bean to cup coffee machine

[sandy771]

My Delonghi machine has ust gone kaput, so may be looking for a new one.

I had a Delonghi Magnifica which we paid £200 or so for about 3 years ago. I can look online and the same machine seems to go for between £240 and £380 - seems a huge difference in price.

Anyway, could be in the market for a new one (will see whether current one is worth fixing) but thought I would ask the experts what they would recommend. Don't want to spend a fortune and really want something that is easy to use (hence bean to cup) - won't rule out grinding my own beans but would prefer an integrated solution. Not interested in nespresso etc.

[stevelup]

I think you got a good deal at £200 for a bean-to-cup machine.

We have a ESAM04.350.S here in the office - but that's a much more expensive machine (a so called 'superautomatic' that can deliver a complete cappuccino with one button). It has worked really well for us and so far has delivered over 1000 drinks without a problem.

£500+ though

At home, I have the mother of all coffee machines - a Jura Impressa Z5 II, which even second hand cost me the price of a decent used car... Is it that much better than the Delonghi? Well, no, not really, but it looks a lot prettier

An alternative to buying a new Delonghi would be maybe to look at a used Saeco or similar. There are loads of bean-to-cup machines on eBay and there is an occasional bargain to be had.

[CaptCrispy]

I can recommend Saeco, had one for almost 6 years, never any problems. If you go this route make sure you get one with real buttons rather than a touch sensitive pad as these tend to fail after 3-4 years.

[masterofnone]

I used to use a robot cafe from magimix-it was pretty good. It got replaced with a Nespresso machine, which its far simpler to use, probably cheaper and definitely less messy. coffee is just as good as the old machine

[morticiaskeeper]

Sorry, must do it the traditional way. Burr grind the beans, then into the Bodum Stovetop, onto the Jetboil!

Had a couple of machines, but the last one (a mid price DL) ended up in the loft after a back to back taste test.

The nice bit about my setup is that I can sling it into the back of the car, or a rucksack, or even hang it off a belay halfway up a mountain

[AFKAE]

Gaggia Classic is the way to go.

I think mine is over 10 years old now and going strong, did get it recently serviced.

According to some of the coffee forums (fora) e.g. http://www.toomuchcoffee.com separate grinding is essential and almost as important as the coffee maker. It might be unlikely that a bean to cup machine will do a good job.

PS there's some stuff for sale on there too.

[Foie Gras]

Gaggia Classic is the way to go.

I think mine is over 10 years old now and going strong, did get it recently serviced.

According to some of the coffee forums (fora) e.g. http://www.toomuchcoffee.com separate grinding is essential and almost as important as the coffee maker. It might be unlikely that a bean to cup machine will do a good job.

PS there's some stuff for sale on there too.

+1 - I still have 2 of these, one now with my son in his Uni house

At about £200-250 the Gaggia Classic is the best coffee maker < £1000. Used properly, it will blow the B2C coffee out of the water.

It doesn't need superman skills, just a few pointers:

• Grind the beans yourself immediately before use with a burr grinder. I use a Rocky Rancilio, but have had good results from a Kitchen Aid (see here for a good article on grinders)
• Get the grind right - you should be getting a 2oz espresso shot in about 20 secs. Not rocket science this, just adjust the grind until this is what you get. It will vary greatly by bean, but as I pretty much use the same bean all the time now, I hardly ever adjust the grinder nowadays.
• Always use freshly roasted beans - artisan coffee shops are usually very disappointing. Especially rural ones (Cardews in Oxford's covered market was shocking). I find the internet is best now and use Has Bean. Their quality control is top drawer and beans are very competitive
• Keep a pack of Illy Red pre-ground coffee in the back of the cupboard for when you screw up your bean supplies

FG

[sandy771]

According to some of the coffee forums (fora) e.g. http://www.toomuchcoffee.com separate grinding is essential and almost as important as the coffee maker. It might be unlikely that a bean to cup machine will do a good job.

But then you always get the annally retentive on any forum who claim the purists route is the only route. Had my Delonghi for over three years and it made excellent coffee, much better (and cheaper) than the nespresso that it replaced.

