The best and worst coffee capsule machines

We currently have test results for 16 coffee capsule machines, ranging from a $90 model at The Warehouse to a very slick-looking $1,200 Breville. The good news is one of the best is also one of the cheapest.

The 4 worst coffee capsule machines

Living & Co Capsule Coffee Machine CM-C01

Price: $89
Score: 53

This is the only coffee machine we’ve tagged with our ‘Don’t Buy’ label. It’s cheap and very easy to use, but our panel of coffee experts gave it their lowest taste score. We give our testers unlabelled shots of espresso. They score each shot on crema, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and aftertaste.

DeLonghi Nespresso Vertuo Lattissima ENV300

Price: $548
Score: 58

DeLonghi Nespresso Pixie Bundle with Aeroccino EN127.SAE

Price: $450
Score: 58

DeLonghi Nespresso Gran Lattissima EN640

Price: $800
Score: 58

These 3 DeLonghi coffee capsule machines all shared the next lowest score. Test writer Amy McNabb explains that, while they didn’t score well on taste, their overall scores were also low because they’re DeLonghi. “Our surveys show that DeLonghi machines get more faults than most other brands,” Amy says. “The combination of making a poor tasting brew and not being able to rely on them means they end up towards the bottom of the list.”

“There are also 5 Breville coffee capsule machines that have low taste scores. Breville machines get a similar number of faults as DeLonghis, but people love their Breville machines, so the brand satisfaction rating bumps up their overall score,” Amy says. “I wouldn’t buy any of these models, though.”