The KF7 is the mid-tier machine from KitchenAid that comes with a milk container attached to the brew head with a hose. The flat white came out a little more like a mini-latte than we would have liked but the cappuccino had a rich head of smooth foam. One KitchenAid feature that we’d tell every maker of a super auto machine to consider adding is the removable bean hopper. It’s impossible to tell in super automatic machines how much coffee is left in the hopper and you can easily end up with half the beans you need as it runs to empty. Not only does the removable hopper solve for that, it also makes it easy to clear away old stale beans and replace them with fresh ones.
The fancier of the two De’Longhi super automatic machines we tested delivered once we got it dialed in. The burr grinder on the Eletta Explore has 13 settings and we found we had to set coarser for espresso than we would have thought, around 6. With the milk container attached it can make around 50 kinds of drinks, though many of them are just iced versions of the hot drinks. The touchscreen is intuitive and provides step-by-step instructions when necessary. The water tank is big enough that a two-coffee-drinker household should only need to refill it once during a week. Both the straight espresso and the black coffee tasted a bit flatter than the drinks from the Bosch, and the foam was a little thinner. This machine can, however, make cold foam if you like iced cappuccinos.
Using the Flair Pro 2 is an entirely different experience from every machine we’ve covered up to this point. That’s because this is a fully manual lever espresso maker. That means you have to heat the water and produce the necessary pressure for brewing by yourself. There were some messy moments as we figured out how to use it, but the Flair did produce some truly delicious espresso. The trick, which someone from Flair shared with us, is to allow a brief period of pre-infusion during which you don’t pull too hard on the lever. It lets the pressure build more slowly.
A lever machine like the Flair is a commitment and the small 46mm filter basket is a little tedious to fill. But if hands-on experimentation is your thing, this is a fun machine. It’s also great to travel with: It comes apart and fits into a case about the size of a large tablet.
9Barista Espresso Machine
As with the Flair, it doesn’t make much sense to compare the 9Barista to say, a Breville or De’Longhi machine, because it’s a stovetop espresso maker. If you’ve ever used a Mokapot, it works sort of like that, except much better. Its boilers actually produce the correct pressure for an espresso shot and those shots tasted better than everything except the very best prosumer models we tested. The little brewer is dense, it weighs in at almost four pounds (a mark of quality), and if you’re up for a more manual experience you won’t be disappointed.
Espresso machines we don’t recommend
Some of the machines on this list performed adequately. Some even made delicious coffee. We also know that there are entries here that have passionate devotees. But for each one, we thought the negatives outweighed the positives enough that we’d encourage you to consider one of the espresso makers above instead.
The Profitec 500 took the longest to heat up of the high-end machines we tested at close to 24 minutes. It was also one of the most finicky. Dialing in a shot took the longest and the machine demanded a very precise grind and tamp that we needed to adjust sometimes on a day-to-day basis. If you’re willing to take on all that, the machine is a beautiful feat of German engineering. The look is a little steampunk for our liking, but that’s a personal thing.
Like most of the prosumer machines we tried, the Rocket Appartamento uses a heat exchanger to keep water hot for brewing and steam. It’s a little slower than most though, so there was a longer wait between brewing and steaming milk. The included tamper, which could be replaced, didn’t fit flushly in the portafiler that came with the machine and left some loose coffee on the edges. It doesn’t have a PID controller (though a newer model that will get future testing does allow some adjustment) and it also has a bigger footprint than our top pick.
The Express Impress was a big jump forward in technology for Breville. This was the company’s first machine to use a combination of smart grinding and tamping to let you know the grounds in your portafilter were all set for a good shot. After grinding, the machine measures whether it’s able to compress the coffee grounds with the right pressure. If it can’t compress them enough it means the grind is too fine or there is too much coffee. If it compresses too much, the reverse is true. It worked wonderfully for a while in our testing, providing useful feedback. The espresso and milk steaming worked at the same level they do in all the mid-priced Breville machines we tested—both consistently good.
