine, giving you the option to turn your cup of Nespresso into a cup of ‘Ncappuccino’, or even ‘Nlatte macchiato’.
The Lattissima One is a Nespresso machine with an added milk system, which automatically froths and delivers milk in accordance with the preset recipes built into the unit. The machine is single-serve by design, but still delivers that familiar Nespresso quality with a milky twist. It’s easy to use, easy to clean and exceedingly easy to look at as well; if you’re a Nespresso adherent, this is undoubtedly for you.
Buy now £215.00, Currys
Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio S Pod Coffee Machine - Anthracite
Best for: pod coffee on a budget
If you haven’t heard of Nescafe, we don’t believe you. Nescafe has all but cornered the instant coffee market, making its pod-coffee forays an understandable next step. True to the affordability of Nescafe instant coffee, Nescafe’s pod coffee and pod coffee makers are eminently affordable – as evidenced by the Dolce Gusto Genio S Pod Coffee Machine.
The Genio S is a simplistic affair, on account of the simplicity of the pods themselves. These coffee pods are all-in-one instant solutions, meaning no separate milk system is required if you find yourself in the mood for a latte. You can adjust how much water is used for each drink, and adjust the cup holder itself to suit your favourite mug. This is a no-nonsense morning coffee machine, and an inexpensive way to get a tasty morning fix.
Buy now £65.00, Argos
Best manual press coffee makers
ROK Espresso GC Classic Smartshot Manual Espresso Maker
Best: manual press coffee maker
ROK’s Espresso GC started life as the Presso, an early-Noughties invention seeking favour as the eco-friendly alternative to wasteful electronic coffee makers. Today, ROK is leaner, smarter and more stylish than its successful predecessor; the Espresso GC Classic Smartshot is a decidedly space-age affair, with a sleek mostly-metal design as elegant as its functionality.
This is a completely manual espresso maker, which utilises two connected arms as levers for supplying the perfect pressure to your coffee. The ‘Smartshot’ bit refers to the versatile portafilter basket supplied with the unit, which is less demanding with regard to the grind of your coffee. You can use practically any grind of coffee here and your extraction will still succeed – though the flavour, of course, will still change.
Using the Espresso GC is a cinch. Load the portafilter and dock it to the unit with the levers down. Then pour boiled water into the reservoir. Pulling the levers up introduces the water to the machine, and pushing the levers back down forces the water through the portafilter. Twenty-ish seconds of pushing later, you are left with a beautiful-looking, crema-topped double espresso, ready to drink.
The process is smooth, secure and satisfying, with the tactile response of the machine to your direct movements giving you a sense of complete control over your coffee. The foamy, fruity results are, in a word, astonishing. This is a must-buy for its unique looks alone, but it also happens to pull a better espresso than a great many electrified alternatives – and without the ecological cost.
Buy now £199.00, MaxiCoffee
Barista & Co Strong Brew Coffee Maker
Best for: strong coffee with minimal fuss
Barista & Co is an exciting and relatively new coffee-maker start-up, built first around an innovative single-serve coffee-steeping system called the Brew It Stick. The company has developed a team of brew systems, arranged by the strength of the coffee they produce. The Strong Brew Coffee Maker is their Level 03 entry, producing bold and short licks of maximalist coffee.
The Strong Brew is a hybrid coffee maker, combining immersion brewing with pressure – but with a (literal) twist. This unit uses a nifty screw design to mate its reservoir with its ‘plunger’; lateral force applied to its handles translates to downward pressure, giving you finer control of the pressure you exert on your brew. This makes the Strong Brew a safer coffee maker than the likes of other pressurised brewers like the AeroPress (reviewed shortly), as you aren’t placing a portion of your body weight directly on the vessel receiving your coffee.
In use, other little user-friendly flourishes stand out. The plunger part conceals a handy compartment (for coffee on the go, or various coffee-brewing gubbins) behind a rubber stopper, which doubles as a foot. The lower handle (which holds your filter, and into which the chamber slots) has two lips for gaining a sturdy purchase on your cup. Though the brewing process may be unfamiliar, these touches work to place the Strong Brew in your favour.
Using the Strong Brew takes a couple of tries, if only to perfect the timing with which you create a vacuum seal over the coffee. The resulting short black is powerful and savoury, an ideal early-morning hit or a flavourful base for something milkier. Ultimately, the Strong Brew’s portability and functionality beat out other pressurised manual brewers, and do so at a commendable price too.
Buy now £33.99, Barista & Co
AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker
Best for: versatility
The AeroPress is an iconic entry in coffee-making history, having partially ushered in a new era of considered coffee brewing. The AeroPress is an ingenious thing, comprising two cylindrical pieces – one, the coffee reservoir with a screw-on filter section at its base, and the other a plunger with a snug-fitting rubber bung at its base. The reservoir is placed over a mug, filled with your dose of coffee and then again with your hot water. The fits over the top, and is pressed downward to extract your finished coffee.
