Favorite Automatic Coffee Machines of 2019

The Ultimate Guide to Super-Automatic Espresso Machines: Elevating Your Coffee Experience

Are you ready to transcend the ordinary coffee experience and embrace true café-quality beverages from the comfort of your home or office? The video above provides an insightful overview of some standout automatic coffee machines from 2019, showcasing their convenience and capabilities. For those accustomed to the simplicity of capsule machines but yearning for a significant upgrade in coffee quality, bean-to-cup machines offer a transformative solution. These super-automatic espresso machines utilize freshly ground whole beans for every single delicious beverage, from robust espresso to creamy lattes and cappuccinos.

This comprehensive guide delves deeper into the world of automatic coffee machines, expanding on the key models featured in the video. We explore the nuanced engineering behind these devices, examining how specific features translate into superior taste, unmatched convenience, and a truly personalized coffee ritual. Prepare to unlock a level of coffee enjoyment previously reserved for professional baristas.

Unpacking the Appeal of Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machines

The allure of bean-to-cup technology lies in its commitment to freshness and convenience. Unlike pre-ground coffee in capsules, which can lose much of its aromatic compounds over time, whole beans retain their complex flavors until the moment of grinding. This fundamental difference is the cornerstone of a superior coffee experience. When evaluating automatic coffee machines, discerning users prioritize several critical factors: the quality of the coffee produced, the sheer convenience of operation, and the overall value proposition.

Consider the environmental and financial implications. A kilogram of quality whole bean coffee, such as Maromas Orfea, might cost under $20 and yield approximately 100 cups. Comparatively, if capsules are priced at $0.50 each, 100 cups would equate to $50 for an often inferior product. This cost disparity, coupled with the significant plastic waste generated by disposable capsules, underscores the long-term benefits of investing in a bean-to-cup system. These machines offer a win-win: better coffee at a lower per-cup cost, all while reducing ecological footprint.

The “Value King”: Gaggia Anima Prestige

The Gaggia Anima Prestige epitomizes the ideal balance of reliability, user-friendliness, and high-quality output in a value-oriented package. Its consistent performance in crafting excellent coffee, espresso, and milk-based beverages has garnered a strong reputation, evidenced by its impressive 4.5 out of 5-star rating across nearly 150 reviews. This machine brings true one-touch capability to a remarkably accessible price point, distinguishing it from many competitors.

Key Performance Attributes:

One-Touch Milk Beverages: Without moving your cup, the Anima Prestige delivers lattes, cappuccinos, or coffee with a single button press. Its detachable milk carafe simplifies milk preparation and storage—simply return it to the fridge when not in use.
Compact Design: At just 8.7 inches wide and under 14 inches tall, this machine integrates seamlessly into diverse kitchen layouts, a critical consideration for many urban dwellers or those with limited counter space.
Versatile Dispensing: An interchangeable hot water spout allows for tea or hot chocolate preparation. The adjustable coffee spouts accommodate various cup sizes, offering just under 6 inches of clearance for larger mugs or travel cups.
Precision Customization: Users can select from three distinct coffee temperatures and five coffee strengths, tailoring each brew to personal preference. Programming drink volumes is intuitive, ensuring repeatable results.
Bypass Doser: This feature is invaluable for the occasional decaf or for experimenting with pre-ground specialty coffees without altering the primary bean hopper.

The Gaggia Anima Prestige not only offers substantial savings over capsule systems but also provides a significant qualitative leap, making premium coffee accessible for daily enjoyment.

Mid-Range Mastery: The Jura S8’s Precision Brewing

Stepping into the mid-range segment, the Jura S8 presents a sophisticated blend of advanced features often found in higher-end models. This machine boasts 15 distinct drink specialties, all effortlessly accessible via a vibrant color touchscreen display. Its engineering prowess is particularly evident in its brewing and frothing technologies.