The problem we ran into with this machine was that it began jamming up with lighter roast beans. We asked Breville why this is and didn’t get a definitive answer. But issues like this are why we typically stay away from espresso machines with built-in grinders. They tend not to have as many settings or as much power as stand alone grinders. As noted above, Breville has been improving their built-in grinders with the same burrs used in Baratza grinders, but only on models at the Barista Touch level and above.
The one caution we’d have about this machine is the same one we mentioned above about built-in burr grinders. But the Barista Express is an affordable espresso machine that makes the kind of consistent coffee Breville is known for. The grinder itself is a little annoying to adjust—you have to free hand the grind time on a dial that is just labeled “less” and “more,” but we were able to get it in range after about 15 minutes of trial and error.
The La Specialista Arte has a built-in burr grinder as well as a built-in hot water dispenser, which you can select with a dial near the group head. The steam wand wasn’t quite as powerful as those on Breville machines, but it still produced some texture to the milk.
A small accessory that makes a difference is the included funnel. It attaches to the portafilter and keeps the grinding process cleaner than it would be otherwise. Aftermarket funnels are available for most machines, but it’s a nice accessory to have in the box. One thing to know about semi-automatic De’Longhi machines is that their portafilters are a slightly different size than many other machines. You could, for example, use the Solis portafilter in a Breville machine or vice versa. But the De’Longhi portafilers are deeper and narrower.
We think the Specialista Touch is enough of a jump forward that we recommend it, but if you are sticking to this simpler interface we’d recommend a Breville.
Casabrews is one of the brands that frequently shows up as an affordable espresso alternative to Breville on Amazon results pages, and if you’re intent on a true budget espresso machine it will produce reasonable results. The Neutron Pro, one of Casabrews higher end machines, has several features going for it. It uses a 58mm portafilter, which nothing else in this price range does. It also has a digital pressure readout, automatic americano setting, and an interface that allows easy adjustment of brewing and steaming temperature.
The espresso was better than what we’ve come to expect from lower priced machines, coming out sweet and smooth, if a little thin. The machine is quite light and the removable water tank felt thin enough we could crush it in our hands, but that’s the sort of trade off we’d expect for something that costs about 40% less than the Breville machine it resembles. The one real drawback of this machine was its milk steaming. It uses a thermometer built into the steam wand to let you know when the milk has hit the temperature you want, but when we measured milk temperature with our own thermometer we found that it heated unevenly. It also lacked the structure we want for a cappuccino, perhaps because of that uneven heating. The wand struggled even more with oat milk, producing almost no body at all.
In our product testing, Ninja has distinguished its products by giving them two main features: They are less expensive versions of their best known competitors (think: this blender instead of a Vitamix) and they have some quirky extra capabilities (think: this double stack air fryer). Ninja’s entry to the semi-automatic espresso world fits right in. It is clearly here to offer a less expensive option to the Brevilles and De’Longhis of the world and, in addition to espresso drinks, it also claims to do drip coffee and cold brew. The Luxe Café Premier does indeed deliver tasty espresso shots. It also effectively uses similar smart grinding to the Impress series from Breville that figures out the right grind for you. But there’s a little too much going on.
The drip coffee tasted fine, though not as good as what we get from top drip coffee makers. The cold brew tasted a bit flat instead of rich and smooth. The real problem (and the one that kept us from considering it as a budget pick) is the Ninja’s milk frothing. In addition to steam, the milk jug uses a built-in whisk to stir the milk like stand-alone milk frothers do. The result was a lot of bubbles and not much body in either dairy or alt milks.
