May 31 2024
Smeg espresso machines are some of the easiest coffee appliances to recognize. The rounded bodies, chrome accents, glossy finishes, and pastel colors give many of them the company’s signature retro look. But choosing a Smeg espresso machine shouldn’t begin with deciding between cream and pastel blue. Smeg’s current U.S. espresso lineup includes several machines aimed …
May 30 2024
La Marzocco occupies an unusual place in the home espresso world. This isn’t a brand that became famous by making inexpensive countertop appliances and later moved into espresso. La Marzocco built its reputation around professional café equipment, then adapted many of those ideas—dual boilers, saturated or integrated brew groups, rotary pumps, strong steaming systems, and …
May 29 2024
JURA takes a very different approach to home coffee than a traditional espresso-machine company. Instead of handing you a portafilter and expecting you to grind, dose, tamp, pull the shot, steam the milk, and clean up afterward, JURA specializes in fully automatic bean-to-cup coffee machines. Add whole coffee beans. Fill the water tank. Choose a …
May 27 2024
Mr. Coffee has spent decades making home coffee equipment approachable, and its espresso machines follow much the same philosophy. Rather than competing primarily with high-end machines built for serious espresso hobbyists, the brand focuses on affordable, beginner-friendly machines that make espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes easier to prepare at home. The current Mr. Coffee espresso lineup …
May 25 2024
An automatic espresso machine can take nearly everything that makes traditional espresso complicated—grinding, dosing, tamping, brewing, and often milk frothing—and handle it for you. Add whole coffee beans, fill the water tank, choose a drink, and the machine does the rest. That convenience is why fully automatic and bean-to-cup espresso machines have become such an …
May 23 2024
Gevi’s espresso-machine lineup covers a surprisingly wide range of home coffee setups. At one end are narrow, affordable compact machines designed for beginners and small kitchens. Move up the range and you’ll find semi-automatic machines with 58 mm portafilters, PID temperature control, pressure gauges, built-in burr grinders, and OPV pressure regulation. At the upper end, …
May 22 2024
KitchenAid’s espresso lineup has become much more interesting than it used to be. The brand now offers everything from relatively straightforward semi-automatic espresso machines with traditional portafilters and steam wands to sophisticated fully automatic bean-to-cup machines that grind the coffee, brew the espresso, and prepare milk at the touch of a button. There are even …
May 21 2024
Manual espresso machines strip espresso brewing back to its essentials: coffee, hot water, pressure, and your own hands. Instead of an electric pump automatically creating brewing pressure, a lever lets you control what happens during extraction. On the simplest machines, you supply hot water from a kettle and physically press the shot yourself. Traditional boiler-equipped …
May 20 2024
Philips makes choosing a fully automatic espresso machine look simple—until you start comparing the 2300, 3300, 4400, and 5500 Series. At first glance, the machines look remarkably similar. All four can grind whole coffee beans, automatically brew espresso, and use Philips’ LatteGo milk system to make milk-based drinks without requiring you to operate a steam …
May 18 2024
Gaggia is unusual among espresso-machine brands because it serves two very different kinds of coffee drinker. On one side is the Gaggia Classic family: traditional semi-automatic machines built around a portafilter, manual milk steaming, and hands-on espresso preparation. The current Classic Pro E24 is the latest version of a machine that has become a favorite …
