Coffee is a truly magical thing, wrought from the most banal of sources.
Its rejuvenating, invigorating powers are only matched by the social capital it enjoys; it is at once a medicine, a gastronomical experience and an excuse for us to chat. But don’t you dare talk to me until I’ve had my morning cup of Joe.
Making coffee can be as complex as a multi-step, multi-minute pressure-brewing mixology session, or it can be as simple as pouring hot water into a mug through a mound of ground beans. Either way, getting into making your own at home can be daunting, particularly if your TikTok feeds are as occasionally graced by torturously smug coffee tutorials as ours are.
The reality is that coffee can be made well by anyone, and made well for cheap as well. But, given the many different possibilities when it comes to coffee-making, which direction should you be looking in?
Which type of coffee maker should I get?
When buying a cheap coffee maker, it’s important to have a bit of knowledge of the different coffee options available. Even within this budget bracket, there are multitudes of different coffee-making methods, which many coffee aficionados prefer over brews made by the costliest machines.
For instance, pour-over coffee is one of the simplest brewing methods out there but can be hugely instructive to the nuances of a given blend – not to mention a smoother drink than the short, sharp shock of a flavour bomb that comes from espresso. Pour-over coffee-making paraphernalia is extremely cheap, but also requires that you follow some steps (and take your time) to get the best possible brew out of the process.
Of course, you might be after exactly that short-brew zing and fruit. Barista-style espresso makers are hard to come by below £100 (though not entirely impossible), but this doesn’t mean you can’t achieve great espresso. There are numerous manual coffee extraction products on the market, each of which finds nifty ways to generate pressure and produce a complex, flavourful cuppa.
If you’re looking more for an instant solution, then you’ll be looking at pod coffee makers instead. Pod coffee is somewhat divisive, but can be exactly what the doctor ordered – particularly if you’re gearing up for the commute.
Best cheap coffee makers under £100 to buy at a glance
Irrespective of the coffee snobs’ opinions on any one method over another, we’ve taken an even-handed look across the entire field of cheap coffee makers under £100.
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Barista & Co Strong Brew Coffee Maker
Best: overall
Barista & Co’s Strong Brew coffee maker is an innovative approach to pressure-brewing, taking the essential format of a handheld system – pioneered and popularised by Aeropress – and putting a literal spin on it. The Strong Brew has a screw-based plunger mechanism, so that lateral squeezing applies vertical pressure to your hot water and coffee grounds.
This method gives you a great deal of control over the pressure and speed of your extraction, allowing you to perfect your espresso or longer black coffees according to your own preferences. The unit is also extremely easy to disassemble and clean, making it an ideal daily driver for quick, strong morning coffee with great flavour.
Buy now £34.00, John Lewis
Hario V60 Ceramic V-Shaped Cone Coffee Dripper
Best for: pour-over coffee
V60 ‘pour-over’ coffee-making is amongst the most basic methods, and yet is one that can yield the most stunning results. The V60 apparatus was pioneered by Hario, who have perfected their conical filter-holding coffee-dripper design and now provide it in a wide array of materials and colours.
There’s a little ritual-making involved in getting a V60 brew right, but once you’ve cracked it, it’s knowledge forever. In essence, you are pouring hot water over ground coffee held by a filter; the resulting coffee drips from the base of the assembly into your carafe or cup, leaving you a perfectly balanced brew.
The reality contains many more variables, and requires a mindful approach – but this ceramic Hario V60 removes some of the difficulties. Being ceramic, the V60 itself retains heat, ensuring you don’t lose temperature as a result of your chosen ritual. Come; convert!
Buy now £21.44, Amazon
Bialetti Moka Express Aluminium Stovetop Coffee Maker - Italia Collection (3 Cup)
Best for: stovetop coffee-making
It is Bialetti we have to thank for the existence of stovetop coffee-makers, a.k.a. moka pots; their invention by Alfonso Bialetti in the early 1930s was nothing short of epochal. It stands to reason that the brand’s moka pots today – which share the same form as they did on day dot – are so highly acclaimed.
Moka pots work by heating water under a basket of coffee, and forcing the resulting steam up through said basket; the infused vapour then condenses and collects in the pot’s uppermost chamber. It is a febrile process, and one which produces an impressively rich espresso-style brew via an impressively simple design. This 3-cup affair is the Italia edition, a tricolour-sporting variant of that quintessential Bialetti pot. Could your morning brew get any chic-er?
Buy now £32.41, Amazon
Barista & Co Brew It Stick
Best for: no-fuss long blacks
Another from Barista & Co here, this time in the form of the brand’s flagship coffee-making ‘thing’ – and easily the simplest coffee-making ‘thing’ on this list. The Brew It stick is essentially a tea strainer for ground coffee, that you steep in a mug of hot water and stir around until your desired level of ‘doneness’.
This exceedingly easy method of brewing produces a light, long and smooth black coffee, one which begs for a drop of milk and an afternoon sit near some form of window. The mesh that contains your grounds is fine stainless steel, easy to clean and less faff (for some) than using filter papers or disposable coffee bags. It naturally only brews for one, though; all the better if you’re the only coffee drinker in the house/office, and don’t have to share your fave blend!