Let’s start with the good for the Philips Barista Brew: It has a heavy, 58mm portafilter (the same size you’ll find on true high-end machines), it has a high quality steam wand that repeatedly produced thick, smooth tops for our milk drinks. It also has a built-in americano button. This machine had one major issue though: The built-in grinder couldn’t grind fine enough to generate enough pressure to pull a satisfactory espresso shot. We’re quite sure the problem was the grinder because when we used a Fellow Opus and a Baratza Encore ESP to try this machine we were able to pull delicious shots with the right pressure.
The Gaggia Classic Pro shows up as a top pick on a lot of other lists of best espresso machines, probably because it has the look and feel of a prosumer machine at an entry-level price. It’s the least expensive machine we tested that comes with a 58mm portafilter and has a nice steam wand too. It’s a single boiler machine though, so be ready to wait between brewing and steaming.
One disappointment with the Gaggia we tested was that, despite many quality parts, it came with a cheap plastic tamper. We couldn’t get a good tamp and all the espresso we made using it came out under-extracted. Using the Gaggia is also a full analog experience. You start and stop the brewing and steaming process by flipping a switch. That’s not a knock on the machine—it’s how the Lelit, the Dilettas, and many nice espresso machines work. We mention it because someone buying a machine at this price point might be expecting the automatic stop that comes with something like a Breville machine, and you won’t get it here. Overall the Gaggia is fine, but we prefer Lelit’s machines—for an extra $150 you could get the Lelit Anna which offers the same functionality and a digital PID controller.
Like Casabrews reviewed above, Gevi is another perpetual top seller on Amazon. But unlike the Casabrews Neutron Pro, we didn’t find anything redeeming about Gevi’s coffee. It’s tiny portafilter only came with double-walled filter baskets, and even though using them produced readings in the “espresso” range on the pressure gauge, the shots themselves tasted over-extracted and bitter, with no body and a crema that dissipated almost instantaneously. The steam wand produced jugs full of disappointingly bubbly milk. Even with the bargain basement prices we think you should skip this one.
As a rule we expect very little from espresso machines that cost less than $200 because they tend to lack the temperature and pressure control needed for good coffee. But the Cuisinart surprised us. We pulled shots with nice crema on top (the machine only came with double-walled filter baskets though, so it was kind of cheating). The steam wand was a bit overpowered and tough to control (again, an issue when you don’t have good temperature and pressure regulation), but did produce a headier foam than most other machines around this price point.
No crema, over-extracted espresso, and an irritating steam wand that was almost always in the way during brewing; it’s features like these that scare us off cheap espresso machines, and they’re all present on this De’Longhi. The milk foam was also so thick we could almost cut it with a knife.
The Dedica looks like it should be a nice machine, but it felt cheap and was mostly plastic. That wouldn’t have to be a dealbreaker, but the espresso also lacked much flavor. We actually prefer capsule coffee from a Nespresso VertuoPlus, which costs around the same amount of money. If you’re looking for something less expensive we’d point you either to that, the Solis Barista Perfetta, or Cuisinart’s EM-320.
Hamilton Beach makes some good inexpensive small appliances, toasters and kettles for example, this is not one of them. We hesitate to call what was on top of the espresso shots crema. It was closer to pudding. The steam wand couldn’t evenly heat the milk: Some of it badly scalded before everything in the pitcher was heated through.
We started using the Jura E8 the same day we were testing Breville’s Barista Express Impress, and while the espresso shots from the Jura weren’t quite as bright as the Breville’s, both machines showed off all the same tasting notes. The E8 textured dairy milk well, but struggled with oat milk. That struggle wasn’t unusual in automatic machines but we still have to ding it. Combine that with a price tag hundreds of dollars higher than the top-of-the-line Bosch machine and we think there are better choices and better values out there.
Like the name suggests this was the quietest super automatic machine of any we tested. Super autos are a noisy bunch between the grinding, the water pumping and the automated milk steaming. While it’s not as hushed as making pour-over, the Miele kept things to a pretty low hum. The drink list is short: cappuccino and a couple of latte options to go with espresso shots and black coffee, but it makes those drinks well. It looks good on the counter and if you aren’t interested in a big drink library you’ll enjoy this machine.
