Gaggia coffee machines

Actually, this one would be about as easy to find as hen's teeth.

It's a vintage Gaggia expresso coffee machine that one would have found in your local cafe way back when - if not an even larger version.

When I first saw the prices of these things, I nearly had heart failure.

You get what you pay for and according to reviews of the domestic models, they are like their Italian car counterparts - Alfa Romeo, whichb are reputed to be about as reliable as the weather.

We couldn't afford one and even if we could, we're glad we got what we did as now I don't have to spend hours with a multimeter and my entire toolbox, trying to fathom what went wrong this time.

The filter coffee maker

This was our first coffee machine, choosing prior to that to drink the easy-out - instant.

For all their faults, these things are not bad. There's little to go wrong and they do provide a fairly decent cuppa, the biggest problem being, the older they get, the longer they take.

That was pretty much down to a lack of maintenance. It only takes some white wine vinegar regularly and then a flushing through to keep the build up of calcium deposits to a minimum, but did we even think about that?

Anyway, eventually it gave up - which is what has led us to the machines that we currently have. Of course, we've gone the roundabout route as there was nothing at the time to point us in what we now consider to be the right direction..

Cafetieres

Those of you familiar with the TV programme 'Dexter', will recognise this.

It's been our mainstay coffee 'machine' for many years now and has served us well, despite having new parts including the beaker and a mesh for the plunger.

It's simple, very easy to use and for high volume coffee making can't be beaten.

We probably use this tens times as often as the stove top model, but they both make very different drinks.

For those who want coffee in a hurry and in volume, this is by far and away the best - unless you want to stick with instant, which rarely bears any resemblance to real coffee no matter how hard you try or for that matter how much you pay!

These are available on-line and come in several sizes from a little two cup to the gi-huge twelve cup models. We got the eight cup and does two of our nearly one pint mugs with ease!

The combination machines

These provide two machines in one fairly large package, two of which we have had.

We had a DeLonghi, which wasn't bad and the appalling waste of time (shown right), which although wasn't expensive, but didn't do what it said on the tin.

The DeLonghi was fine, but couldn't take being used with hard water and unless we were prepared to spend a significant amount on filtration, wasn't even going to be able to keep up with the paltry demands we put upon it.

The one shown, neither provided us with decent filter coffee, nor did it provide particularly good expresso.

The expresso was steam generated, but where the DeLonghi had a steam outlet for frothing milk, this one had a rotating paddle that vibrated, whirred and precious little else.

Indeed, this machine was obviously produced under the expectation that by putting nice lights and switches on it, they would make it look impressive - even though they had no use whatsoever.

One apparently controlled the rate at which water was passed into the coffee hopper in the filter machine, with "strong" and "weak" at either end of its scale and the same appeared on the expresso part.

I didn't understand because if you wanted stronger coffee, you'd just add more grounds, but it lasted no time at all, which led us to the final machine.

The best home expresso machine - The Bialetti three cup

For us, this has worked out to be the best value for money.

The one shown is a Bialetti, which has no moving parts - aside from the lid. The top is a coffee hopper and under that is a rubber seal. Between the two halves, there's a metal filter and that's it.

Water goes in the bottom, coffee in the hopper and the whole lot screws together to sit on the stove until it's done, which is no more than two or three minutes and is pretty express-o.

Of course, it only provides a small shot, but we have another stove top device that you can heat milk in with a plunger to give you the frothy milk to go with it. The two together cost about forty pounds, but with nothing to go wrong - aside from the ribber seal - which are widely available - this was the natural choice for us.

Of the sizes available, we went for the three cup as with milk, will give a good normal-sized mug of coffee and like the cafetieres, they are available on-line at very reasonable prices and last for ever.