De'Longhi La Specialista Opera EC9555.M

I had a professional espresso machine before where everything had to be done manually but it did give great coffee. Value was 1600 loose beans grinder etc. This always gave a lot of mess. Now that we have 2 children we wanted user convenience and less cleaning and not to compromise too much on quality. That has more than succeeded with this machine! We looked at the sage express impress. It has less brewing quality and is less consistent. KitchenAid semi espresso for its incredibly quiet motor. We left that one alone because it does not have a built-in tamper and that saves so much mess. I had Phillips barista brew as a test. The Delonghi is by far the better in its class but also costs more. The black version of this is slightly cheaper, we did not take that because it is actually more gray / gunmetal and that does not match the black of our kitchen.

We previously had a 1600 euro setup from expobar with a separate grinder. Great coffee but what a mess. Now that we have 2 kids we want convenience. But no plastic device. That worked! Thanks to the built-in tamper you no longer have any mess! It is difficult to say what is easier with the competitor sage express impress. I do think this one is much nicer and makes more consistent espresso with a quieter machine. It is just not 1. because you cannot remove the bean container you cannot easily remove jammed beans or switch from caf to decaf. That is a loss.

A quick nice cup of coffee