Coffee Machines Explained
Coffee Makers come in all different shapes and sizes this buyers guide will provide everything you need to know about the different machines on the market, where to order them from and prices you would expect to pay for them. Soon enough you’ll be making your own espresso, cappuccino, macchiato, latte or maybe just a simple black coffee will suffice.
A coffee machine is a luxury object and you will find a number of premium brands which produce products for this market. Lavazza, DeLonghi, Gaggia these are just a few but there is of course a wide range of pricing options available from other manufacturers.
Types of Coffee Maker
Coffee is big business and so are the machines used to make it drinkable. Over the past 30 years we have seen the arrival of a host of Italian coffee drinks, the café culture has seen more and more coffee makers hit the market.
Cafetieres
A cafetiere is essentially a glass container that helps makes ground coffee drinkable.
The granules of coffee are place in the container with boiled water and a plunger made of wire mesh is attached beneath the lid. When pressed down this mesh fits the diameter of the container and forces the dissolved coffee through the filter. This results in a smooth coffee drink with no granules in sight. Cafetieres come in a range of different sizes but the design is essentially the same. You do have to clean the coffee out if you want to use it again but this only takes a minute.
Percolators & Filter Coffee Machines
A filter coffee machine is very simple to use, you place a filter in the top, add the water and let it drip into the coffee pot beneath, the machine heats the water through the filter and a hotplate on the bottom keeps the coffee warm enough to drink. The filters can be one use or permanent, which require cleaning (not a nice task)
As the coffee drips into the pot the coffee can become quite strong and not to everyone’s taste. Percolators are often the machine of choice for small businesses as the coffee is always hot so less work time is wasted making it!
Espresso Machines & Cappuccino Makers
Espresso machines
An Espresso is the strongest type of coffee, an espresso machine heats the water so fast that it turns to steam, the pressure of the steam is so high that it when it passes through the ground coffee it forces it to dissolve into an highly concentrated liquid. This forms the basic espresso, other drinks such as the Cappucino, Latte, Machiato are made from this. There are two types of Espresso Machine, pressure and pump machines.
Pressure Machines
As described previously the water is boiled inside the machine and the steam is trapped increasing the pressure eventually releasing through the ground coffee. True coffee enthusiasts say that the steam is too hot to make a “real” espresso and that the pressure in these machines might be too low also. The temperature, pressure and steam realize all have an effect on the concentration, bitterness and smoothness of the coffee. Machines do however differ in quality and like all things coffee can be down to personal taste.
Pump Machines
Baristas the world over will tell you that the best water temperature for making “proper” coffee is between 85 and 92 degree Celsius. With a separately heated water tank, pump coffee machines ensure the water temperature remains at this level and that the water is passed through the coffee at the correct pressure. This level of control over temperature and pressure results unfortunately in higher prices for these models compared with the ordinary pressure machines.
Nespresso Machines
Nespresso have developed a unique espresso style coffee machine where the user simple inserts a capsule of ground coffee. The machine pierces this and passes water/steam though the capsule, producing an instant espresso without having to grind coffee, change filters or wash the pot.
These are a selection of the companies who produce coffee machines:
- Ascaso
- KitchenAid
- Krups
- Saeco
- Bosch
- Bugatti
- Cuisinart
- DeLonghi
- Magimix
- Morphy Richards
- Philips
- Russell Hobbs
- Dualit
- Francis Francis
- Gaggia
- Jura
- Siemens
- Villaware