We've had a Krups Nespresso coffee machine for a few years and whilst it's been great and met most of the criteria (markedly better coffee, minimal cleaning / maintenance and no milk pipes) it's proving a little dear to run and we don't like the waste that's involved with the capsules.

We're looking at trading up to a bean to cup machine, and have seen the Delonghi Magnifica one – it's about £260 if you hunt around for it – but wonder if anyone has any other suggestions at this sort of price point (or less…)

Like I say – we don't want the hassle of milk going through it, so it's just for making espressos (though the steam thing on the Delonghi looks like it might be quite useful).

Also, does anyone know roughly how many shots of espresso you get from a bag (of a determined size!) of beans? I've seen somewhere that there's about 7g of ground beans in a shot, but I don't know if that's correct or not.

Thanks in advance STW Coffee Drinking Massive. 🙂

We have a Jura Ena 5 although not in the price above prior to that we have a MagiMix Robot Cafe which would be.

We use about 6kg of beans in 2 months that's for two of us around 20 – 30 cups a week out of it.

The Jura has a built in water filter that has to be replaced and it rinses itself when turned on and off so it should be more reliable over the long term as it looks after it's self, expensive but a quality product.

The issue with the Magimix was it did not clean itself and became clogged up, there were cycles built in to clean every so often but in the end it kept failing because the pipes got to clogged with coffee and residue from the hardwater.

Bear in mind that for £260 you could get a cheap burr grinder and a decent espresso machine. I'd worry that a very cheap (relatively speaking) bean to cup machine wouldn't do any of the processes very well. A friend had a Gaggia Titanium bean to cup that was very nice, but way above budget.

again way above budget but….

Jura Impressa F70.

if it wasnt bigamy, i'd marry mine.

Thanks for the advice – the Magnifica seems to have some sort of auto clean (when it starts up / shuts down) as well as cleaning programs, and the joy of the Peak District is we have pretty soft water here.

On the subject of running costs, forge197; thanks for the calculations. Was that 20-30 cups each or between you?

gonetothehills – that's between us.

I'd recommend a Gaggia Titanium. New it's outside your budget but there was one on ebay that went for £260.

I've had mine for a few years. It rinses when it's not been used for a while, tells you when it needs descaling and makes excellent espresso, cappuccino etc. So far it's made 4618 coffees which works out at just under 12p per cup (plus beans).

apologies for a sort of hijack – anybody remember an ST article where they used a portable coffee maker out on a ride? cant seem to track it down. cheers!

foureyes – Member

apologies for a sort of hijack – anybody remember an ST article where they used a portable coffee maker out on a ride? cant seem to track it down. cheers!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GSI-Outdoors-Mini-Espresso-Maker/dp/B0000E118B

I must not google Jura coffee machines, don't know if cant resist.

bruneep – they are great machines you wouldn't regret it, other than when you go round someones house and they crack open the Nescafe 😉 There's no going back from beans to cup or hand ground coffee

Oh! I have my own Gaggia Espresso machine and grinder, I just dare to look at bean to cup machines as I know I will be weak.

bruneep – be interesting whether there would be a noticible taste difference between methods.

I do like the ease of the beans to cup machines espcially week day mornings!! Be strong bruneep.

matthewjb – would you mind emailing me please (if you see this) as I'm now considering a 2nd hand Gaggia and would appreciate picking your brains a bit please… cheers.

Got me one of those Jura Ena 5 jobs last week. Been through a bag of Lavassa already and currently working through the 1kg of beans that they sent with the machine (from Italy).

It really is very, very good – the Lavassa beans were a bit pants and had me worried it wasn't really as good as I hoped (usually I use Hasbean or Booths which are almost as good), but the ones that I got free have been a revalation and I can't wait to get some proper fresh beans in there now! The crema that I am getting is thick and creamy like you wouldn't believe!

Utterly reccomended – though I think I can get better microfoam using my old manual espresso machine. Just got to flog the Rancillio Rocky grinder now since it is surplus to requirements 😉

Noooooo, that is not what I want to know……….arrggghh

Found it thanks geoffj, it was handpresso

This has been going for 6 years now, including being taken on hols abroad….