Full automata, semi-automata, capsule machines... Which coffee machine makes the best coffee?

Early in the morning, an normally reticent male colleague of science and technology suddenly sent me an unusual Wechat message, which almost shook my waist:

Only when asked did he know that he had just acquired the first coffee machine of his own yesterday. So much so that he used a large paragraph to describe in detail the overwhelming impact of the coffee machine on his heart and personality, and I just watched quietly, hoping that it would all pass soon.

It turns out that coffee not only refreshes people, but also has the magical effect of turning engineering men into literary men.

I can actually understand the weary happiness of male colleagues. There are two cafes downstairs, one so bad that I don't even intend to spend my stored value card, and the other is Starbucks. Every time I go in, there will be at least five people who like to drink extra-long coffee (soy milk semi-sugar mocha with an extra shot, child temperature yo). Suddenly can drink good coffee at home, even the haze outside the window, roadside dog shit, and even downstairs singing street performers think it is beautiful.

This happiness reaches its peak when a person is at home and happens to have a cup of coffee at hand. This is probably why the coffee machine is a must for me and is keen to recommend it to people who love life around me.

After a long time of research when I wanted to buy a reliable coffee machine two years ago, I finally bought a manual espresso machine I read about on GQ in the United Kingdom. Although the pressure box is very high at home, I really can't stand squeezing a cup of coffee in the bleary-eyed state and practicing my chest muscles in the morning, and it's really troublesome to grind beans and clean up. So I honestly bought a capsule coffee machine.

So today, I would like to summarize the research results that I used to buy coffee machines (more specifically, Italian coffee machines), and recommend several coffee machines to you in the principle of high quality and convenience. If you are attracted, divide the price by 30 (about the cost of a cup of Starbucks coffee). The number will often make you think that the coffee maker is too worthwhile, making the process of paying for it easier and easier.

Advantages: low price, high degree of freedom and strong operability

Disadvantages: high time cost and many influencing factors

Philips Saeco Poemia

Although it is an entry-level semi-automatic coffee machine, it is enough for the family. Philips's coffee machine always looks simple and tidy.

1.25L water tank capacity, 15bar pump pressure, removable pressure crema layer filter frame, and classic milk foam machine are several of its design advantages. This machine is suitable for grinding coffee and coffee powder bags, which is also convenient.

The espresso made with it has a smooth taste and a thick crema on the top layer (the coffee machine is good or bad sometimes you can tell a little about the thickness of the crema), but the color and foam are slightly less delicate, so generally speaking, it can meet the needs of most people.

His milk foam machine is excellent. It can heat milk quickly and make tight foam.

▲ Milk foam close-up

Perhaps the only thing that bothers you is the material of the shell. The shell of the Philips Saeco Poemia is plastic. Although this does not affect the beauty and force of this machine, if you must buy a machine with a metal shell, I recommend the following one.

Gaggia Gran Prestige

It is also an entry-level model with almost the same function as the fuselage design and Philips Saeco Poemia, except that the fuselage is all-metal, which is more textured than the one above.

But Gaggia has not yet entered the Chinese market, most of the products need to be imported, need the help of power converters when using, and there will be some trouble in after-sales service.

In addition, I must also explain to you that, as a professional coffee machine, the semi-automatic coffee machine has high technical requirements for users, and it is very difficult for us family users to guarantee the quality of coffee beans or coffee powder. it is difficult to make a satisfactory cup of coffee.

So, unless you're obsessed with making coffee at home, I suggest you take a look at the automatic coffee machine below.

Advantages: fast and convenient

Disadvantages: high price

Mellit Coffeo Baristo

This is the fully automatic coffee machine I recommend you to buy. It is difficult to find fault in terms of appearance and function, and of course it has become the number one in the hearts of many professional coffee lovers.

The whole machine is made of stainless steel and plastic, and is equipped with a LCD touch screen, 1.8L water tank and 15bar pressure pump. The only thing that seems abrupt in design is the need to be equipped with a separate milk tank, which just doesn't look like a good match.

But the function of this coffee machine is so excellent that these minor flaws are negligible. Unlike most fully automatic coffee machines, Melitta CAFFEO Barista ®TS can put two kinds of coffee beans in the trough at the same time, and you can choose which one to use or mix it together to make espresso. When you decide to make a cup of milk coffee, the machine will automatically select the most suitable coffee bean from the two.

▲ bean trough design close-up

This coffee machine has a very powerful memory function, it can record all the coffee preferences of you and your family, including water temperature, coffee intensity, milk or boiling water, etc. You can even design your own coffee menu by adjusting the existing coffee making procedures and parameters according to your preferences.

In addition, Melitta CAFFEO Barista ®TS can also make common milk cafes such as flat white,latte,macchiato. And designed with automatic cleaning mode, very convenient.

Of course, the most important thing is the quality of the coffee produced by the machine. Melitta CAFFEO Barista ®TS intelligently stores a variety of traditional espresso making methods, which is beyond the reach of the average coffee machine. At the same time, the milk foam machine it is equipped with is also one of the best in similar products, and the milk foam is almost perfect.

