The best coffee machines for 2022
Making a barista-level coffee at home can be an intensely satisfying experience, especially when you consider how much money you've saved by avoiding your local coffee shop. Now that many of us have more time at home, what better way to perk up your home office than with a perfectly brewed espresso or latte next to your laptop?
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There's a whole world of coffee machines out there at various price points, in different sizes, and with lots of different options for how elaborate you want your coffee to be. Some machines are best if you have lots of counter space to work with, while others are well-suited to small kitchens. Bean-to-cup machines grind fresh beans for you, and often take ground coffee as well, but can be expensive. If you opt for a version that only takes ground coffee it can bring the price down. Capsule machines are a popular choice and each brand offers plenty of choices in terms of flavour, but you are limited to that brand, and capsules can be tricky to recycle. A filter coffee machine with a jug might be the best choice if you like a lot of coffee in the morning and aren't too concerned about milky drinks.
On the other hand, if you're devoted to your latte, cappuccino, or flat white, think about how many settings your machine needs to offer. Some even allow members of the family to create their own settings for ultra-personalised drinks. Then consider how smart you want your machine to be: some offer the option to control it via an app, so you can get your coffee going while still in bed or on the way home. Finally, how many coffees do you want to make at a time? The size of the water reservoir and milk jug will affect this.
How to choose the best coffee machine in 2022
For an overall top choice, with a quiet bean grind, intuitive controls and a stylish appearance, we've picked the Melitta Barista TS Smart as our all-round best coffee machine.
If you're more interested in the best coffee machine on a budget, try the Nespresso Lattissima One (£199). It's user-friendly, attractive, and above all, excellent value for money.
Worried about how a coffee machine will fit into small kitchen? The best coffee machine for limited countertop space has to be Krups' Opio Steam (£149.99). Its compact design produces a surprisingly rich, smooth drink with abundant crema.
Scroll on for our edit of the best coffee machines for all budgets
1/9Melitta Barista TS Smart, £800 at Amazon
The Best of 2021
With an LED touchscreen panel and a black and stainless steel body, you'd be forgiven for thinking this coffee machine might be style over substance. Yet that would be doing it a disservice.
The machine has two nozzles, so you can prepare two cups of coffee at the same time, which makes it great for larger households, or simply days when you need to double up on caffeine.The machine can make a huge range of barista grade coffees extremely quietly and there's also a milk frother and hot water setting for regular teas and hot chocolates. The machine can be controlled via the app or by the touchscreen and you can save up to seven people's personal preferences with the "My Coffee" function.
1.8L capacity
15 bar pressure
372 x 259 x 467mm
2/9Morphy Richards Espresso Coffee Machine, £129 at Amazon
Best for espresso
Small and neat, this espresso machine is a smart addition to a countertop and doesn't take up too much space. Capable of taking pods and ground coffee, it's easy to use with a helpful cup warmer on top so that there's always a warm cup ready to go.
The machine can dispense two espressos at once, which is always an advantage, and comes with filters to dispense two different sizes, a small one-shot coffee and a larger two-shot version. All this is controlled by a simple, clear display.
1.1L capacity
34 x 17 x 31cm
3/9Sage by Heston Blumenthal Oracle Touch, £1,599 at John Lewis
Best for its range of drinks
If you have the space for it, this is an object of beauty as well as a delight to use. Fully automated, all you have to do is find the option you want on the touchscreen, and let it do its thing. Each drink is customisable in a number of ways: strength, texture of the milk, and temperature. You can even save your preferences with a profile so that each member of the household can easily access them.
This one is perfect if you regularly make lattes and cappuccinos in addition to more basic drinks: the steamer arm produces delightfully smooth foam and you can even brew an espresso and steam milk at the same time to avoid your drink getting cold.
2.5L capacity
15 bar pressure
40 x 37 x 45cm
4/9Nespresso Lattissima One, £199 at John Lewis
The best of the Nespresso machines
Nespresso capsules are popular for good reason, and if you're solely interested in these, then the Lattissima One is the way to go. It's small and neat at only 15.4cm high and 32.4cm deep, and comes with three easy-to-use settings for espresso, long coffees and milk drinks. The wide variety of flavours available with Nespresso pods mean that you won't feel limited in your choices.
