Best Bean to Cup Coffee Machines for Home Use Review 2024

“Bean to Cup” has a very specific meaning. These machines feature one-touch operation for many pre-programmed drinks, meaning you don’t have to move your cup. You load the bean hopper, select your drink, push the button, and the machine does the rest!

On some machines, when you order a milk-based drink, you’ve got to move your cup from the coffee side to the milk side. One-touch machines don’t require that; all five machines listed here offer that functionality.

Given the capabilities of the machines on this list, the competition was fierce, but we found one that edged out the rest and picked it as the winner. Make no mistake: all five of the machines on this list are close to perfect, and even better, they all have one or more features that make them stand out, even in a crowded market. We’ll dive into the particulars of each machine in the following sections. 

If you’ve been struggling to find the “right” machine for your household, this list will cut through the clutter and help make the decision easy. Let’s get right to it if that sounds good to you!

Our Pick: DeLonghi Gran Dama ESAM 6700

What’s in a name? There is some confusion about this model because it’s known as the Gran Dama in the United States and the Prima Donna in Europe, but they are the same machine manufactured by DeLonghi.

While the tank capacity makes us smile, it’s the grinder that really gets the job done. The Gran Dama has a ceramic grinder with a whopping thirteen grind settings, far above the industry average of six.

Our only quibble is that the bean hopper is a bit undersized, with a seven-ounce capacity.

This is somewhat problematic because a size mismatch between the tank size and the hopper capacity means you’ll find yourself having to stop what you’re doing to refill one, the other, or both a bit more frequently than you’d like.

In this case, though, we regard it as an acceptable tradeoff, given everything else this model gets right. The small bean hopper is the only weakness of this model!

The double boiler is nice, especially given the size of the water tank. It speeds up the drink-making process, making it ideal for power drinkers and larger households with multiple coffee drinkers. Still, the real point of interest lies in the Gran Dama’s control system.

On this model, you can make the following drinks with the touch of a single button:

Whichever name you use when referencing this particular model, we regard this as the best fully automatic coffee machine for home use today. Even if this portion of the review doesn’t completely convince you, you’ll agree it’s one of the best machines available at any price.

It’s no surprise that our top spot is held by a machine made by DeLonghi. They and Gaggia tend to trade top honors, depending on what type of machine we’re looking at. What is somewhat surprising is that Gaggia doesn’t have a model on this list. Instead, two other companies, Phillips (makers of the exceptional Saeco line) and Jura, dominate the machines in this class.

You can tell by looking at the Gran Dama that it’s a machine of the highest quality. While the model does use some ABS plastic, it’s mostly thin stainless steel, which is much sturdier and makes for a longer-lasting machine.

Granted, the stainless steel is somewhat thinner than that found in the top-end prosumer espresso machines, but it’s still a big step up from plastic.

From a functionality standpoint, the first thing to discuss is the size of the water reservoir. As power drinkers, we tend to favor machines with generously sized water tanks, and the Gran Dama delivers with a sixty-ounce capacity.

That covers the most common specialty drinks, and of course, armed with a world-class shot of espresso and something to froth milk with, you can make just about anything else you can imagine.

Regarding weaknesses, as we said, the undersized bean hopper is the only genuine flaw in the design and is the reason that the Gran Dama missed getting a perfect five-star rating.

Coffee purists will likely also bemoan the fact that it uses an auto-frother and doesn’t have a conventional steam wand. Still, this group is likely to be able to live with it, given the number of grind settings on offer and the sheer amount of drink customization available.

The only other thing to note is that the interface is somewhat dated, using an old, simple LED screen, which gives the machine a slight learning curve. 

If and when DeLonghi upgrades this and slightly increases the size of the bean hopper, it’ll get that five-star rating from us. It really is that good and almost shockingly modestly priced, considering what you’re getting! 

As good as the other machines on this list are, the Gran Dama deserves top honors in this category.

Runner-Up: Gaggia Titanium

This product has been discontinued. Check out our recommended alternative product: Gaggia Accademia

This is a surprise entry, and the machine is far better than its 4.75-star rating would indicate. There’s so much to like about Titanium that it’s hard to know where to start. To pick a place of beginning, the Titanium is far and away the lowest-priced model on the list, which makes it accessible to every segment of the market.

It’s ruggedly constructed with durable stainless steel and is one of Gaggia’s oldest and most reliable models.

Our favorite aspect of the machine is, without a doubt, the fact that it makes an impressive eighteen different grind settings available, which gives it the juice to make even the most diehard coffee purists happy. That’s three times the industry average!

With this machine, there are only two downsides to keep in mind. First, it’s an older model, so while all the production kinks were worked out long ago, the control system is a little dated. You won’t find any cutting-edge tech here, but if bells and whistles don’t impress you, this won’t be a deal breaker, especially given the machine’s modest price.

The second issue is that the bean hopper is slightly undersized compared with the sixty-ounce water tank. Unless you like your coffee really strong, this won’t be a deal breaker either.

This is the only machine to consider if you’re looking for unparalleled performance at an exceptional price. If, on the other hand, you need your fix of bells and whistles, this one will leave you a bit underwhelmed. Even so, we regard it as an exceptional choice and one of the best values on the market today.

