Espresso machine with grinder tested

If you want to enjoy a wonderful espresso and hold everything in your hands during the grinding, brewing and foaming process, you need to bring a modern espresso machine into your home. Connoisseurs know that you can serve truly exquisite espresso from such a machine: If you know the nuances of using such a machine, you can be sure of a perfect, easily customisable taste experience. Many other machines, such as fully automatic machines, which offer a very smooth operating experience, can hardly compete with this. One of the reasons for this is the enormous scope that modern espresso machines open up in all parts of the production process: For example, even the seemingly simple process of tamping, i.e. pressing a heavy plunger into the powder, can play a significant role in the flavour of the espresso - after all, it depends on the pressure used here. The speed at which the machine presses the water through the powder and how many flavours it can release in the process. And this is just one of many different parameters that can be adjusted when using modern espresso machines. For this very reason, serving an espresso from an original-style espresso machine is much more demanding than if you were to use a fully automatic machine instead. Because many consumers want a convenient user experience, a few espresso machines are now available that take a lot of the work out of the production process, for example with clever mechanisms that are almost effortless to use and yet promise excellent espresso. This time, we tested 17 different espresso machines - including 4 models with a grinder. How these espresso machines can really be used, to what extent you can customise the espresso to your personal requirements, whether Crema & Co. can ultimately entice you and much more. We'll show you below - as well as all the data we've collected on sound output and power consumption during use.