Choosing a coffee machine is not just matching the specifications and budget to your requirements. It's much more important to match your personality to the coffee machines available.
The first thing I recommend to a friend buying a coffee machine is that it needs to look good. Yep, The Most Important Thing about a coffee machine is how it looks. Every day you're going to walk up to this machine and make a coffee. Think about how you'll feel when you use it, will you appreciate the slim design? Do you prefer a machine with lots of dials and buttons? Do you prefer large or small? A machine that looks "wrong" to you won't be a pleasure to use.
The second big question is automatic or manual. An automatic coffee machine contains a grinder that grinds the beans and dispenses an espresso or long black for you. Some automatic coffee machines also froth your milk for you. There's several advantages to having an automatic coffee machine; firstly, the coffee is always the same, get the grind setting and temperature right and you're guaranteed the same coffee each time. Secondly it's quicker, press a button and the coffee is made, your time is spent chatting, preparing a meal or reading the paper, not messing about with the coffee machine. Thirdly there's no mess, you're not filling the filter handle (and spilling it) with ground coffee and you're not dealing with the wet "puck" that gets produced, everything is held neatly inside the coffee machine. Lastly, if there's an auto frothing attachment, you're not messing about with milk jugs trying to get a nice silky foam on your milk, it's all done for you.
Does this sound perfect? For many coffee connoisseurs this is a terrible travesty!! Automatic, never!! Their inner barista needs to be free!
Manual coffee machines allow you to play with more settings. How hard you tamp the ground coffee allows for subtly different flavours.
Different grind settings on the separate grinder allow you to tweak your flow rates. You can froth for cappuccino or latte. You can make three different coffees with three different bags of ground coffee. The choices (and the time you spend) are endless. Many coffee fanatics would be outraged to go near an automatic coffee machine. These coffee experts are happy to spend many hours researching beans, roasters and machines in search of the perfect coffee.
The automatic vs manual coffee machine debate comes down to one simple question, are you a coffee drinker or a coffee maker?
And me? Well I have a manual and an automatic coffee machine on my bench at home. I sell coffee machines for a living so why not try them all? Sadly the manual doesn't get used any more, if I want a coffee it's because I want a coffee and now! I personally find that the freshly ground beans in the automatic make up for the slight lack of "tweaks" that I can so on the manual coffee machine. I'm also able to make 6 cappuccinos for friends in about 3 minutes, and they taste great.
When I walk up to my Saeco Royal Cappuccino it looks good and it's easy to use. The quick, simple and great tasting white coffees reflect my inner soul - I'm a coffee drinker not a coffee maker!
