Beginner's espresso machine recommendation

coffeecionado

Hello all -- I have just recently joined the forum as I'm thinking of getting myself a coffee machine. Nothing flashy as I live on my own and this will be a step-up from my Moccona instant coffee *duck!*.  

There's a sale currently in Adelaide at Harris Scarfe for deLonghi EC700 for $199.95 - so which of the following would you suggest? I would really appreciate your comment - I do realise that my shortlisted machines are nothing compared the serious coffee machines that are being discussed in the forum.  :-[

My shortlisted are:

• deLonghi EC700
• Breville BarVista Espresso Machine BES200
• Sunbeam Cafe Espresso Stainless

Which one should I get? I'm prepared to spend about AU$200 ...

Thank you!!

mcbj

Cannot help on the technical side, just want to say welcome to the forum and the world of coffee  

DoubleRistretto

Hi afficionado - welcome to the forum. I'm pretty sure Crema did a review of domestic espresso machines last year, and the Sunbeams came out ahead of the deLonghi and the Breville, however I'm not sure of exactly which model. However, I guess the other question is how serious you want to be - you could probably get a good low-end machine [eg Saeco Via Venezia] for around $420-$450, and you might find it's really worth spending the extra? However, anything's gotta be better than the Moccona! dR

coffeecionado

Thank you for the messages, folks ... I guess I'll take baby steps into coffeedom ... hehe. I think I'll get myself a Sunbeam and after I polish my coffee-making skills, I'll upgrade the machine. Perfect coffee weather at the moment in Adelaide! (wait a sec, any kind of weather is perfect coffee weather!) hehehe.

FreshCoffee2

Pardon me for wanting to call a spade a spade.....but if you are going to go down market you may as well go the whole hog and look at the sunbean ristretto. The RRP last time I looked was $99.00 and sometimes it can be purchased for even less on special. One of my friends has one so I have personal experience with using it regularly. It is very good value for what it is and for the price. But like most others in the sub one thousand dollar mark, it will never make you a commercial quality coffee and it is a real fiddle to get "good" coffee out of. Once you have as you say "polished your skills" and want to upgrade to a real coffee machine, go straight to the Rancilio Miss Silvia at somewhere around $800.00 these days (there is a rancilio FACTORY price increase - ex Italy -

askthecoffeeguy

I got to have a play around with a Sunbeam EM6910 and a Synesso volumetric the other day, and enjoyed pulling shots on them both. Admittedly, you cant really compare the two machines in any line up, but I enjoyed the espresso coffees that I made from both, and I thought the Sunbeam offered excellent value for money at around the $800 mark. And if I had the dough I'd put a Synesso into my home, just for personal use, even if I was only pulling 1 shot a day, just for the unbelievable 'sweet spot' that the machine can produce by temperature surfing. Oh well... we can all dream, can't we? ACG