Apparently, according to the lady of the house, after establishing the cost of the reverb, new bars etc etc recently fitted to my bike :P. Anyone care to give me a clue, good makes, different types, facilities to look out for etc?

There have been a load of threads with recommendations – if you do a search you should find something in your price-range.

What sort of coffee does she like? If she likes filter coffee, an espresso machine will be of little use.

welcome to the world of coffee.

Loads of choices, so you need to narrow it down.

Pod machines:

Down side: not a true taste of the real deal coffee and relatively expensive pods.

Upside: v v convenient.

Bean to cup machines:

Down side: relatively expensive to buy

Upside: Good ones make OK espresso, they have built in grinders for beans and will heat the milk/froth

Hand fill espresso machines (with water pump)

Down side: bit of a faff and you need a grinder also.

Upside: great coffee, bit of an art to make the stuff if that/s your bag.

Stick down your specifics and the collective can advise.

Yesterday had my first Nespresso at wife’s brother’s. Better than I expected, I can see the appeal if you want no mess and don’t mind ‘OK’ coffee.

Me I got a Pavoni Europiccalo pro and Acasa burr grinder. This is the opposite, i.e. a complete faff and mess but fantastic coffee. Decide where on that continuum you lie.

Got a nespresso , maestria for Xmas, awesome machine. Flavours and convenient.

Nespresso !

Will do a search, should have realized that the stw massive would have covered this in some depth before! Thank you for your replies, it does somewhat demonstrate that I do indeed know nothing about coffee! Myself I prefer instant to filtered coffee so she’s not going to get much help from me.

I bought a Saeco Phillips xSmall. Had it for a year and so far so good.

She grinds the beans and froths the milk. Nicely.