This method is simple, elegant, and multiply versatile. The hybridity of immersion brewing and pressure-led extraction make it possible to select for different flavour profiles in your brew, being unfussy as it is over the size of your grind. The portability of the AeroPress is another boon, allowing you fine control over your coffee wherever you are. As far as completely unplugged coffee makers go, you can’t get much more versatile than this.
Buy now £34.98, Amazon
Barista & Co Core Coffee Press (3 Mug)
Best for: French-pressing
Barista & Co’s range of strength-organised coffee makers also includes a cafetiere coffee maker, or French press. The French press is the quintessential immersion brewer, and practically a staple coffee maker for any kitchen. Where most budget cafetieres keep prices down with flimsy plastic parts, the Core Coffee Press rejects this as a possibility, instead boasting a glass beaker with all-stainless-steel parts. This is a sturdy thing, with weight and substance – much like the coffee it brews.
Given the mesh design of the French press’ filter, French presses tend to prefer coarser grinds, which can lead to weaker brews. The Core Coffee Press’ filter is quite fine by comparison, with Barista & Co recommending a filter grind – finer than the average cafetiere grind, allowing for a shorter brew time and a fruitier end-result.
The Core is an ideal French press design, combining sturdiness with smart design and winning aesthetics. It is weighty, satisfying to use and holds its contents’ temperature well. Further, it is easy to clean, making your lazy mornings that bit lazier.
In short, if you want a French press - get this one.
Buy now £34.99, Barista & Co
Best stovetop coffee makers
Bialetti Moka Express (2-Cup)
Best: stovetop coffee maker
Bialetti is, essentially, the moka pot brand. Bialetti was the first manufacturer of such stovetop wonders, having bought the original patent from its inventor Luigi Di Ponti in 1933. With a history of metalwork, design and innovation stretching back over a century from now, it is no surprise that Bialetti moka pots are the moka pot of choice for most Italian households.
Thanks to the distribution efforts of Brew Italia, we are able to enjoy this quintessential staple of stove-top coffee-maker on British soil. The item under review here is the 2-cup edition of the Bialetti Moka Express, the original, essentially-unchanged and immediately-recognisable moka pot design – with enough capacity for two short, strong licks of black coffee.
The build of the Moka Express is sturdy, and its constituent parts feel good going together. Loading it up and setting it on the stove as an almost-meditative practice, and the resulting nectar unsurprisingly delicious. It is hard to beat the original and best for stove-top coffee.
Buy now £23.72, Amazon
Lavazza Carmencita Moka Pot - Classic
Best for: chic stovetop style
Lavazza’s Carmencita is a moka pot unlike any other you are likely to see, taking some style cues from a very peculiar source and winning some serious aesthetic points in the process.
The original Carmencita design was completed in 1979 by Marco Zanuso, as an homage to the puppet of the same name (and mid-century Lavazza mascot) from Sixties Italian variety show ‘Carosello’. Carmencita’s big-nosed conical form turned out to be excellent for stovetop coffee-making, and the making of another moka-pot icon.
The Carmencita is pleasingly weighty in-hand, and its outstretched plastic handle is an ergonomic surprise; you have enough of a purchase on the finished coffee to pour it with ease, and your hand is kept reassuringly far from the hot aluminium itself. This is a sleek, chic and eminently user-friendly addition to your kitchen surfaces.
Buy now £30.00, Lavazza
Royalford 6-Cup Moka Pot
Best for: no-frills coffee-making in the wild
Sometimes, you just want a stovetop coffee maker that serves a bunch of people, and does little else. If you’re less precious about the quality and style of coffee maker in your possession – for example, if you’re camping with family or at a festival with friends, and looking for a bare-bones morning Joe solution – you needn’t look much further than this Royalford moka pot.
This is a six-cup moka pot, allowing you to brew a large amount of coffee on a gas stove in one go. Its £11.99 price point should give you no illusions as to the nature of this product; it is an entry-level coffee maker, and one that will get the job done just fine. If you want hot coffee at your next festival without faffing around with multiple batches, this’ll do it – and withstand a few bangs in the process.
Buy now £11.99, B&Q
Verdict
In a field saturated with well-designed and overachieving coffee makers, there can be no one ‘best coffee maker’. As far as surprises go, the Lavazza A Modo Mio Desea Coffee Machine was an especially welcome one, being a highly affordable and well-featured pod coffee machine that produces beverages above its station.
However, there was one coffee maker that pipped all the rest: the ROK Espresso GC Classic Smartshot Manual Espresso Maker, which produced a truly barista-quality shot of coffee as part of a truly mesmerising brew process.