Buy now £14.99, Amazon
L'OR by Philips Barista Sublime LM9012/60 Coffee Machine - Black
Best for: sleek pod-coffee espresso
Philips’s approach to pod coffee machine design is appropriately sleek for Philips’ reputation for precision.
The Barista Sublime LM9012/60 is a L’OR-friendly pod coffee maker, designed to accept its own double-shot pods as well as pods from Nespresso, Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Marcilla amongst others. The machine cuts a pleasing form on the kitchen countertop with its matte-black monolith visage – and is perfectly capable of extracting a decent pod brew.
It’s simple to operate, fairly swift and can make enough for two; what else do you need?
Buy now £109.99, Currys
Dolce Gusto De’Longhi Genio S Touch EDG426GY Coffee Machine
Best for: convenient and wide-ranging pod coffee
If you do happen to need more from a pod coffee maker than you might get from the lower end of the price spectrum, De’Longhi’s Genio S Touch EDG426GY is where you should be looking. This nearly tops the £100 limit but is worth the extra cash.
A nifty touch display is where your enhanced budget pod coffee experience begins, with this display giving you more control over how you extract your brew. This is key because this isn’t just a pod espresso maker; this pod coffee machine is designed to accept Dolce Gusto cartridges, which allow you to make a wide variety of coffee (or even non-coffee) beverages.
This is the true no-effort pod coffee maker, which opens up a world of convenient coffee-making.
Buy now £119.99, Currys
Morphy Richards 162501 Filter Coffee Machine – Black
Best for: filter coffee at home
Filter coffee is about as regular Joe as it gets when it comes to prepping a hot cup of morning joe. It’s the quickest and easiest way to prepare long blacks for a bevvy of people, whether a bleary-eyed family unit or a bleary-eyed office cohort. It’s an unpretentious brew, but one which can be vastly improved by a quality machine.
For a sub-£50 cheap coffee maker of the filter variety, you can’t do any better than this essential machine from Morphy Richards. It does exactly what it says on the tin, makes enough for six at a time, and can be cared for with ease.
Buy now £40.00, Argos
Bosch Tassimo Suny TAS3012Gb Coffee Machine Black
Best for: Tassimo-friendly coffee-making under £50
Bosch’s Tassimo Suny TAS3012Gb is a no-nonsense pod coffee maker that takes up mercifully little room on the kitchen counter. Its relative diminutiveness means sacrificing less usable space to a machine that essentially heats and pumps water, giving you your kitchen back.
This machine is more than its size, though. It is an eminently user-friendly thing, with a particularly clever trick in the form of its ‘smart start’ feature. Pushing your mug into the machine will turn it on, giving you the least effortful pod coffee you’ll ever make. It’s designed to take Tassimo T discs, meaning you can prep beverages from a number of familiar brands as well.
Buy now £34.99, Amazon
Swan SK22110GRYN Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Machine
Best for: barista-style espresso under £100
The Swan Nordic Pump Espresso Coffee Maker is one of the vanishingly few barista-style espresso makers you can get for double figures.
Espresso machines can be complex things, and, understandably, they tend to command a serious investment – but for the budget-conscious, this is an extremely viable entry-level option for portafilter-borne coffee extraction.
As well as making a decent espresso, the Nordic Pump can also steam milk for you via a handy wand. This works much like barista machines do, but with a little more of a wait, and a little more time spent with the milk jug. There’s also a bit of a learning curve to timing your espresso extraction to your milk-heating endeavours, but a handy front-and-centre dial makes this easier.
Whatever the initial hiccups, being able to make your own flat whites, whenever you want them, for less than £100? Luxury.
Buy now £98.00, Argos
Aeropress Go Coffee Maker
Best for: portable coffee-making
Aeropress is literally a game-changing brand, having won the hearts of at-home coffee connoisseurs and professional baristas alike with its simple yet clever pressure-extraction inventiveness. The OG Aeropress was a revelation for espresso-enjoyers without access to professional barista equipment – and the Aeropress Go is a revelation for those who can’t access said equipment for being in the middle of nowhere.
The Aeropress Go iterates slightly on the near-timeless design of the original, shrinking it down a tad to make it more travel-friendly. The Go comes with a smart red-lidded travel case, which also doubles as a mug! This is an all-in-one solution for outdoor coffee-making, and a godsend for campers trying desperately to keep their campsite tidy.
Buy now £38.68, Amazon
Verdict
The right cheap coffee maker under £100 is ultimately down to two things – your favourite kind of coffee, and your desire for convenience. In this writer’s case, though, the slight fuss involved in making a pour-over with the Hario V60 Ceramic V-Shaped Cone Coffee Dripper is meditative, and the coffee results are well worth the time.
However, the Barista & Co Strong Brew Coffee Maker wins out, for its innovative approach to manual pressure-brewing and the control it gives you in making the perfect lungo.
