Coffee machines

Brew it better with these espresso machines with built-in grinders

-  Duncan Bell, Rob Clymo

It's a rather long-term way to save money, but if you splash out on a good coffee maker and an insulated cup, you will eventually recoup the cost, so long as it frees you from buying your daily cup or cups at coffee shops.

Bean-to-cup coffee machines are probably the easiest way to make a range of coffees, but they haven't always had the best reputation for quality or value for money. The ones we mean are the black boxes with buttons or a touchscreen on the front, which produce the drink of your choice in about 30 seconds, after emitting a series of gurgling noises and beeps. Models from the likes of Jura are very good nowadays, but they are expensive.

However in recent years a different type of bean-to-cup coffee machine has emerged. They are essentially espresso machines, like scaled down versions of what you see in classic coffee shops, but with a grinder attached to the top. These require you to tamp the ground coffee down and insert it under the water spout, so they are a bit more effort than those high-tech black boxes with buttons on.

However, the best ones - as gathered here - produce excellent coffee, and are relatively affordable. We've got three at different price points, so you can see what you gain as you spend more...

WHAT'S ON TEST...

1 Breville Barista Max+ 

Breville is always at the more affordable end of the kitchen market in the UK and the Max+ is the cheapest machine here. Despite that, it's generally well built and has the same 15-bar pressure as a professional machine, to extract 'Max' flavour. ₹49,900, breville.co.uk

SPECS

Pressure 15-bar

Water tank size 2.9 litres

Variable temperature yes

Variable cup size yes