One of the interesting parts of running a site like BeanToCupCoffeeMachines.net is that, like everything, it’s near impossible to have a one size fits all approach. In fact, we often get emails from readers asking what we’d buy if money wasn’t a factor. If only we were all rich, that would put a totally different slant on things! The good thing about getting emails like these is that we must be doing a good job of communicating the fact that our top ten is heavily focussed on price.
Forget Price – What Is The Best Home Coffee Machine?
Today, we’re going to talk a little bit about the best machines with a complete disregard for price, something that we’ve always been reluctant to do before. Needless to say, it comes with the disclaimer that we’re not saying you should spend more than you can afford, coffee machines are by no means an essential purchase if money is tight.
Let’s start with addressing the question in the title of of the post – is the Delonghi Magnifica the best home coffee machine? The question comes from our long standing home coffee machine top recommendation on the homepage – the Magnifica ESAM4200. It grabbed our top spot right back in 2015, and has remained there ever since. It’s standing the test of time remarkably well, considering the number of machines out there on the market is expanding all the time. Fundamentally it benefits from two key factors – firstly, it’s a well rounded coffee machine that has all the essential features and more, and secondly it’s available at a great price – as you can see here:
In other words, taking price into consideration, nothing else delivers the same quality per pound spent in our opinion. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t better machines out there though, you just need to pay more (in some cases a lot more) to get your hands on them.
What Coffee Maker Is In My Kitchen?
For example, in my kitchen at home I’ve got a Delonghi, but not the ESAM4200. I’ve got the Eletta ECAM44.660.b, which is often around twice the price of the ESAM4200 on Amazon (which happens to be where I bought it). You can see the current price here:
Choosing The Machine For Your Needs Is Key
I’m quite lucky in that I spend a lot of time looking at coffee makers, so have a pretty good idea of what suits my needs. In our house we drink everything from black coffee to lattes, hot chocolate to cappuccinos, so in other words no milk to virtually entirely milk. That makes an automatic milk frothing home coffee maker a no brainer – what’s more the cleaning functions on the Eletta are as hands off as you’re going to get – a big plus in my book!
So Is The Eletta The Best Coffee Machine?
So, as I’ve bought the Eletta, does that mean I consider it to be the best machine on the market? Actually no, I don’t! There are loads of very expensive machines out there, probably the most famous being Starbucks’ Mastrena. However, if you’ve been in a Starbucks, which probably includes everyone that doesn’t live under a rock, you’ll know that their machines are huge. That’s ok (and probably necessary) if you’ve got a retail store built around serving coffee, but isn’t going to be practical in the average family kitchen. What’s more, they would set you back thousands, if you could find one to buy. It’s far more cost effective to get the taste with their Starbucks coffee beans than their machines anyway!
There is a middle ground, with machines like the Caffeo Barista TS and the Dual Boiler by Melitta and Sage respectively, but for me, the Delonghi Eletta was good enough in that it makes great coffee and handles the milk with more convenience than the Magnifica ESAM4200. If you really do have no problem spending more, do have a look at the Caffeo Barista and Dual Boiler reviews, as they’re great machines, even if I didn’t choose to spend that bit more!