Dont really want to grind separtely as I am a messy git and the combined approach keeps Mrs S771 happy.

[Keef]

Too complicated for me. I have one of those Philips Senseo machines, and a stock of "pods". It's minimal faff, and produces coffee that tastes a lot better than instant stuff. I prefer freshly ground beans, but not enough...

[sandy771]

Too complicated for me. I have one of those Philips Senseo machines, and a stock of "pods". It's minimal faff, and produces coffee that tastes a lot better than instant stuff. I prefer freshly ground beans, but not enough...

Whats too complicated about topping up beans and water once every few days/once a week (depending on use) and then pressing a button to get an espresso? The whole idea of these machines is that it is not complicated. The delonghi even has a "clean cycle" that it goes through when switched on/off.

Much more versatile than nespresso/senseo machines in that you can easily change the strength of your drink - i.e. more or less water and more or less ground coffee. Mrs S771 wouldnt use the nespresso as even the weak coffees were too strong for her.

[Paul_Sengupta]

Ok, I'm going to "come out" here, and say that I bought one of these a few weeks ago:

http://www.gaggia.com/macchine-da-caffe.asp?macchine-per-espresso-automatiche_117_Platinum-Vision



They've not got brilliant reviews on the internet - or rather they vary - everyone says "excellent coffee", but many also say "unreliable". It's Italian. One reviewer said think Alfa Romeo compared to the Siemens Mercedes Benz. Anyway, what prompted me to get this was a special offer on e-bay! Looked at DeLonghi but didn't fancy them. Originally, a few years ago, looked at Siemens because that's what was in the Luxemburg customer's office, but didn't fancy them either. This one is reasonably small and reasonably good looking! Sits in the corner of my kitchen nicely.

Comet had an offer on where the bottom of the range Gaggia bean-to-cup machine was reduced from £350 to £250, so I thought of getting that. It has the same ceramic burr grinder as the more expensive ones. However, the Platinum Vision had more settings and adjustments, but normally costs £700. $1300-$1400 in the US! However, it's going new on e-bay for just over £400, so I thought the extra £160 on top of the basic machine would be worth it - not least because it looks nicer! It's even got an electric motor with buttons for adjusting the height of the drip tray...

I suspect I'm asking for trouble getting a computerised touch screen Italian machine, but for the moment it seems to work very nicely. There's only one problem I have and that's that now I seem to be getting through coffee beans like there's no tomorrow, as it's just so easy to press a button and get coffee.

The ceramic burr grinder is apparently not to burn the beans as it grinds like a steel one. It has three settings, but the fine setting seems ok. I haven't tried the others. You can change the settings for amount of coffee used, and time taken for both pre-brew and brew. You have three cup sizes at the touch of a button but each of these can be adjusted to the size you want. It's just as easy to get a long coffee as an espresso. You can also adjust the temperature of the brew, though this seems to be three settings. I have it on the hottest and strongest for everything, but I think that's just me!

It's on wheels of sorts which allow you to rotate the machine each way to fill up the water and empty the coffee grinds. It has automatic cleaning settings (and rinses itself on power up if you switch it off completely) and even a setting for adding descaler, though the water bucket thing has a (replaceable) water filter in it so hoping I won't need to do that very often!

I guess we could start talking now about tips and stuff. I've ordered some coffee beans on-line for the first time, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with different types of bean.

[Sir Morley Steven]

Kitchen aid burr grinder, kitchen aid coffee maker. Not cheap and not small but they look the part and the coffee is good.

[Rob P]

Do they work any better if you substitute an oxygen-free copper mains lead with gold terminals?

Rob P

[Paul_Sengupta]

Do they work any better if you substitute an oxygen-free copper mains lead with gold terminals?

Don't know, do you think I should try it?

I've ordered some Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans and some Indian beans. Though the Waitrose beans I've used so far, I've noticed that the darker roast makes a better espresso while the lighter roast makes a better long coffee. Hoping to find a bean and roast which makes both!

[stevelup]

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