Thanksgiving is coming, and so, possibly, is an audience. If you want to show your in-laws you know how to entertain in style with a postprandial espresso or cappuccino, don’t be fiddling with steam wands and the owner’s manual while Uncle Bob stands nearby and offers his opinions (at full volume).
Luckily, plenty of great deals on coffee machines are available right now. If you take advantage, it will make you look smart both by not paying full price and by knowing how to pull a perfect shot, having had three weeks of practice.
Each deal below is on a machine a WIRED reviewer has tested—including a Breville one colleague has used happily for seven years—and personally recommends. For more early Black Friday savings, check out our full complement of deals coverage.
Seattle Coffee Gear
Breville’s semiautomatic Barista Express was WIRED’s top pick for years before being bested by Fellow’s Series 1 (not currently on sale), but the Breville is still an enduring bestseller due to its durability and design—if you’re regularly stopping by a coffee shop on the way to work each morning, this machine will easily pay for itself over time. (Note that this sale is only on the black and stainless steel colorways.)
This sleek, design-oriented semiautomatic ("a steampunk gasworks of a thing," according to former WIRED reviewer Matthew Korfhage) is a dual boiler, meaning you can froth milk at the same time you're pulling a shot, and it comes with an onboard conical burr grinder. It just narrowly missed a spot in our top picks because of concerns about maintenance, including an overly complicated descaling procedure.
Seattle Coffee Gear
This is our favorite traditional espresso machine, classic and Italian-made. It’s built to last and a joy to use, according to its reviewer. Though the construction is decidedly analog, there’s a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) temperature controller that keeps brew temps stable. Note, however, that you will need a separate grinder.
WIRED contributing reviewer Pete Cottell is a longtime former barista, and this is the machine he uses at home. It’s a simple semiautomatic, with an onboard grinder, accessible controls, and a perfectly serviceable milk frother. (Though it’s a single-boiler machine, so you can’t froth while you’re pulling a shot.)
No learning curve here! This is our favorite pod machine for espresso, and while the Vertuo pods aren’t “real” espresso, our reviewer was still impressed by the resulting drink’s body and mouthfeel. This bundle comes with the Aeroccino 3 milk frother, a $100 value in and of itself.
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Source: Wired
