How to Buy: Espresso Machines

The Basics
Pump Machines
Lever Machines
Steam Machines
Stovetop Espresso Makers
Essential Extras

Making espresso means extracting maximum flavor from coffee using minimal hot water. That requires forcing water through the coffee under high pressure. The result is an emulsion of flavorful and aromatic oils combined with other chemical elements and suspended gas bubbles, giving you the concentrated flavor, velvety texture, and crema (foam) that distinguish true espresso. (Notwithstanding espresso's reputation, a shot of espresso contains only about 60 percent of the caffeine in a regular brewed cup--even though both use about the same amount of ground coffee--because the water is in contact with the grounds for such a brief time, ideally about 25 seconds.)

Making a perfect espresso--in a slender stream Italians call coda ti topo (tail of the mouse)--is difficult enough for a skilled barista using a professional machine costing thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, home espresso machines keep coming to market, each trying to balance a few tradeoffs among simplicity, effectiveness, durability, and price.

As automation is the surest route to simplicity, pushbutton machines dominate. Some machines automate the entire espresso process, from grinding the beans to dosing to tamping to brewing to discarding spent grounds. All this costs money, of course (electric home espresso machines run from around $130 to more than $2,000), but it is convenient, especially if you can adjust some of these steps to reflect personal taste. (Manufacturers also combine espresso machines with drip coffeemakers in a single home-brewing package.) Effectiveness--a measure of how much pressure a machine generates--and durability vary, but the surest guide, though not foolproof, is price.

Some machines speed up espresso making and eliminate messiness by using pods of ground coffee encased in permeable paper. (A few machines use plastic capsules of coffee instead of pods.) Rather than grinding coffee, tamping it to proper density in a filter, and cleaning out the filter after brewing, an operator drops a pod into a special filter and then tosses it away afterward without even dampening his or her fingertips. Though widely available in upscale supermarkets and coffee shops, your pod supply can run out at inconvenient moments, and pods are not as reliable as freshly ground coffee at delivering full flavor and aroma, so most pod-friendly machines also come with filters for ground coffee.

Espresso machines are categorized by how they create pressure. The different methods follow.

A quality pump machine generates at least 9 atmospheres (bars) of pressure, sufficient to force water at the proper speed through finely ground coffee to fully extract flavor. If its water tank is large enough and its wattage high enough, a good machine produces espresso after espresso without waiting for pressure or temperature to rebuild. Because pressure and water temperature (192 to 204 degrees F is ideal--opinions vary) are crucial, it's useful, though not essential, for a machine to have pressure and temperature gauges.

Straight from a sepia-toned photograph, a lever machine employs a spring-loaded piston driven by a lever to force water through the coffee. The operator pulls the lever (thus, the expression "pull" an espresso), and the speed, combined with the density of the grounds, determines espresso quality. Automated pump machines sometimes use technological trickery to produce crema, but a lever machine requires skill and places the control in an operator's hands rather than a machine's innards. The result is the real thing, accompanied by the gratification that only the old-fashioned ritual of espresso making can produce. Modern lever machines are much simpler to operate than their predecessors. The better ones have pressure and temperature gauges.

The least desirable method of making espresso is with a steam machine. In fact, a steam machine doesn't truly produce espresso because it can't generate the necessary pressure. (Steam machines typically generate a third or less of the required pressure.) Moreover, steam is too hot for proper espresso, resulting in thin-bodied, bitter brew. Though steam machines are not labeled as such, they're the ones that don't proclaim they're "pump" or "lever" machines--and they're much cheaper.

Often called moka pots, these nonelectric, stovetop "espresso makers" resemble narrow-waisted coffee pots, and they, too, don't brew espresso because they don't generate pressure. They boil water in a bottom chamber, after which it climbs through filtered grounds into an upper chamber, or the user flips the device (with the boiling water) over so the water drains though the coffee.

Many espresso machines have wands for steaming and frothing milk, allowing the user to create lattés and cappuccinos. (Most wands also deliver hot water for tea, hot chocolate, and instant soups.) The best, most expensive machines use separate boilers for espresso and steam, allowing you to make more drinks in a shorter period. Many machines now come with frothing attachments of dubious quality for their wands. Most are removable for cleaning, which also means you can set them aside if they're unsatisfactory.

Fred Brack is a Seattle writer, former newspaperman, and coauthor of the cookbooks The Tastes of Washington and Tastes of the Pacific Northwest .