It’s been a fantastic year for coffee-lovers so far, and if you’ve been thinking about investing in a new espresso machine, you’ll be spoilt for choice. I’ve tested a new coffee maker every month here at TechRadar, and I’ve been truly impressed by what I’ve seen.
Cold-brewing has been the standout feature for a lot of machines this year (check out my guide to the best coffee maker for cold brew for more details), but that hasn’t come at the expense of brewing well-balanced, consistently delicious traditional espresso.
Although I’ve tested some great manual coffee makers (such as the super stylish Smeg Mini Pro Espresso Coffee Machine), it’s the bean-to-cup machines that have really impressed me. These aren’t just a convenient way to make a drink as quickly as possible – they’re designed to help you get the best possible flavor from your beans, replicating the techniques used by professional baristas for consistent results.
With that in mind, here are my three favorite coffee machines of 2025 so far, including one of the most affordable ones I’ve tested.
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1. De’Longhi La Specialista Touch
I gave the La Specialista Touch a full five stars when I reviewed it in March. It’s a semi-automatic coffee machine, meaning it can handle almost the entire coffee-making process for you (everything except tamping the coffee and inserting the portafilter into the brewing group), or let you experiment with factors like dosage of coffee, brewing temperature, and grind size.
It’s a great option if you’re looking for your first coffee maker, and one of the best coffee makers for small kitchens, thanks to its compact footprint. That diminutive size doesn’t mean skimping on features, though. It’s packed with thoughtfully designed tools that take the mystery out of brewing espresso and help you understand the whole process so you can build your confidence and learn how to achieve the flavor you like.
The smart dosing system is particularly helpful, dispensing just the right amount of coffee without the need for a set of scales. There’s a handy funnel that fits onto the portafilter handle to keep all the ground coffee nicely contained (some other semi-auto coffee machines tend to spray it across your kitchen counter), and you even get a rubber tamping mat to help you create a perfect puck.
De’Longhi’s Bean Adapt system provides a great starting point for choosing your brewing settings based on your bean type and roast, and the results spoke for themselves; my favorite beans have never tasted better.
The steam wand is the icing on the cake, with both manual and automatic settings working well. Some automatic wands struggle to achieve a good microfoam that’s suitable for lattes, instead creating big bubbles that burst easily and don’t pour well, but that’s not an issue here.
Read my full De’Longhi La Specialista Touch review
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2. Siemens EQ900 Plus
I love a good latte macchiato, and as I said in my review, the Siemens EQ900 Plus makes the best one I’ve ever had from a home coffee machine. The espresso, the creamy foamed milk, the way the coffee forms a perfect layer in the cup – it’s exceptional.
This is a much pricier machine than the De’Longhi above, but after using both, you can see why. Not only is this a fully automatic machine, meaning it handles the entire process of making coffee for you, but it also has a premium build with real brushed stainless steel rather than plastic. Don’t get me wrong, the De’Longhi does look good and attracted plenty of compliments in the test kitchen TechRadar shares with our sister sites Tom’s Guide and T3, but the EQ900 Plus is definitely more stylish.
The EQ900 Plus offers an extensive menu of coffee drinks, all fully customizable depending on your preferred temperature, strength, proportions of coffee and milk, and the size of your cups. What really appealed to me, though, was the ability to load two equally-sized hoppers with different beans and choose between them on the fly (with the machine purging any old beans from the grinder and brew group between drinks to make sure they don’t get mixed).
I like to switch to decaf in the afternoon, and although many modern bean-to-cup coffee makers have a chute that lets you use a scoop of pre-ground coffee rather than whole beans, a proper dual-hopper setup like this is rare, and means you’ll always get the full flavor and aroma of freshly prepared beans.
The EQ900 Plus is also a piece of cake to keep clean, with an extensive set of programs to keep everything fresh and hygienic. Some fully automatic coffee machines require so much time-consuming maintenance that you might as well take a few classes and make your coffee manually, but that’s not the case here.
Read my full Siemens EQ900 Plus review
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3. Jura J10
If your regular coffee shop order gives baristas a headache, the Jura J10 is the best espresso machine for you. This is another premium machine, and it certainly looks the part with a classy piano black and stainless steel case, but what you’re really paying for here is the ability to fine-tune all aspects of your drinks and make complex hot and cold creations in seconds.
Yes, this is one of the many machines this year that’s capable of making cold-extracted espresso, but the Jura J10 is a step above its rivals thanks to a system that gives the coffee plenty of time to pre-infuse (or bloom) and then extracts it using pulses of cold water rather than a steady flow. Some other coffee makers produce cold shots that taste thin and watery, but the J10’s cold-extracted espresso is smooth, rich, and flavorful. You wouldn’t believe it’s prepared in just a couple of minutes.
The Jura J10 can also produce both hot and cold milk foam, and unlike the De’Longhi Primadonna Aromatic, it doesn’t require two separate milk carafes to do it. Both plant and dairy milk turn out perfectly textured, but the J10’s standout feature is a system called Sweetfoam, which infuses the milk with a syrup of your choice as it’s dispensed.
Just pour a dose of syrup (either regular or sugar-free) into a small container, push it onto the milk dispenser, and it will be incorporated into the milk a little at a time as it’s foamed and poured into your cup. Because the flavor is spread evenly throughout your drink, a little goes a long way. During my testing, I found that the syrup seems to stabilize the milk foam, too, so it lasts until the last sip.
Read my full Jura J10 review
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