Coffee Makers

In the last decade coffee has become less of an everyday commodity and more of an ‘artisanal’ product, with many drinkers considering themselves connoisseurs. Companies have cultivated and capitalised on this trend with aprofusion of devices to enable people to supposedly make the perfect cup of coffee at home. 

When we investigated coffee makers in 2010, the fanciest machine on offer was an espresso or cappuccino maker and about 5% of people had one, while 17% had a filter machine. Today, around 22% of British households have an espresso or filter machine and a third have a pod coffee machine.

After several years of explosive growth driven by pod devices, the coffee machine market has plateaued. This is probably due to a combination of factors: market saturation, dawning awareness of the environmental impacts of pods, lack of space in kitchens for yet another small appliance, and moneyed connoisseurs seeking to liberate themselves from the Nespresso capsule menu by upgrading to bean-to-cup machines.

Which brands make which coffee machines?

Environmental problems with coffee machines

Quite apart from the environmental problems with coffee pods, which we cover in our guide to coffee, complex coffee machines consume lots of materials in their manufacture.

A compact pod machine, such as the Krups Dolce Gusto Oblo is mostly plastic and weighs around 2.5kg, while a larger De’Longhi pod and ground coffee machine uses steel and plastic to the tune of 4.1kg. An espresso machine like the Sage Barista express bean-to-cup machine comes in at a whopping 10.6kg of steel and plastic. In contrast, a Bialetti Moka Express stove-top coffee maker is around 700g of aluminium, plastic and rubber.

Because of this excessive use of resources, we recommend that if you’re interested in buying an electric coffee machine and reducing environmental impacts then second hand will be better than buying new.