KovacsC wrote:
I am still thinking about a coffee machine but the choice is too vast.
Oh my, isn't there just..... and there's a lot of snobbery too.
When we looked at getting a coffee machine, I thought that I really wanted one of those super fancy ones with all the bells and whistles, something that takes water, beans and milk can do any of the varieties automatically. We didn't get one of those, and I'm actually glad we didn't, as having yet another thing to clean out thoroughly at the end of each day (so you don't have clogged up yucky milky bits) would have ended up being a pain and I suspect we wouldn't have got full use out of the fanciness anyway.
We got a DeLonghi 'Magnifica S' in the end - it grinds the beans, does the compacting and whatnot, and dispenses hot coffee. It does have the steam wand thingy that can froth milk if required. I felt that something like that is a reasonable starting point and we are happy. Around 3 years later it's going strong. When it dies, we'd buy another one that is broadly similar - so this is (for us) a good level.
I suspect that the money we've saved by not buying takeaway coffees has covered the cost of the machine.