Best Home Coffee Machines 2023

the best home coffee machines 2023

Best Manual Coffee Machine under £500

Gaggia Classic Pro – 2019

At around the £430 mark you used to have two choices: Sage’s excellent Barista Express or Gaggia’s superb Classic. Thanks to the global pandemic, however, that’s all changed. Prices have soared on many of the Sage machines, and as a result the Barista Express is now closer to £600 than it is to £400. That’s left the Gaggia Classic as the undisputed champion in the sub-£500 category.

The Classic lacks the integrated burr grinder of the Sage – and bear in mind that a basic one of those will cost at least £50 or more – but it makes vastly better coffee. It might take a little more effort to get the very best out of the Classic, but at its best, it’s unbeatable for the money and capable of serving up the kind of coffee which equals or betters even far pricier machines.

If you really want to get the best from top-notch coffee beans, then this is the machine to buy. The metal exterior, clunk-click buttons and simple, basic engineering combine to make an espresso machine to aspire to.

Automatic – best home coffee machines 2023

Best Super Automatic coffee machine under £1000

Pros: Easy to use; great coffee | Cons: Expensive; cleaning can be fiddly

If manual espresso sounds like too much work then a bean-to-cup machine is a great choice. Simply pop water and coffee beans in the machine, and you can get a shot of coffee at the press of a button – and without cleaning the machine between every single shot. Pricier machines include integrated milk frothers that dispense a cappuccino or white coffee at the press of a button. The results are never as good as manual machines though, and prices start at around £800.

Jura ENA 8

Jura is known for making high-quality coffee machines that can cost well over $2000, but in this Jura ENA 8 review we ask if it’s worth the investment. This bean-to-cup coffee maker takes all of the stress out of making espresso from home, and it even has the option of using a milk frother alongside the machine to create latte or cappuccino from your own kitchen. Most importantly though, we found that the Jura ENA 8 coffee maker is one of the very best coffee makers on the market for pure coffee quality. 

The new Jura ENA 8 replaces the previous model, the Jura ENA Micro 9. Like the A1, it adds the Pulse Extraction Process technology that guarantees a richer and more flavourful espresso and the ultra-fast AromaG3 grinder. 

ENA 8 has a fully functional automatic milk frothing system as well as a 2.8” inch colour display for programming and drink selection. You can have the perfect macchiato (or one of nine other drinks!) just the way you like it at the press of a button.

The ENA 8 is a super compact machine, measuring just 10.7” wide, 12.7” high and 17.5” deep, making it the smallest one-touch machine on the market. It’s available in 3 colours, red, white, and black, and features a unique and attractive round water reservoir patterned to look like crystal. It may be small, but it will still bring a big dose of class to your kitchen.

Best home coffee machine for Espresso 2023

La Pavoni Europiccola

La Pavoni Europiccola is a lever machine of excellence that allows to make optimal use of coffee powders in order to obtain the authentict and perfect tasting espresso.
The boiler capacity is 0.80 liters (not very high) and theoretically achieves 8 cups of espresso coffee consecutively thanks to the provision of a pressure switch that guarantees constant boiler pressure.
The average heating time is about 5 minutes. The extraction pressure ranges from 1 to 9 atmospheres and the correct water temperature is obtained from a mix between the water in the group chamber and the warmer water taken from the boiler.
La Pavoni Europiccola also allows you to prepare cappuccinos by delivering dry steam and suitable for obtaining the right foaminess of the milk cream. However, the temperature does not guarantee eternal stability and this entails a problem when it will be necessary to prepare more than 2 cappuccinos at a time.

The keys to getting the best out of your La Pavoni are having a meticulous nature and noting every step in the process. You start by weighing your dose – that’s the amount of espresso you put into the filter basket. As with other La Pavoni espresso machines, the Europiccola comes with two 51mm baskets: one holds 9g, and the other holds about 13 (14 if you really mash the tamper).

In practice, most espresso devotees use the larger basket. (It’s worth pointing out that the 9g basket fits ESE pods – though it’s hard to imagine someone who wants pre-packaged ESE pods and a manual lever espresso machine). We’ve found that the larger basket is ideal for pulling shots of about 30g to 45g – that is, a 2:1 or 3:1 coffee-water ratio. With a sufficiently slow hand on the lever, you can get a beautifully balanced extraction at about a 40g yield.

Best home coffee machines 2023