Sage - The Duo-Temp Pro - Bean to Cup Coffee Machine with Milk Frother - Precise Espresso-Extraction 1600 W - Easy to Use Manual Espresso Machine - Portafilter and Milk Jug - Brushed Stainless Steel

If you just want to press a button and have a drink made for you, this isn't your machine. However, if you're the type of person who wants total controll over your espresso and steamed milk. The type of person who isn't just going to feed the machine supermarket beans. And you're someone enjoys the process of making tasty coffee drinks, then I highly recommend this machine. With help from youtube, I've gone from someone who had never used fresh beans before. Someone who'd never even seen an espresso machine outside of a coffee shop, let alone be in controll of one. To someone who now has a fresh coffee bean subscription and way too many coffee accessories. And I'm also someone who's now used this machine for 5 months, having pulled shots with it almost every day. I can honestly say it's been a great entry into home espresso. It's not perfect, or the best machine out there, but I've really enjoyed using it so far. And I can highly recommened it to anyone on the fence about taking the plunge. It's well worth the effort, and cost wise, it's really good bang for your buck. Especially if you can get one on sale for under £300. I've paired this machine with the Sage dose controll pro and couldn't be happier. There's a bit of a learning curve at first when learning to dial in fresh beans. But even the first drink I made tasted better than any coffee I've had from a coffee chain. You just have to source good quality beans (with a known and recent roasting date) and follow a few guides to get you going. Once you figure everything out, it's a super simple machine to use. You switch it on and turn the dial to the function you want activating. Then turn the dial back to the center to stop. Super simple and you have full controll. If this is your first machine, you'll likely need to buy a few extras with this, as it doesn't grind or dose coffee for you. Along with a decent coffee grinder, I'd recommend getting a good set of coffee scales (I use the Timemore basic 2), as it makes the whole process of making a drink a lot easier. Especially when following a recipe or experimenting with grind size. Being a manual machine, you have a lot of controll over your espresso and you'll need to learn how to controll the things that this machine doesn't (like when to stop the water or what grind setting to use to get the right flow rate). Good coffee scales help with all of that. At the very least, you'll need a scale that goes to 0.1g and a stopwatch. Without those, it's hard to get good results. For me at least, it's really nice to have a machine that doesn't hold your hand. All this really does is push hot water through whatever you put in the portafilter, and shoot hot water/steam from the wand. A whole 2 functions! It does each of them really well, though. If I had to be picky and say something negative, it'd be that the noise is a bit high when steaming. There's a repetative thud from the pump when using the steam wand, and it's a bit annoying. The thudding seems to echo throughout the house when it runs, too. It only lasts a minute while steaming, so it's not that bad. Something to consider if you have thin walls and live next to neighbours that like to complain, or have relatives that you don't want to disturb. Overall, it's been an amazing addition to our kitchen. It's basically a hobby now. Just make sure you source good quality, freshly roasted, beans. And that you refrain from using the pressurised baskets!

Had this for a month now and used it most days so its time to write a review. It is not a cheap machine but you can see where the money has been spent. For example, the porta filter handle is pretty much a professional one you would see being used in a coffee shop. The supplied milk jug is also solid and pours the milk without drips - a minor miracle.The finish of the machine is good and it feels solidly built. It makes good espresso, although as yet no crema but that's because I'm using up some older beans. You can hear the two stage extraction working and the cool down after using the steam wand. A word of caution - the cool down puts a fair bit of water into the drip tray so keep an eye on the indicator at the front of the tray. The steam wand works very well, but as I've found in other machines you don't get steam immediately. I put a sponge under the wand to catch the water then dip the wand quickly into the milk. This way the milk isn't diluted as much and the steam takes immediate effect. I've made latte and cappuccino so far and am working up to a proper flat white. I initially bought a cheaper machine for under £40 mainly to see if I would use it enough to justify a better quality one. I used it most days so decided to buy the Sage machine after a year. The build quality of the Sage is so much better than the cheap machine but I've been able to get similar results from both by using good quality freshly ground beans. The cheaper machine was temperamental needing more work to get consistent results. Temperature control was rubbish and it didn't cool down after steaming milk so kept on getting hotter - too warm for making a good espresso. So the cool down feature in the Sage serves a real purpose. I needed to keep the cheaper machine clean - on average cleaning it every few weeks, whereas the Sage comes with a water filter which will help keep it from furring up. Financially, the Sage doesn't make much sense at all because you can get decent results - albeit with more effort and experimenting - with the cheaper machine (and you can buy 6.5 more as spares in case your first one stops working for the same amount as one Sage....). But it is so much more satisfying to use. The only question is will it last? The 2 year warranty is encouraging, but I intend to help it along by changing the water filter regularly and keeping the machine clean.