With The Duo Temp Pro, you benefit from features like pre-infusion which soaks the beans in water first before pumping water through them and into the cup. This pre-infusion process does not take place on cheaper machines. The Lavazza Voicy is the best smart coffee machine we've reviewed. It has an Alexa smart speaker front and centre, which will make you a fresh brew if you simply command it to make you a coffee. You can also ask for a hot coffee, which will boost the temperature, and a long coffee, which will deliver a lungo instead of a cappuccino.

Jenis Homes Editor on TechRadar, and was previously the Large Appliances Editor at Ideal Home. She has over 10 years of experience as a product writer specialising in appliances, smart tech and mattresses. She helped to compile this round-up of the top-rated coffee machines on the market. FAQs Is an expensive coffee machine worth it? It also has an auto-purge system that reduces the internal temperature of the coffee machine after each espresso delivery so that the next espresso is delivered at 93 degrees. Again, cheaper machines do not have this feature and can be prone to overheating the water which in turn affects the flavour of the coffee. The steam nozzle is very powerful to get coffee shop quality milk froth and you can heat it to the right temperature using the included milk jug with thermometer strip so you never overheat and burn your milk. If we have a complaint, it's that the filter hangs quite low and can get in the way of some taller mugs. We did have to fill up a smaller mug and then pour into a longer latte mug to make some drinks. For the money, this is a brilliant coffee machine. The Bonavita One-Touch is as simple as coffee filter machines come. No fancy buttons or settings, no presets to mess around with. Just a simple cup or coffee - or eight if you fancy.We rate The Oracle very highly in terms of performance but are not convinced that it is worth the price that Sage ask for it which is why it only gets a 9/10. It has an integrated grinder with 16 different levels of grind fineness to choose from so you can fine-tune the grind level to precisely how it should be to deliver espresso correctly and extract the coffee to optimise the flavour profile. With most filter machines you add some coffee and water, press a button and you let the machine do its thing. You don’t have any control over the strength of the coffee it will deliver or the temperature of the water being used. Lastly and most importantly for me the digital temperature control or PID (proportional Integral Derivative) is another key difference between the two machines.

The secret to great-tasting coffee is fresh-ground beans. According to Luke, "Any food product's freshness is a hugely important influence. Coffee starts to degrade the moment it's roasted and although keeping it in a bag helps, coffee will continue to lose flavour and become stale after around three months. It’s a good-looking machine thanks to its sleek stainless steel look, and not too big which will suit some people.

That setting will work for most people but you can drill right down into all the things that create a cup of coffee that is tailored to your exact requirements. This is a really tasteful and elegant coffee machine. A lot of thought has gone into making this look as good as the coffee it produces. The point is that you can make as much or as little as you want and the thermal jug that the coffee is delivered into will keep your coffee hot for a good 1 to 1.5 hours.