I’ve always thought of Wired of at least aspiring to be a little more reality-based than, say, it’s Omni predecessor. But now that you’ve pointed it out, you’re right about the bombastic dimension.

After all, we’ve previously recognized the role for infotainment even in science and technology. That much shouldn’t surprise us.

1) Think of Wired as being VERY bombastic and sarcastic in many of their pieces, awhile throwing in generally technical and accurate information. Sifting through a piece is an exercise in interpretation, opinion – to me the whole process is entertainment.

2) Coffeeratings, on the otherhand, is very square, clear and decisive. No mumbo-jumbo to be had, which isn’t clearly deciphered. Everything is as it should be.

YOUR problem comes in when you assume that everything is square in their sarcastic world. Which it is certainly not. Hopefully by numbers above help you to cut through my mumbo – maybe? Probably not.

Andy

I guess I will stay with my Moka pot for a while and save up money/experience to buy a decent one later. I happen to love good coffee fanatically, even considering moving to Italy for that. Study/Intern in Paris now, but seriously, having a good cup of coffee here is a very rare experience……

I am going to give you what seems like contrarian and not terribly useful advice. But the short answer to your question is “no”. Save your money.

Our general rule of thumb has been that if you’re not open to spending a good $600/€450 or more on both a decent grinder and a non-kitchen-retailer machine, your best options are a $25/€15 moka pot or to just keep going to your favorite café.

Your price range is in the sweet spot for a lot of opportunistic home appliance manufacturers who entice customers into buying next year’s landfill. We find the quality of these machines very suspect and not worth buying in the first place. Many of their ilk will sell you using the bogus economic savings argument of a home espresso machine, but we’ve informally found that the reality of human behavior rarely lives up to the robotic theory.

Of course, we hold pretty high quality standards for why we should bother with a home espresso machine at all. I.e., if it doesn’t beat what you can typically get down the street, why bother? But if you want to produce espresso at home that’s on the level of a run-of-the-mill, mass-produced Starbucks — a perfectly reasonable option for many — there are some options in your price range. We know that not everyone is as finicky as ourselves.

Good luck, and hopefully we saved you some money.

I’m currently searching to buy an home Espresso machine (with the Cappucino function). Budget is around 150 euros. Any decent ones maybe you can recommend?

Many thanks