6 Essential Tips to Buying Your Home Coffee Machine

Do you love coffee? Imagine the thrill of brewing your own perfect coffee right in the comfort of your own home. Well its possible - by following these simple tips when searching for your coffee machine. I will help you choose not only the best machine for your needs but also one you will be happy with for many years to come.

1. What type of Coffee do you like to drink?

The first step is to identify your favourite coffee - shouldn't be too hard? Why? Because you need your new coffee machine to make this type of coffee well enough so you will enjoy it each and every day. Try to see the coffee machine actually working - ask for a demo. The end result of making a coffee is a rich golden crema - the basis of all coffee recipes - you should see this. It looks like rich dripping honey as the coffee extracts from the group head.

2. Machine Pressure

You need adequate pressure to extract the coffee from the beans you would like to use. This helps produce the rich golden cream you so desperately need. Quality machines have at least 15 bars of pressure - don't even look at any machine with less than this as you won't be happy with the quality of the final product. However, you must ask if the machine can extract at a constant 9 bars of pressure minimum. Your machine should be able to to extract enough flavour for true espresso. This is a big selling point with machines and will be easy to find in the list of benefits for each type.

3. Do I need an Automatic or Manual Machine?

This ultimately comes down to how much control over the coffee making process you require. Some manual machines at the cheaper end are excellent, however you will have more "work" to do when brewing. Fully automatic machines cost much more but do everything for you and still make a fantastic coffee - at a price. Perhaps a semi-automatic machine is the way to go as you can control such elements as "milk frothing" and the "coffee grind" while still have the machine control extraction time and temperature. Price will have a lot of influence on your decision as there is a wide range of prices between Fully manual to Fully automatic - work out how much you want to spend and check out what is available in that price range and go from there.

4. Hot Water is critical.

When making several coffees, cheaper machines will give up - water needs to be heated and while using the steam wand and group head you deplete the water boiler and then have to refill - can be painful (not literally) and annoying. Dual boilers are fantastic but can be expensive or look for a machine with "thermoblock" technology which reheats the water quickly and more efficiently.

5. The Best Grind.

You can buy pre ground coffee beans which are vacuum sealed - ok but not great - air makes the coffee go stale fairly quickly. Ideally you should buy a grinder - cost between $100 to $300. Some coffee machines have built in grinders which are great - however make sure you can adjust the grind therefore affecting or perfecting your extraction times and crema. The coffee grind is an extremely important step and only buy a coffee machine with a built in grinder if you know you can control this element of your coffee making.

6. Cleaning and Maintenance.

Coffee Machines need to be cleaned and maintained. Some machines offer automatic cleaning and descaling which makes life easy. Group heads and frothing arms can become clogged with coffee grounds and old milk thus affecting rubber seals and wand pressure. Consider purchasing coffee cleaning powder or your machines suggested cleaner at time of purchase to keep your machine in tip top condition.

See Also : Bialetti Class Stovetop Espresso Maker Mr. Coffee ECM160 Imusa GAU-18200