The high-end Jura Z10 offers up than 30 coffee specialties, including eight cold brew varieties. The machine has a cold extraction process which is able to bypass heating and simply push cold water through coarse coffee grounds at high pressure, resulting in options for cold brew cortado, cold brew espresso, cold brew macchiato, and more.
Features:
- Skill level required: Intermediate
- Dimensions: 16.53″ x 9.13″ x 14.52″
- Weight: 29.1 lbs
- Brew time: 4:30 minutes
- Reservoir size: 2 liters
- Cup clearance: 6.14″
- Color: Black
- Warranty: Two years
Then, on the more difficult end of the spectrum are the more advanced manual espresso machines, which require a solid amount of know-how. If you’re basically a barista, Laura Perry, co-founder of Luna Coffee (which, incidentally, offers an excellent coffee subscriptions), recommends the Decent DE1. “It’s not cheap, but the Decent DE1 is awesome for a few reasons,” she says. “It’s got incredible temperature control at the group head (a rarity for home machines), and there’s a tablet to graph and deploy shot profiles.” Take all the information that built-in coffee iPad gives you and go check out the Decent Espresso chat room, “which means lots of support as you embark on your espresso nerd quest,” says Perry. This is a pro pick, and there’s no arguing with the performance of this high-quality machine. But, for the home barista who wants to pull a shot without reading about PID and pressure gauge on coffee Reddits, I’d rec swinging for a machine with a gentler learning curve.
Features:
- Skill level required: Intermediate
- Dimensions: 10.75″ x 15″ x 17″
- Weight: 35 pounds
- Brew time: 6:22 minutes
- Reservoir size: 2 liters
- Cup clearance: 3″
- Colors: Stainless steel, black, and white
- Warranty: Two years
Diletta, which sounds and looks like it might be a heritage Italian brand, is actually the in-house line of Seattle Coffee Gear, a long-time leader in the specialty coffee retail universe. SCG designs the Diletta machines based upon the buying trends and feedback of its customers, which probably accounts for the uniquely thoughtful features.
These Diletta Mio machines, built in Milan, come in all stainless steel as you might expect, but it’s also available in matte white and matte black, both of which hide smudgy fingerprints, and limited edition evergreen. The machine has a 2-liter water tank that slides out the side, which means you don’t have to shimmy your machine forward to refill if it’s below a low-hanging cabinet. It’s not technically a dual boiler machine (dual boilers tend to be quite a bit more expensive) but you’re able to brew and steam at the same time, a rarity at this price point and particularly useful to anyone who is regularly making lattes for a crowd (or even two).
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