The Rancilio Silvia Pro X uses a dual boiler system as a heat source, which means the steam wand and group head each have their own water held at different temperatures. This is what you find in most professional machines because it lets baristas steam milk for one customer while brewing espresso for another. Single boiler machines make you wait between brewing and steaming. The Pro X has an adjustable PID controller front and center so you can set the water temperature to a precise degree, a shot timer to check how long a brew takes, a powerful steam wand for velvety textured milk, and an easy-to-read pressure gauge so you can see if your brew is hitting the correct pressure (between 8 and 10 on the gauge is the sweet spot). It also has enough cup clearance—the distance between the drip tray and the portafilter—to brew directly into a coffee mug rather than a small espresso cup. This is actually not that common a feature in high-end home espresso machines, and it can simplify the process of making an Americano or a cappuccino. One other nice feature: It comes with an automatic wake-up time, so it can begin heating up before you’re even out of bed. That comes in handy because nicer espresso machines like this can take close to 20 minutes to come up to temperature due to their large boilers.
Specs
Size: 9.8″ x 16.5″ x 15.3″ | Weight: 44.1 lb. | Water reservoir size: 67 oz. | Cup clearance: 4″ | Colors: Stainless steel, black, white, pink | Warranty: Three years
The best super-automatic espresso maker: Bosch 800 Series VeroCafe
Sometimes you don’t want to spend the time to weigh out your coffee beans, get the grind just right, or consider how many pounds of pressure you’re tamping with. For you there is the world of super-automatic espresso machines. Super-auto machines not only take care of all three of those issues, but the good ones will foam up milk for flat whites, cappuccinos, and, in the case of the Bosch 800 Series, dozens of other drinks.
In a new round of espresso maker testing, Bosch’s latest entry into the coffee world jumped to the top of the automatic coffee maker list by dint of its extreme versatility. It can make over three dozen different kinds of drinks, including a bunch of European coffee drinks I’d actually never heard of (any großer brauner fans out there?). But the most impressive part is that the drinks really do show a lot of subtle differences in their size, strength, and texture.
In terms of the actual espresso it makes, the Bosch is in line with the best fully automatic espresso makers I’ve tried, including the Jura E8, the De’Longhi Eletta Explore, the Miele CM5310, and the Philips LatteGo. That isn’t to say it’s as good as what you can get from the Rancilio Silvia, or even the Breville Bambino Plus, which, while only as consistent as you are as a barista, can bring out the full range of flavors from a coffee. But no automatic machine can produce espresso quite as good as a nice semiautomatic machine; that’s a trade-off you need to make for the convenience. You’ll have to decide if you want an attached, detached, or no-milk container with the Bosch. There’s a price bump of $200 to go from nothing to detached and another $200 to add the attached milk container. It isn’t 100% necessary, but if it’s in the budget, going the attached container route makes a cleaner, easier-to-operate, slicker-looking coffee maker on the counter, and also produces the best milk foam.
Specs
Size: 15″ x 13.9″ x 18.4″ | Weight: 21 lb. | Water reservoir size: 81.2 oz. | Cup clearance: Variable | Colors: Black and stainless steel | Warranty: Two years or 7,000 cups
The best espresso maker according to the national barista champion: Decent DE1
Isaiah Sheese, owner of the three Archetype Coffee shops and roasteries in Omaha, Nebraska, won the United States National Barista Championships in 2023 and placed 4th in the world, so if you’re looking for a coffee professional to ask about the best espresso maker, you won’t find one much more credentialed than he is. “If you’re gonna make espresso at home and it’s not just for convenience,” observes Sheese, “typically people want to play around and experiment.” He likes the Decent DE1 for that purpose because it can do, well, just about anything. “You can basically change any variable that you want to extract as much flavor as you want.” Decent machines combine the sort of precision of café-quality machines with a high-tech interface that makes every single variable of an espresso shot customizable. Sure, you can adjust water temperature like you can with lots of PID machines, but you can also change the temperature, the pressure, and the flow rate during a brew to give your shots different flavor profiles, or set a shot timer that will shut off the water after a specified time. All this is controlled via a sizable touchscreen tablet that’s easy to read and straightforward to operate. The DE1 has an eye-popping price tag ($3,699 at the time of writing) but it gives you complete control over and information about every part of the process, which is something you won’t find on any other home espresso machine.
