America's Test Kitchen equipment review: espresso machines

An espresso machine is an amazing piece of equipment for coffee lovers who want to make high-quality espresso at home, but the machines are not cheap. America’s Test Kitchen recently tested several espresso machines and narrowed their top picks to do a few. Lisa McManus is the executive director in charge of equipment and ingredient testing for Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Science. Managing producer Sally Swift talked with her about the winning machines and got some other helpful advice for current and future home espresso enthusiasts. The full review of espresso makers is printed in the July 2017 edition of Cook’s Illustrated.

Sally Swift: I want to talk about high-end espresso makers – the ones that are barista quality. I know America’s Test Kitchen tested a bunch of them, and I’d love to hear what you learned. But first, what makes good espresso?

Lisa McManus: If you think about regular coffee, it works with water passing through the grounds by gravity. With espresso, the water has to be forced through the grounds with pressure generated by a machine. For the type of machine that I looked at, which are fully automatic machines, you don't have to do anything like pulling down the arm of the machine, which you sometimes see in fancy places, but you need something that can generate enough pressure. They call it “15 bars” of pressure, which is the equivalent of over 217.5 pounds per square inch of pressure. That’s quite a lot of pressure going through that little puck of coffee. It extracts all the delicious flavors and gives you wonderful body topped by a layer of what's called crema; that’s the aromatic emulsified oils that are extruded under pressure. If you don't have enough pressure, you don't get good crema; you don't get good body and good flavor.

Lisa McManus Photo: America's Test Kitchen

SS: Another thing you need to make good espresso is a decent grinder?

LM: Yes. And that's a whole other thing – getting one that grinds evenly and to very precise sizes. If it's too finely ground, it gets slowed down by the tightly packed grounds. If it's too loosely ground, it goes through too quickly, so you get weak, watery and sour coffee. A good grinder is important.

As I said, we wanted the machine to be automatic. We want it to be easy, so when you get up in the morning you don't have to do a lot of math, weighing and grinding. We looked for machines that had a built-in grinder. In doing research, we also realized that most Americans like a milk-based espresso drink like a cappuccino or a latte, so we looked for machines that also had a built-in milk frother – or some way to make a milk drink. That narrowed the field down, and we ended up with six machines.

SS: None of these machines are inexpensive?

LM: No. And we capped the price at $1,000, which is expensive for something from us. We don't like to tell people to spend a lot of money. But if you go into an espresso bar or coffee shop to get an espresso, it can be two or three dollars for one little shot. If you're in the regular habit of doing that, this thing will pay for itself.

SS: What was the big winner?

LM: The big winner is made by an Italian company called Gaggia. It's the Gaggia Anima Automatic Coffee Machine. It costs around $640. It was compact, well-made, very consistent, and the controls were easy. Some of these machines were a nightmare; they had so many buttons and signals that you had to pull the manual out every single time.

SS: Did you test any of the machines that use pods?

LM: We did. We tested one called the Nespresso Lattissima Touch Single Serve Espresso Maker. People liked the ease of it; you pop in the capsule, push a button and you're done. It gives you beautiful crema. What a lot of us found was that the espresso itself felt a bit thin and weak. But there was no beating how easy and simple it was to use and to clean up. The milk component of that was also a little bit of work. It had six little parts you had to pull apart and wash them thoroughly at least every other day.

SS: That would bum me out!

LM: It was too much. So, depending on who you are and what you do, there were three basic choices.

The Gaggia for an fully automatic – the frothing was great.

The Nespresso for pod-style, if you don't want to put any effort into it, and you don't mind a bit of a drop in quality.

In the middle, we found one that was great for DIY types; it was the Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine. This one was semiautomatic. It grinds the coffee for you into a portafilter, just like you see them do in the shops. You bring it over, put it under the water, and tamp it with this device that pushes down on the grounds to pack them down. You also have to learn to press with 30 pounds of pressure. If you want to play around more with the settings and the coffee to feel like you had more of a hand in it, this is a great choice.

SS: What did you find about the kind of beans to use for espresso?

LM: That whole thing about espresso roast is a myth. The one thing all the machines said was to not pick any flavored beans or ones that have any coatings on them, because that will come off and gunk up the works of the machine. They also said not to use very oily beans. Our winning machine could handle any beans that we put in. A couple of the ones we didn't like as much could not handle even the tiniest bit of oil on the outside.

More equipment and ingredient reviews from America's Test Kitchen:

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• Premium Olive Oils