coffee machines choice?

[John Towill]

I am considering getting one. there are so many available has anyone any tips on the best, as a reasonable price of course?

[Martin Brown]

For filter coffee, pod coffee or espresso they are all quite different?

[Jethro_uk]

Pods are the environmental work of the devil, AIUI.

We have a deLonghi B2C "Authentica" that's pretty good. Takes beans as standard, but you can put ground coffee in a special chamber if you like.

To be honest it's the milk frother that gets most use - I like tea lattes too.

[newshound]

Beans to cup? I'm very happy with my DeLonghi. I was amused to see Siemens flooding facebook with ads for machines that started upwards of £1000.

[charles]

Our recently bought DeLongi filter machine from John Lewis cost a mere £39 ;-)

[TimW]

The best coffee is made with freshly ground beans. There is no getting away from that. Pod coffee is a gimmick really, although undoubtedly better than a cup of instant and better than stale, long opened ready ground coffee.

TW

[Andy Burns]

Same here, an americano is my standard coffee.

[charles]

But ideal for self service. Simply hand the customer a pod and get back to serving others.

We don't keep our packeted ground coffee for very long.

[Jethro_uk]

We started 5 years ago with a deLonghi ground coffee machine reduce to 40 from 120 in Sainsburys ...

We signed up to their coffee club, and a year later had an offer - half price for the Authentica.

[Tim Lamb]

I get through about 4 pods per day. Nespresso supply a plastic bag and collect for disposal/recycling on their next delivery. There have been rumours about changing the aluminium cap to improve re-cyclability so they are concerned about their image.

Time is more important to me than the best possible drink!

[jon]

I make my first morning coffee from freshly ground beans in a Cafetiere and rest of the day use coffee bags.

[Theo]

Any recommendations for a standalone milk frother? (to heat the milk, not those little battery whisks)

Theo

[The Natural Philosopher]

I make my first morning coffee from freshly ground beans in a Cafetiere and rest of the day use instant.

[Bob Eager]

I have a Bosch TES...something that is bean to cup. Four and a half years and I am very happy.

[Jethro_uk]

Not really, as I use the one on the machine.

That said, I suspect it's a little bit underpowered. It's OK for the cm or so milk SWMBO likes in her cappucino, but takes an age for the amount of milk I like in my enormo earl grey.

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

Another vote for Delonghi beans-to-cup here. Ours is a few years old now and makes excellent coffee.

No scale issues as we fill it from the household soft water.

[Pancho]

I make a full jug from a filter machine. When it is all filtered I turn off the heater. If the coffee in the jug has gone cold, I pour out a cup and microwave it. It often lasts a couple of days. It tastes better than nespresso or instant.

I use ground coffee packets, but a packet only lasts a week. It doesn't seem to go stale in that time.

[RJH]

I'd avoid a bean to cup, having been given a Beko machine recently. Takes a lot of cleaning/faffing (the insides become putrid after a short while), and while the coffee's fine, it's nothing special and not especially hot. And the machine is noisy and takes up a chunk of worktop.

Best for me is a cafetiere with freshly ground beans, or ready ground as a decent second best.

[Bob Eager]

I've found my Bosch easy to clean. And it tells you when to run a cleaning cycle.

The coffee could be hotter, but I pre-warm the mug using the hot water facility...