Advanced Brewing and Frothing:

Pulse Extraction Process (PEP): Jura’s proprietary PEP brewing technique is a game-changer for espresso. It forces hot water through the ground coffee in short, rhythmic pulses. This innovative method optimizes extraction time, drawing out a more profound and aromatic flavor profile, resulting in a rich crema that signifies a perfectly pulled shot.
Fine Foam Frother: The S8’s frother offers unparalleled control. A simple lever allows selection between an exceptionally fine, velvety froth, ideal for delicate lattes, and a slightly airier foam, perfectly suited for classic cappuccinos. This level of texture customization is a hallmark of premium milk-based beverages.
Intelligent Water System (I.W.S.): Jura’s Clearyl Smart Filter, equipped with an RFID chip, communicates directly with the machine. This intelligent system detects filter usage, prompts replacements, and eliminates the need for manual descaling when used as recommended. This feature drastically simplifies maintenance, enhancing machine longevity and consistent coffee quality.
Quiet Aroma G3 Grinder: Operating with remarkable quietness, the Aroma G3 grinder features a heavy metal lid on the bean hopper, minimizing noise during operation. More significantly, it doses up to 16 grams of coffee in a single grind cycle—a substantial 4 to 5 grams more than many competing machines. This capacity allows for a true double espresso or two full cups of coffee from a single grind, eliminating the waiting time often associated with preparing multiple beverages.
Flat White Perfection: The S8 executes a proper flat white by brewing espresso first, then adding milk froth. This sequence is crucial for achieving the characteristic layered texture and flavor integration of an authentic flat white, a detail often overlooked by less advanced machines.

The Jura S8 combines intuitive design with powerful technology, allowing users to customize 15 programmed drinks with 10 strength levels, three temperature settings, and precise milk volume control. Its hassle-free maintenance, guided by automatic rinsing and the intelligent water system, solidifies its position as a top-tier mid-range option.

For the Versatile Enthusiast: Gaggia Babila

The Gaggia Babila is engineered for the coffee aficionado who refuses to be limited by a single brewing style. Its exceptional versatility stems from two core features: the inclusion of both a one-touch milk carafe and a manual steam wand, alongside its unique flow control dial. This dual capability allows users to seamlessly transition between automated convenience and hands-on barista-style crafting.

Defining Versatility:

Dual Milk Systems: The Babila is one of a select few automatic machines to offer both a detachable milk carafe for quick lattes and cappuccinos, and a manual steam wand for those who enjoy the art of frothing milk and pouring latte art. This flexibility caters to varying time constraints and skill levels.
Flow Control Dial: An innovation setting the Babila apart, the flow control dial on the spout enables precise flavor tuning. Restricting flow can yield barista-quality espresso with enhanced extraction, while increasing the flow rate prevents bitter over-extraction when brewing larger cups of coffee. This dynamic adjustment ensures optimal flavor regardless of drink size.
Optimized Spout Design: Its unique spout design retracts for concentrated espresso shots and extends for larger travel cups, accommodating diverse beverage containers with ease.
Unmatched Grind Settings: With an impressive 15 grind settings, the Babila offers more fine-tuning capability than any other current machine on the market. This extensive range is crucial for adapting to different bean types and achieving precise flavor extraction—finer for espresso, coarser for larger coffee brews.
Three Levels of Pre-infusion: Pre-infusion, a brief soaking of the coffee grounds before full pressure brewing, promotes more even saturation and a richer, more aromatic extraction. Unlike most machines that offer a simple on/off pre-infusion, the Babila provides three distinct levels, allowing for nuanced control over this critical brewing phase.
Robust Build Quality: Weighing 43 pounds and featuring a stainless steel front panel and accents, the Babila exhibits superior build quality. Its heavy front door, opening on industrial hinges, grants robust access to internal components.

Further enhancing its appeal, the Babila incorporates an Aqua Clean water filter system, capable of brewing up to 625 cups before filter replacement and an astonishing 5,000 cups before descaling is required. Its distinctive rounder, retro Italian aesthetic, coupled with illuminated buttons, adds a touch of classic café charm.

Design Meets Innovation: The Jura Z8 Experience

The Jura Z8 transcends conventional coffee machine design, offering an unparalleled blend of aesthetic sophistication and cutting-edge technology. Honored with both the IF Design Award and the German Design Award in 2018, its visual appeal is undeniable—from the elegant wave of aluminum wrapping around the front and top to the unique glass drip tray cover and the subtly glowing blue light of the water reservoir. But its beauty is far more than skin deep.