Specs
Size: 9.1″ x 14.5″ x 16.5″ | Weight: 29.1 lb. | Water reservoir size: 68 oz. | Colors: Black | Warranty: Two years (200,000 espressos)
How we picked the best espresso makers
Along with my years of espresso machine testing for our sister site Epicurious (if you want an unbiased take on dozens of machines beyond what’s here check out the Best Espresso Machines, Tested and Reviewed), I brought in the opinions the Bon Appétit test kitchen’s resident coffee guru Chris Morocco and national barista champion Isaiah Sheese. Just like he does when walking home cooks through recipes, Morocco was able to bring his expertise to bear in a way that recognizes the wide range of experience and interest levels out there. Sheese, on the other hand, leaned into what he knows best: pulling the perfect espresso shot, knowing full well that that takes patience and what he calls tinkering with the process. The result for you, readers, is a balanced list of picks that understands that even asking “what is the best espresso machine” is sort of like asking “who is the best painter.” There’s not a single answer to that question because unlike, say, a nonstick pan, people want very different things from their espresso machines.
What to look for in an espresso maker
Does it make tasty coffee?
Perhaps this goes without saying, but it is table stakes that an espresso machine should make a shot of espresso that has nuanced flavors, full body, and a rich crema on top. Machines achieve that with the right mix of temperature (200℉) and pressure (9 bars). Don’t be fooled by listings that say an espresso maker has enough power to reach 20 bars of pressure. Typically that kind of claim is compensating for the fact that it doesn’t actually regulate its pressure very well.
Ease of use
Making espresso drinks can be a finicky process—weighing your coffee beans, getting the grind right, tamping the beans with the right amount of pressure, and that’s before you even get to brewing. Anything a machine can offer to make the process easier and more reliable is welcome. That could be a quick heat up time, brewing on a timer so you don’t have to start and stop the process, or an easy-to-control steam wand for texturing milk. The one exception to this is a built-in grinder. With super-automatic machines, you don’t have a choice, but I’ve tested several semiautomatic machines with built-in grinders, like the Breville Barista Express, and found that they’re often underpowered compared to stand-alone grinders. You’d be better off spending part of your budget on a good coffee grinder.
Does it look good?
We know this sounds superficial, but whatever espresso maker you pick, it’s going to be sitting on your counter for everyone to see for years, so you should like the way it looks. “I would skip over the $1,000 tier of Breville machines entirely,” Morocco says, “and get something that’s nicer to look at.” His Rancilio Silvia pick not only looks like a beautiful piece of industrial design, it comes in a variety of colors too for those who don’t want a stainless-steel everywhere look.
Price
Here’s the bad news: With espresso makers, you get what you pay for. According to Sheese, “anything under $500 and you’re not going to get that great of a machine.” Generally, that’s because those machines lack things like PIDs. Both the Breville Bambino Plus and the Solis Barista Perfetta sneak in under the $500 mark, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
What else do you need to make espresso?
A good burr grinder
Both Morocco and Sheese make it clear that any coffee machine is only as good as the coffee grinder you use alongside it. That’s because it takes a fine, even grind and you need to be able to make very small adjustments to the grind size to get it just right. There are now some good entry-level espresso grinders that will get you what you need without breaking your budget. Morocco is a big fan of the Fellow Opus.
A good tamper
Unless you go the super-automatic route you will need to tamp your own coffee grounds. Sheese recommends a Normcore tamper for most people. Because it’s spring-loaded, it will ensure you tamp with the right amount of pressure every time. Just make sure you get the right size tamper for your machine. For Breville or Solis machines like we have up above you’ll want a 53.3-mm tamper (sometimes listed as 53 mm or 54 mm). For prosumer machines like the Rancilio Silvia, you’ll want a 58-mm tamper.
A coffee distributor
Because espresso takes such a fine grind, the coffee grounds can clump up, preventing water from running through them evenly. You use the needles on a distributor to break those clumps up before tamping. Sheese likes distributors from Barista Hustle to do the job.