Melitta CAFFEO Barista ®TS maximizes the aroma of coffee beans. The top of the coffee is a reddish-brown crema with a thin layer of grease, with little excess foam.

The problem is that although coffee maker manufacturers have made fully automatic coffee machines more functional through technological reforms, they can make bizarre boutique coffee, but the price of the machine and the freshness of coffee beans are still a problem. The shelf life of coffee beans is only one month at most, and the freshness of coffee beans decreases with time. It is an exaggeration to say that the coffee made by the automatic coffee machine is worse than the other.

So from the perspective of coffee quality and performance-to-price ratio, I would recommend you to buy a capsule coffee machine.

Advantages: faster and more convenient, with various tastes

Disadvantages: the cost of the capsule is high (actually, it's okay)

Before recommending the machine, I would like to briefly introduce things like the capsule coffee machine.

In fact, the capsule coffee machine is also a fully automatic coffee machine, but it uses coffee capsules containing coffee powder to make coffee, eliminating the step of grinding beans and greatly reducing the production cost of the machine. At the same time, coffee capsule has another advantage: it is filled with nitrogen, which can ensure the freshness of coffee powder, and then ensure the quality of coffee.

However, this way of production also brings limitations to the capsule coffee machine. The coffee taste it can produce is completely controlled by coffee capsules, and coffee capsules between different capsule coffee machine brands cannot be used. What kind of coffee you can drink is entirely determined by the team of baristas behind the coffee machine brand. This means that you have to find a very reliable brand with strong development capabilities, such as Nespresso.

Nespresso is Nestle's high-end capsule coffee machine brand, the biggest advantage is the high quality of coffee capsules, many flavors. At present, there are 23 kinds of coffee capsules on sale, many of which are favored by professional coffee magazines.

Recently, some people on Taobao have also begun to sell empty capsules for Nespresso, which can be added to their favorite ground coffee. It's just that I am highly skeptical about this practice. Adding ground coffee to the capsule will involve technical work such as filling quantity and pressing strength, which will affect the final quality of the coffee.

▲ Nespresso Coffee capsule

You must also be reminded that all Nespresso products use the same movement, the coffee produced is the same taste and quality, and the price difference between products is mainly reflected in the material and function of the body. The following are the two extremes I recommend to you.

Lattissima Pro

If you have a good budget, I strongly recommend that you go straight to Lattissima Pro, the highest-equipped capsule coffee maker in Nespresso. Lattissima Pro is made of electroplated aluminum, equipped with LCD screen and touch sensitive buttons, the overall modern feel, easy to adapt to any style of decoration style.

At the same time, the Lattissima series is the only Nespresso capsule coffee machine that can make milk coffee automatically, thanks to its design of directly connecting the foam machine to the coffee maker.

As long as you select the appropriate mode on the control panel, it can produce not only milk coffee such as latte and cappuccino, but also hot milk and hot water.

High capacity is another advantage of Lattissima Pro. With 1.3L water tank capacity and 0.5L milk tank capacity, you can be lazy about adding water and milk.

But if you have a limited budget, or if you don't have much demand for milky coffee and prefer Espresso, Lungo and Americano, then the simplest basics of Nespresso will satisfy you.

Pixie

For cost reasons, the Pixie series is made of plastic, but this does not affect its beauty. The machine won the Red Dot Best Design Award in 2011. The coffee maker is also available in Grand Hyatt, InterContinental and CHAO hotel rooms.

At the same time, another series of Pixie Clips, which looks almost the same as it, has played some new tricks in the appearance, allowing users to replace their favorite coffee maker panels. There are currently 12 different styles of panels to choose from.

For those who like milk coffee, the only drawback is that the Pixie is not equipped with a foam machine and needs to be bought by itself.

▲ NESPRESSO Aeroccino3

The price is ¥800, which can be even lower if you run into in-store activities. Aeroccino3 is the most convenient milk foam machine I have ever seen. It can make two different thicknesses of milk foam according to your needs. The whole process only takes about 30 seconds. Later cleaning is also very convenient, as long as timely, with a flush of water can be done.

At the same time, when it comes to milk coffee, we have to nag about Nespresso's brother brand, DOLCE GUSTO. The "fancy capsule coffee" machine produced by their family is called a toy by many people, and it is also a representative of the machine that I do not recommend you to buy.

Unlike Nespresso, DOLCE GUSTO has focused on making "milk cafes and coffee drinks" with bizarre capsule products such as ground coffee and milk powder lattes.

▲ DOLCE GUSTO partial Coffee capsule

Although convenient, DOLCE GUSTO's coffee capsule is really not to my taste. On the one hand, there is almost no choice on coffee beans, on the other hand, it can not be regarded as milk coffee, there are almost no milk bubbles.

The appearance of his capsule coffee machine is really interesting, and he often gets the red dot design award. And their machines all have 7-stage water control function, which makes it easier for users to control the amount of hot water added to the coffee. In such a price and positioning of the machine, the emergence of such a user-friendly design is also very rare.

▲ STELIA Price: ¥2090

Of course, which one to buy in the end depends on your own needs. Some people just want to drink coffee, while others just enjoy the process of making it. Anyway, it's good to please yourself.