What it says in the title really.

Wife wants a bean to cup machine for Xmas – I know you guys will point me right.

Thanks

Gaggia Titanium

Someone posted a link last week for one that I think was £399.

Whilst there is an active coffee machine discussion I thought I would bump my question.

Any alternative suggestions to the Gaggia?

Thanks

£400? Does it deliver it to you in bed?

I think that might be my next upgrade. Anyone have one?

Jools – We looked in John Lewis last week and £400 seemed to be the minimum spend.

There were lots of £600 and £700 options.

there is another way….Check out Gaggia outlet shops, as they have a line of refurbished machines, sold as new, but cheaper…..

coffee clicky

Gaggia Brera. If you shop wisely you can get it for just over £400. I’ve got it and recommend it!

I’ve lost touch after being caffeine free 🙁

We have one of these Coffee Machine
Although ours is badged Bosch, it is identical to the one in the link. Makes great coffee, although you do have to look after the machine with regular cleaning/descaling, I would highly recommend it, in fact my sister in-law has just bought the same machine. We now drink more coffee and are starting to experiment with mixing different types of bean, bit like making cocktails!
Downside is that the cleaning and descaling tablets are quite expensive, I’ve not managed to find a cheap supply just yet. We bought ours and sis in-laws machine on the continent, not sure if it is sold in the UK, if it is though, it is well worth a look or buying on t’internet from over the channel.

We’ve got the Delonghi Magnifica – around £250. Have used several over the years including some of the cheaper Gaggia that seem to be unavailable now.

The Delonghi is pretty good, and seems to have lasted OK.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=delonghi+bean+to+cup&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15450546384845727114&sa=X&ei=dgazTuibN4TS8QPG0LSTBQ&ved=0CIkBEPICMAI

Descaling – might it not be cheaper to feed the machine with some low-mineral-content water instead ? – and the coffee might taste nicer too. Lucky enough not to have that problem here in S Devon – don’t get any limescale on anything.

Back to the original question – have you considered seperate machines ? – a Gaggia Classic paired with an Ascaso i-Steel would just about come in on budget – and the wife gets two presents rather than one.

had that delonghi in my old work and it was dead good, bit noisy but seemed to supply 30 or so people with coffee all day every day for a few months without a hiccup

I think that might be my next upgrade. Anyone have one?

I’ve got a Titanium. So far it’s made around 6000 cups of coffee.

I previously had a Gaggia Coffee. Being able to make espresso with just the press of a button is a definite improvement.

Done a tonne of research on the coffee thing and if espresso is your thing (or any of the milk based ones with espresso shots), then £400 is pushing it for a good bean to cup.

Thing with coffee is it’s essential to get damn good fresh ground coffee for the shots. Pre-ground is no good and anything from supermarkets should be chucked in the bin. Grinding so they say is far more important than the coffee machine, and has to be a burr grinder. No bladed grinders which burn the beans effectively.

Ended up at the budget entry level end myself with Gaggia Classic for £250 for the coffee brewing and an Iberital MC2 grinder (£114), plus various accessories, bottomless portafilter, decent tamper, etc.

Budget around £350 to £400 for manual single boiler machine and basic grinder.

Bean to cup I’d budget a few hundred more.

Seems insane amount of money, especially when you can do filter at a tiny fraction of the price, but from everything I’ve read and from a little experience so far, it’s actually fairly difficult to get a good espresso shot and very easy to get a horrible bitter nasty one.

I’ve had cheap machines before from even some of the more fancy high street department stores, costing £100-ish, and barely used them as the shots were not particularly nice and nothing like a decent coffee. With what I’ve got now, when I get it right (and it is hit and miss), I get some very nice coffee indeed, and I start to realise just why people say Starbucks is actually crap coffee.

You could buy a bike for that!

i have a jura cant fault it http://www.uk.jura.com/home_uk_x/products_home_use.htm

I remember wanting an espresso machine one Christmas, found one I liked…it was £9000. I didn’t get it sadly

A friend of mine went to Selfridges in the Trafford Centre and had a number of machines demonstrated to him and sampled the coffee they made, he showed me the brochure with prices and lots under £400, may be worth paying Selfridges a visit.

I tried a coffee from a Jota BtC machine last week in my local kitchenware shop (where I bought my Gaggia Classic from). I prefer my Gaggia – the taste and the faff.

Gaggia Brera for me too n recommend it. Saw somewhere online a few weeks ago selling them with 50% off, can’t remember where though.

I got a refurbished Gaggia Titanium about 4 years ago with 125 cups on its clock it has now done a few thousand more without a hickup.
For those that complain about the cost of descalers I use Electrolux descaling liquid from Currys at £2.50 for a 1ltr bottle which will do about 5 cleaning cycles.

No there wasn’t any “reviews”.

40 quid gets you a krups burr grinder, another 30 quid gets you a stove top – is this not the simpler option ?

No surprise there – first and only post is on this thread and their forum name suggests they might be in the coffee machine business…

A stovetop has its place but it doesn’t replace a good coffee machine.

Spam to cup?

Can really recommend the Jura machines. We’ve had ours 2 years now and it is superb. Simple to use too, my 4 year olds can make me an espresso or a cappuccino without help. Not without supervision though of course… They might put the wrong sugar in 😉

Sugar? Get out of this thread. Now!

Shan’t!

What’s wrong with a little white sugar cube in a coffee. I find it very cathartic and part of the ritual to dunk the cube in the coffee.

I’ve got a DeLonghi Magnifica. I paid £100 for it secondhand but living with it for six months has shown me and the wife that we would happily have paid full price.

Another vote for the Delonghi Magnifica here (some company in Nottingham if I remember right)

I bought it from Ebay as a refurb (about £200), but was pretty new looking when we opened it.

So far it has been used for over a year with no issues, easy to clean and makes a nice brew.

It does benefit from better coffee beans in the top!

Another Delonghi Magnifica owner here. I think we paid £300 for it new and it’s been in very heavy use since with no problems. Very good bit of kit. My wife is a bit of a coffee addict (even compared to me) and actually gave our machine a cuddle yesterday when we got home from a weekend away as she’s missed it that much!

Guys, look at the dates. This is a spam-resurrected thread, the OP died of thirst eight months ago.