The Best Espresso Machine for Every Skill Level (2023), 20 Tested and Reviewed | Epicurious
Even though it’s so slim, it’s a solidly built machine—heavy enough that when we went to lock the portafilter in place, it wasn’t sliding all over the countertop. It has an adaptive PID controller, something that is really a must for a good semi-automatic machine, and a pressure gauge front and center to provide real-time feedback about over- and under-extracted shots. It also allows you to toggle between three different brew temperature settings, and manually program both the pre-infusion and the brew time. Unfortunately, changing those settings is not intuitive and requires a hard-to-remember set of button pushes. Make sure to keep your user manual handy. Overall, we liked the Solis and recommend it above every machine under $1,000 except the Barista Express Impress. With a price under $500, it’s one to seriously consider picking up.
Rancilio Silvia Pro X
Often, prosumer machines are scaled-down versions of the most sought-after commercial machines. Rancilio does a nice job of scaling down. The countertop presence of the Pro X screams no-nonsense professionalism. It won’t wow anyone with a flashy design, but it is compact, streamlined, and extremely powerful for its size and price point. It has a dual boiler, which means the coffee maker and the steam wand are each hooked up to their own heat source, so you won’t have to wait for the machine to come to the right temperature for steaming milk after pulling a shot. (The steam boiler is held at a higher temperature than the espresso boiler.) The steam wand performed well, although we preferred the one on the Diletta slightly.
Rancilio also made a nice upgrade from earlier versions of this machine by adding a pressure gauge, so it was easy to tell we were pulling shots with the right pressure. We also liked the alarm clock feature. Because it does take a good 15 minutes for the machine to heat up, you can set it to turn on and be ready for you in the morning so you don’t have to wait. It also does come with a hot water dispenser.
As we said for the Diletta, with machines at this level it’s about design and a lot comes down to personal preferences when choosing one. We recommend the Rancilio Silvia Pro X without reservation. We just preferred the operation of the Diletta Mio.
Breville Infuser
The Breville Infuser is a very good machine. In terms of espresso brewing, it was right at the top of the under-$1,000 category with the Solis. It also has a pressure gauge and a hot water dispenser separate from the steam wand for making Americanos (or tea if that’s your jam). It lost out for a few reasons: The steam wand is not as powerful as the Solis’s and didn’t produce quite as high a quality foam. The Solis came with a heavy tamper and the Breville’s felt flimsy by comparison. Finally, and this was the big one, it took up so much more space on the countertop. If we can get the same coffee in a smaller package, we’ll take it.
Breville Barista Express
The Breville Barista Express is basically an Infuser with a built-in burr grinder, so, while still a very good machine, it lost a close race to the Solis for all the above reasons. But the other issue is that the grinder is…good, but not as good as the separate coffee grinders we recommend. You can get a better package that takes up basically the same amount of space and costs almost the same amount of money getting a Solis, along with a good stand-alone grinder like this KitchenAid.
Gaggia Classic Pro
With its black and stainless-steel body, the Gaggia Classic Pro has that Italian café look about it, but it’s not just beautiful on the outside. It’s a nice machine and was the only one we tested in this price range that came with a commercial-size 58-mm portafilter. The problem is that the cheap plastic tamper the machine came with is actually too small for the portafilter. The espresso came out just slightly under-extracted, although it’s hard to know whether that’s because it was challenging to tamp correctly or because of something in the machine itself. Also, unlike everything else we tested in this price range, it has manual controls meaning you have to start and stop every shot with a switch. That’s not a deal-breaker (a lot of great prosumer machines have the same set up), but it is one more step in the process.
Gaggia Classic Pro Espresso Machine
$448
at Amazon
Rocket Appartamento
When compared to the other high price point prosumer models, we thought the Rocket Appartamento wasn’t as good for a few key reasons. First, it only has a single boiler, so you have to wait (not that long, but still) between pulling shots and steaming milk. Second, while the machine includes a pressure gauge, it appears to only go up to three bars of pressure. It includes a high-quality portafilter, but we didn’t like its tamper; it didn’t reach all the way to the sides of the portafilter, so it left some straggly bits of grounds around the sides. It doesn’t include a timer or external temperature control, so to dial in all of the components of your espresso, you have to rely on external devices.
DeLonghi Dedica Deluxe
The DeLonghi Dedica Deluxe was probably the most disappointing machine we tried, not because it performed the worst, but because of the huge mismatch between its quality and its $300-plus price tag. From the body to the portafilter, it feels pretty flimsy, and the default brew setting filled the espresso cup so high it was impossible to move without spilling. The coffee was surprisingly flavorless; the espresso reminded us of a so-so pod machine. If you are considering the DeLonghi Dedica, we think you might actually be happier with the Nespresso machine passionately argued for by senior staff writer Emily Farris.
Cuisinart Espresso Machine
The Cuisinart Espresso Machine performed surprisingly well for a semi-automatic machine that costs under $200. It produced a shot with good crema, although it only had pressurized filter baskets, so it was kind of cheating to get it. Like the Gaggia, the Cuisinart has manual controls (it has a dial instead of a switch) to start and stop each brew. The steam wand was quite powerful, but hard to control, leading to more foam than we’d like. But all in all, this is much more than we’d expect from a machine in this price range.
DeLonghi 15 Bar Espresso and Cappuccino Machine
The acidic coffee (sans crema) from the DeLonghi 15 Bar Espresso and Cappuccino Machine is what it tastes like if you buy a semi-automatic machine for under $100. The steam wand was hard to move out of the way during brewing and produced very firm, almost merengue-like foam. If you’re focused on this price point, get the Nanopresso.
Hamilton Beach Espresso and Cappuccino Maker
The Hamilton Beach Espresso and Cappuccino Maker: Yikes. Hamilton Beach makes a lot of budget-friendly appliances we like (its electric kettle for example, is excellent). This is not one of them. The coffee was watery and yet there was a mysterious crema on top so thick it was almost a mousse. It was incredibly hard to remove the filter basket from the portafilter to clean, because no matter how hard we knocked on the knock box, we couldn’t dislodge the coffee, which had not formed into a puck. The steam wand: Oy. It heated the milk so unevenly, we couldn’t get it heated all the way through without badly scalding part of it.
Hamilton Beach Espresso and Cappuccino Maker
$140
at Joann Fabrics
Jura E8
Of all the fully automatic machines, the Jura made the best espresso, full stop. We drank it side-by-side with the Breville Barista Express Impress, and the Jura’s flavors were a little muted in comparison, but they were all there. We know plenty of people who actually prefer a slightly toned down espresso shot. It also got high marks for its many milk drinks (as long as they were made with real cow’s milk; as we noted above we had issues with oat milk). The texture of the milk in our flat whites and cappuccinos was thicker and smoother than what we got from any semi-automatic machine.