Want to be your own barista - but don't know which coffee-maker is best? Three experts test five bean-to-cup coffee machines

THERE’S BEEN a lot of froth about home bean-to-cup coffee machines. Are they worth their rather hefty price tags? Three coffee experts savour the espresso of five leading brands to find out.

There are some 80 flavour compounds in a glass of red wine, says Julia Murray, managing director of Espresso Sense, an independent training company that trains baristas (people trained in the fine art of making an espresso). By comparison, there are over 2,000 flavour compounds in an espresso.

Coffee is more complex than wine, she says. “Getting it right is like trying to map the human genome.”

The buzzwords in caffeine circles are home-use bean-to-cup machines. These machines grind your coffee to order and offer espresso, cappuccino, latte, Americano and options. This is the high-end of the coffee market. It’s a growing sector and accounts for an estimated 5 per cent of overall share.

We invited some of the capital’s most finely-tuned palates to sample the offerings of some of the most popular bean-to-cup coffee machines to see if they are worth their hefty price tag?

The object of the exercise is to rate the machines under three categories: flavour, ergonomics and aesthetics. We decided to test their espresso, as this is the base of all coffees.

Julie Murray was joined by Dara O’Flynn, international retail manager for Butlers Chocolate Cafés and Stephen Morrissey, World Barista Champion 2008.

Some 98 per cent of coffee is water so it’s vital to get this essential ingredient right. Find out what the water in your area is like. It is suggested that you use filter water to ensure the maximum return in terms of flavour. In this test, southside tap water was used and may account in part for the somewhat disappointing end results.

Each machine was tested, the grinder tweaked and its espresso sampled and dumped several times before starting the process.

More grinder fine-tuning and fiddling of dials is done to try and get a short espresso with a good froth on top, tweaking the offering to make the best they can with the tools on offer from each manufacturer. Many, many espressos are made and dumped before the judges finally make their call.

The Gaggia Platinum, price €1,314, had good dual action, very intuitive ergonomics and a neat footprint. Most importantly, the espresso it created got a 60 per cent grade from the judges. The Gaggia scored a cumulative 65 per cent of the votes.

Another “C” grader was the Siemens EQ76, price €1,449 (available in stores from April). It made beefy noises and lit up like Knightrider’s kit. It claimed second place with a 60 per cent score. It was easy to use and you can see the hopper, where the coffee goes. The grinder adjustment wasn’t obvious so the judges couldn’t adjust it to as fine as they would have liked. The coffee got a 6.5 out of 10 from Stephen, the highest score of all five machines although its coffee got a 45 per cent overall score.

The Miele CVA5060, the most expensive of all the machines at €1,798.50, scored eight out of 10 in terms of aesthetics from two of the judges. Its espresso flavour earned a must-try-harder 3.5 from the same two. It achieved a 47 per cent mark, a pass in exam terms. For coffee flavour it only scored 26 per cent.

Two machines failed to light the judges’ fire. Julia Murray liked the old-school design and the footprint of Krups’ Espresseria, price €699, but was disappointed by the coffee it made, rating it a mere two out of 10.

Dara O’Flynn only gave it one out of 10. It achieved an overall mark of 35 per cent while the coffee it made only achieved 16 per cent.

The De Longhi Perfecta, price €803.27, got a 33 per cent overall mark, making it the weakest of the five machines although its coffee earned a 26 per cent score.

The results were very disappointing in terms of the machines’ ability to deliver a well-made, flavoursome espresso.

While disappointed in the flavour offering of the five bean-to-cup machines, the judges admitted this was not just a domestic problem.

The commercial sector has the same shortcomings, says Murray.

If you get a bad pint of Guinness, the barman knows what to do and how to fix the problem, says Stephen Morrissey.

“If you get a bad coffee and you hand it back to the barista it is likely you will get another cup of bad coffee.

“Many of the baristas serving at counters in cafés are not equipped to fix the problem.”

At home you don’t get any training in how best to use your machine.

“There is a huge need for education, consumer awareness and a need for education at a brewing level,” says Morrissey.

“What these machines are trying to do is to automate a process. Espresso is incredibly complex, trying to dumb it down is setting yourself a huge challenge.”

The results reflect what people want, adds O’Flynn. “They’re not looking for an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade from their home machine. What they offer is total convenience, a middle-of-the-road consistent coffee that is convenient and clean.”