Value Pick: Saeco HD8954/47 Xelsis Evo

This is Saeco’s flagship model and the big brother to the Exprelia we talked about just above. Interestingly, the Exprelia is slightly superior to the flagship model, which is why it places third in our list of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines for home use.

It should be noted that this is a very close contest. As you can see from the chart, the top three machines on the list are all tied for points, so the differences between them are small, and mostly, it comes down to exactly what kind of machine you’re looking for and what, specifically, you want it to do.

It’s functionally similar to the Exprelia, with the same water tank capacity, grinder, and dual-option milk frothing system (either an auto-frother for one-touch convenience or a conventional steam wand), but there are two key differences.

First is the fact that you lose the spiffy control knob that allows you to change the pump pressure on the fly, but what you gain in exchange is situationally better.

We say situationally because the HD8954’s addition won’t be useful to all households, but it’ll be a godsend for certain families. It allows user profiles, and that’s huge.

If you have multiple casual coffee drinkers in your home, it will allow each person to set up a profile and save their preferred drink settings. This way, the coffee drinkers in your family aren’t constantly overwriting each other’s saved settings or, worse, constantly manually entering them in.

The water tank is probably too small to accommodate multiple power coffee drinkers but can easily support the habits of 3-4 casual coffee aficionados. If that describes your family, this feature will be your favorite, and you’ll probably disagree with our top pick.

Also Great

Jura Impressa XS90 One Touch

This is a narrowly targeted machine aimed at a very specific type of household. If the description below rings familiar to you, then you’ll love this machine and probably view it as the best bean-to-cup home coffee machine on the market today.

If this doesn’t sound like your family, you’ll be well served to pass this one.

The Jura Impressa is a great machine with one potentially fatal flaw. It uses older technology and has a positively bearish learning curve. Unless you have patience and are fairly tech-savvy, this one will be more than a little frustrating to master, and for that reason, it is not recommended as a first machine for new users.

On the other hand, once you learn to use it, you’ll find that it can do just about everything. It gives you all the tools you need to make any drink you can imagine, has some basic one-touch functionality for convenience, and with its massive 192-ounce (no, that’s not a typo!) water tank, it can keep pace with even the most rabid coffee consumers out there.

While the bean hopper looks undersized at first glance, with only a 10-ounce capacity, the company includes a secondary hopper with your purchase, which doubles the capacity to 20 ounces.

With a capacity like that, the Jura Impressa can keep pace in a busy office environment, making it a crossover machine.

If what you’re looking for is the raw capacity to support the coffee habits of several coffee drinkers in your family, and you don’t mind dealing with the learning curve, then this machine is solid gold.

​Jura Giga 5

Normally, we try to pick the top four machines for any given category, but in this case, the Giga 5 cried out for inclusion, even though it will be beyond the reach of many would-be buyers. 

It costs an arm and a leg and has some shortcomings, but we have to admit, this machine is a dream come true. It deserves an honorable mention as one of the best super-automatic espresso machines for home use.

This is like buying two espresso machines that have been merged. You get two boilers, two bean hoppers, and two grinders.

At first glance, you might wonder why you need two of everything, but having two hoppers and grinders gives the Giga 5 an ability that no other espresso machine on the market has (at least none we’ve seen so far!)

You can order X% of your beans from Hopper A and X% from Hopper B and create your own custom coffee blend with each drink you order.

Want a half-caf? You can do that with ease. Want an exotic blend? You can have it at the touch of a button. It’s fantastic and will give you an entirely new flavor dimension.

In addition, the machine has a cutting-edge TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display, a massive 87-ounce water tank, and more than two dozen pre-programmed drinks (29, to be precise). You can create a custom menu, so your six favorite drinks are on the main screen for one-touch convenience.

Despite its awesome feature set, the Giga 5 has shortcomings. None of these are deal-breakers, but you’d think there would be no shortcomings in a machine that costs as much as the Giga 5. In no particular order, these are:

Again, none of these are critical design failings, but they left us wanting more, and we hope that the Giga 5 will incorporate all of the above in future model upgrades.

Even without them, it’s an awesome machine by any reckoning and would make a great addition to your kitchen…if you can afford it.

Final Thoughts: Best Bean-to-Cup Coffee Machines for Home 2024

So, what is the best bean-to-cup coffee machines for home use?

As we said before, it ultimately comes down to a good understanding of what you’re looking for in a machine and exactly what you want it to do. 

We stand by the DeLonghi Gran Dama as our top pick for the one-touch, ” bean-to-brew” category, but we understand that everyone has different tastes and preferences.

Given that, here are some reasons one of the other machines might be a better fit for you, your family, and your lifestyle:

That brings us to you. What’s in your wallet? No, sorry. Which machine is the best fit for your home?

Recommended Reading

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Discover the best espresso machine under $300 for a budget-friendly exploration of specialty coffee!

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Official Jura USA Support

Official Gaggia Milano Support

Official DeLonghi Support

Sources & Resources

• Saeco HD8954/47 User Manual.
• Jura XS90 User Manual.
• DeLonghi, Official Brand Website.
• Gaggia Milano, Official Brand Website.
• Philips USA, Official Brand Website.
• Jura USA, Official Brand Website.
• Coffee Shop Drinks You Can Make at Home, Mr. Food.