A Symphony of Style and Smart Features:

Voice-Activated Brewing: The Z8 comes equipped with Smart Connect, enabling full machine control via Jura’s Joe app on a compatible smartphone or tablet. This includes remarkable voice-activated brewing, allowing users to simply command, “Hey Siri, make me a latte,” for instant gratification.
Simultaneous Preparation: This super-premium machine masters simultaneous milk and espresso preparation, a feature that significantly speeds up the crafting of complex milk-based beverages. It also boasts precise temperature control for both milk and coffee components, a critical detail for optimal flavor and texture.
Dual Milk Froth Automation: The Z8 automatically switches between two different milk froths within the same drink, producing barista-quality layered beverages with consistent perfection.
Full Pot Coffee & True Americanos: Beyond individual servings, the Z8 offers the unique ability to brew an entire pot of coffee from freshly ground beans. For Americano enthusiasts, it brews a true Americano by adding hot water concurrently with the espresso, a seamless one-step process that eliminates the manual addition required by many other machines.
Intuitive Interface: Control is elegant, whether through the refined crystal rotary switch or the expansive 4.3-inch full-color touchscreen display. Its menu system, featuring color icons, offers a superior user experience compared to text-only displays, allowing easy navigation through its 21 pre-programmed beverages, each customizable and even renamable.

Like the S8, the Z8 incorporates the quiet Aroma G3 grinder and the PEP brewing system, ensuring crema-rich, full-bodied drinks. Its maintenance regimen is equally effortless, leveraging the Smart Filter system to virtually eliminate descaling and offering automated cleaning for both coffee and milk systems. The Joe app further extends customization possibilities, offering in-menu sliders to personalize every aspect of your drink, alongside the convenience of taking multiple orders.

Peak Performance & Capacity: The Jura Giga 6

For those seeking the absolute zenith of automatic coffee machine technology, the Jura Giga 6 stands as the undisputed finest premium machine available. Designed for high-end homes, sophisticated office environments, or any setting demanding unparalleled capacity and performance, the Giga 6 builds upon the Z8’s advanced features, effectively doubling its capabilities to deliver an extraordinary 28 specialty drinks.

Unrivaled Capacity and Customization:

Dual Independent Grinders: The most striking feature of the Giga 6 is its two independent coffee grinders. This allows users to load two different bean types simultaneously—perhaps a light roast and a dark roast, or regular and decaf beans. An exclusive capability of this machine is the ability to mix beans from both grinders in 25% increments within a single drink, enabling precise blends like a perfectly balanced “half-caf.”
Simultaneous Dual Milk Drinks: The Giga 6 is one of the only machines capable of preparing two milk-based beverages at the exact same time. This feature is invaluable for entertaining large groups or servicing a busy office, dramatically reducing wait times.
Adaptive Preparation Order: Like the Z8, it performs parallel preparation of espresso and milk froth but can also intelligently flip the preparation order as required by specific drink types, ensuring optimal layering and flavor integration.
Boiler Flushing: An exclusive feature, the Giga 6 intelligently flushes its boilers if a period has passed since the last brew cycle. This ensures that every cup of coffee, brewed from freshly ground beans, is always made with fresh water, eliminating stale water from the brewing process.
High-Capacity Components: Designed for heavy usage, the Giga 6 features a used coffee drawer that accommodates the waste from 20 brewing cycles and an expansive 87-ounce water reservoir, minimizing the frequency of refills and emptying.

Equipped with the same beautiful touchscreen display and Jura Smart Connect for full app control as the Z8, the Giga 6 offers comprehensive customization through the Joe app. It retains the superior PEP brewing, true Americano functionality, and the ability to brew full pots of coffee from whole beans. Pairing the Giga 6 with Jura’s Cool Control countertop refrigerated milk supply, which maintains milk at a precise 40 degrees indefinitely, ensures the machine is always ready for a flawless milk-based creation.

Mastering Your Machine: Maintenance and Customization Insights

Beyond the impressive specifications, the longevity and consistent performance of super-automatic espresso machines hinge on diligent maintenance and thoughtful customization. Features like Jura’s Intelligent Water System with RFID filters or Gaggia’s Aqua Clean filters are not just conveniences; they are critical components that protect internal systems from limescale buildup, a primary cause of machine malfunction and diminished coffee quality. Regular cleaning of milk systems, often automated in these premium machines, prevents bacterial growth and ensures hygienic, flavorful milk frothing.

Customization extends far beyond selecting a drink. Understanding the interplay of grind size, coffee strength, water temperature, and pre-infusion settings empowers users to fine-tune their beverages to an unparalleled degree. Experimenting with different bean origins and roast levels, then adjusting machine parameters accordingly, unlocks a universe of flavor profiles. The intuitive interfaces and companion apps, such as Jura’s Joe app, transform this process from a chore into an engaging culinary exploration. Remember to explore the advanced 3D and augmented reality features offered by many retailers, allowing you to visualize these sophisticated machines on your own countertop in proper scale before making your selection.