Which espresso machine is right for you?

You can make coffee with a fully automatic machine very easily. You only have to press a button and the machine does the work for you. The machine grinds the coffee beans automatically. In addition, the coffee recipes are preset. This way, you don't have to do anything. For a fully automatic espresso machine, you don't have to be a coffee expert to make coffee.

It's different to make coffee with a piston machine than with a fully automatic machine. You have to do many different things. It takes time and patience to learn how to do this. You grind the coffee beans yourself in the right setting in the bean grinder. Afterwards, fill the portafilter with the ground coffee and tamp it with the right pressure. When the coffee is running, keep the right water pressure and extraction time in mind. With all these actions, there's a lot of room to experiment.

You can adjust the flavor of the coffee in different ways with a fully automatic machine. You can make the grind size the beans more coarse or fine, or you can adjust the strength per cup. This affects the intensity of the flavor. You can also easily adjust the amount of water or water temperature per coffee specialty. This allows you to make every cup of coffee as you like. You can also adjust the amount of milk.

With a piston machine, you can make a cup of coffee exactly according to your own recipe. That's because you do everything yourself and have a lot of influence over the final product. With the bean grinder, you can choose from 10 grind settings to grind the beans. You can also choose how much coffee you use per cup and how hard you tamp the coffee. In addition, you can choose the extraction time of the coffee and how hot the water is that you use to make coffee. With a piston machine, you have a lot of influence over the ratios. This can be the ratio of water and coffee and also coffee and milk.

Just like making coffee, it doesn't take much effort to froth milk. With fully automatic machines with a milk reservoir or milk tube, you only have to press the button for a cappuccino. Afterwards, the machine does the work for you. With fully automatic machines with a steam wand you have to do the work yourself. Fill a small pitcher with milk and put the steam wand in. Keep in mind that the milk foam of a fully automatic machine isn't as thick and firm as you're used to from the coffee place around the corner.

With a piston machine, you can froth the milk via a steam wand. If you get the hang of this, you can use many techniques. With a powerful steam wand, you can make thick foam. Fill a stainless steel pitcher with milk and keep it under the steam wand. You have to keep track of the temperature of the milk. Afterwards, tap the largest bubbles from the milk by tapping the bottom of the pitcher on the table. Now, pour a nice figure in your cup of coffee.

Because a fully automatic machine does most of the work for you, you have to maintain many parts well. This way, it works best and you use the machine hygienically. Clean the drip tray, coffee grounds container, and the milk system daily and the brew group weekly. You also have to replace the water filter every 3 months and descale the machine once every 6 months. That's a pretty big task. Machines with an automatic cleaning programs make the maintenance a lot easier.

A piston machine is more easy to maintain. The difference with a fully automatic machine is that you do some things yourself during and after making coffee. You have to clean the separate parts under the faucet and let water run through the steam wand. After rinsing, you can wipe the steam wand down with a cloth. After making coffee, knock the coffee grounds from the portafilter. Rinse the milk pitcher under the faucet or clean it in the dishwasher. If you put new beans in the bean grinder, remove the old residue. Descale the machine once every 6 months and rinse the pipes.