The little brother of the Eletta Explore, this De’Longhi machine is simpler, smaller and much less expensive. It makes seven drinks compared to the dozens and dozens for the Eletta Explore, but the coffee quality was similar. The espresso tasted a little flat and the milk could have used a little more body. That made the added drink capabilities of the Eletta Explorse very apparent.
If you’re considering the Magnifica EVO and aren’t entirely set on an full auto machine, we’d recommend choosing a semi-automatic Breville machine at a similar price instead. This one occupies a tough middle space: It isn’t as versatile as a lot of super automatic machines we tried and can’t make coffee as well as similarly priced semi-automatic machines.
The Philips Lattego was easy to use, perhaps because it can only make five different drinks. The espresso wasn’t super flavorful, but it wasn’t bad. The issue with this machine wasn’t with its coffee, it was with its milk. The milk came out with very little texture, regardless of whether we made a latte or a cappuccino.
What else do you need to make espresso?
Unless you go the super-automatic route you will need to tamp your own coffee grounds. A spring-loaded tamper, like these from Normcore, will ensure you tamp with the right amount of pressure every time. Just double check that you have the right size tamper for your machine. For Breville or Solis machines like we have up above you’ll want a 53.3-mm tamper (sometimes listed as 53 mm or 54 mm). For prosumer machines like the MaraX or Rancilio Silvia, you’ll want a 58-mm tamper.
A good burr grinder
Any coffee machine is only as good as the coffee grinder you use alongside it. That’s because it takes a fine, even grind and you need to be able to make very small adjustments to the grind size to get the texture just right. There are now some good entry-level espresso grinders that will get you what you need without breaking your budget. We’ve gotten great results from both the Fellow Opus and the Baratza Encore ESP.
Because espresso takes such a fine grind, the coffee grounds can clump up, preventing water from running through them evenly. You use the needles on a distributor to break those clumps up before tamping.
A few important espresso terms:
Good espresso makers are precise, complicated instruments, so I want to lay out a few terms that usually come up in any discussion or comparison of different machines.
Semiautomatic espresso machine: These are machines that require you to actually load a basket with finely ground coffee beans and lock it into place. Some semiautomatic machines operate on timers and will stop brewing themselves, others require you to push a brew button or move a lever to start and stop the process. All of them use pumps to generate the pressure needed for great espresso.
Super-automatic espresso machine: Super-automatic machines do all the work for you. They have built-in grinders, tampers, and brewing processes. All you have to do is place your cup under the spout, push a button, and wait.
Manual espresso machine: A machine that does not have a pump. All the pressure is generated by you during the brewing process.
Prosumer: A portmanteau of professional and consumer used to refer to high-end espresso machines (it’s also used for other quasi-professional home appliances like Vitamix blenders). Prosumer models usually offer similar functionality to machines you find in specialty coffee shops, just in smaller packages.
Filter basket: The little mesh basket that you put ground coffee into. A single-walled filter basket lets coffee flow through all the little holes in the mesh. A double-walled filter basket has an extra layer of metal over the mesh that forces all the coffee through in one spot and guarantees the correct pressure for espresso, making it easy to achieve a lovely layer of crema on top.
Portafilter: The handled piece that locks the filter into your espresso machine. Snap your filter baskets into the chamber at the front, then twist the handle to lock the portafilter onto your machine.
Group head: The part of the machine that dispenses water. It’s what you lock the portafilter into.
PID controller: This stands for proportional-integral-derivative, which sounds like something out of a frightening college level math course…and it is. But, for our purposes, a PID controller is like a super accurate thermostat. It provides precise temperature control for your brewing water and keeps it consistent.
Tamp: The act of compressing ground coffee into the portafilter with a tamper.
Steam wand: A pipe on the side of an espresso maker that shoots out high-pressure steam for making milk drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.