Some coffee machines can be tricky when it comes to wasting milk, but the milk compartment here is just big enough for a single serving–a clever part of the design–and the milk is frothed directly into the cup, so less mess too. The machine will also helpfully alert you via LED when it needs cleaning, and has a handy low-energy mode when it's not in use.
1L capacity
19 bar pressure
32 x 15 x 26cm
5/9Breville VCF108 One-Touch CoffeeHouse, £149 at Currys
Best for no-fuss coffee
Three settings on this stylish white and rose gold machine allow for rich, smooth coffee at the touch of a button. Choose between espresso, cappuccino and latte, and this will do the rest with considerable speed and efficiency It takes both ground coffee and ESE pods, and comes with a frothing arm (make sure you're pointing it in exactly the right direction).
The milk tank can hold around 600ml, plenty for multiple lattes and cappuccinos, and it clicks out to make it easy to store in the fridge between uses. There's an easy breezy cleaning cycle at the push of a button, and the drip tray is easy to remove and clean as well - perfect for those who don't want endless fussing over parts and accessories.
1.4L capacity
19 bar pressure
31 x 27 x 29cm
6/9Nespresso Magimix VertuoPlus, £180 at John Lewis
For clean design
Streamlined and simple, the Magimix VertuoPlus is a discreet addition to your. countertop, and an easy choice for fans of black coffee. It doesn't come with a milk frother, but makes four cup sizes, from the 414ml Alto to the 40ml espresso. The machine's tech selling point is its ‘centrifusion extraction technology and automatic blend recognition’, which spins coffee out through the grounds at a rate specific to each blend. If you like a dense crema on your coffee, this machine does an exemplary job.
One downside - it only takes Nespresso Grand Cru capsules, which are different to the standard range. But with 20 flavours to choose from, it shouldn't feel limited.
1.7L capacity
19 bar pressure
39 x 38 x 28cm
7/9Breville All-in-One Coffee House, £185.99 at Amazon
The best coffee machine for trying something new
If you want to try out a different way of making your coffee, this machine from Breville is the one to choose. It has a pot for filter coffee, a portafilter for barista-style espressos, and an attachment for Dolce Gusto pods.
One slight downside: no hot water dispenser, which means pressing the 'brew' button as many times as it takes to fill up a cup. This can be tedious if you're filling up a travel mug, although it's something of a bonus in the first place that a travel mug will fit. It's a compact enough machine in itself, but the various attachments do take up a bit of space.
1.5L capacity
19 bar pressure
34.5 x 25 x 37.4cm
8/9Beko Bean to Cup, £279 at Amazon
Best for first time owners
If you don't like a lot of bells and whistles with your coffee, this machine is the one for you. It does what it says on the tin, transforming whole beans into perfectly smooth, strong coffee. Though it's not small, it's remarkably simple on the outside with its LCD control panel on the top, and the rest of the functions hidden inside the machine, including adding more beans, removing grounds, and controlling the fineness of the grind.
There's a lot to be said for simplicity, and this machine has the virtues of being easy to use (and easy to clean) but do note that the capacity here is limited to espressos and americanos, so if you want anything more elaborate than that, consider a different model.
1.5L capacity
19 bar pressure
38 x 24 x 44cm
9/9Smarter Coffee 2nd Generation, £179 at Amazon
For the smart home enthusiast
Mornings would be a lot easier if you could get your coffee going before you get out of bed, and that's just what smart coffee machines allow you to do. This Smarter machine can be controlled via an app on your smart phone, or via Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant devices. You can even check the water level from a distance, and a warming plate keeps your drink hot for up to 40 minutes, so no worries if you snooze.
You can also adjust the grind and the strength of the coffee, and it'll also remember your routine over time and have coffee waiting for you. You can choose bean-to-cup or filter settings, but there's no milk frother here, so it won't make anything fancy.
1.5L capacity
27 x 21 x 42cm
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