Automatic coffee machines grind the beans freshly each time and make the espresso all at the press of a button. But despite their relatively high prices, not all coffee machines make a great espresso – and our testing shows that the best machines are not always the most expensive models.

Our experts put coffee machines through their paces in a lab setting to find the ones that:

• perform best in a blind taste test
• are the easiest to use and clean
• are best for milk frothing and temperature consistency, cup after cup.

We’ve also partnered with Shop Ethical on this update to show the rating the Ethical Consumer Group gives to each company.

This review covers automatic espresso machines only, as opposed to capsule machines or manual/semi-automatic coffee machines. To see how those machines perform, look at our home espresso coffee machine reviews.

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Our interactive comparison tool shows which features the coffee machines come with – such as auto reheat, sensor cooking and child lock – and how much each model will cost to run, and our Recommended list lets you quickly see which models come out on top.

About our testing

To test coffee machines effectively our expert removes any residual factory smells and tastes, and pumps a litre of hot water through each of the machines. They then make 20–25 shots of espresso coffee one after another to make sure the built-in bean grinder is at the correct setting.

We measure the consistency of four consecutive coffees for each automatic coffee machine after warming it up for five minutes. We add five minutes for thermoblock and small boiler machines, and 30 minutes for heat exchangers.

Three experts test the espressos in a ‘blind’ tasting, checking the colour and thickness of the crema (the tan-coloured foam on the top of an espresso shot), aroma, flavour, mouth feel (for example, creaminess or wateriness) and aftertaste. We don’t just use any old coffee beans for our tests – we use the best we can find.