I tried a lot of beans from Dutch coffee roasters. The one I like the most is the Bourbon Royal from Blanche Dael. Grinder setting: 3-4, depends on what coffee I make.
I bought my wife a Philips lattego 5400, we've had it since 2020 and it's still going strong. Total drinks made is 5000ish. Good beans, good milk, good coffee!
I can second this. We had a Phillips 5400 series and it was fine. It recently broke (which happens, no big deal, still under warranty) and replaced it with a DeLonghi Dinamica and they’re not comparable. The Dinamica is a more capable machine but the coffee is much smoother in the Dinamica. I agree that the Phillips was quite watery.
If it's your first machine, you may never notice the difference. If you're asking for a recommendation based on 20 years of experience with superautomatics, including 2 years with a 5400, I can not recommend it. It creates subpar espresso, and it is a nightmare to maintain. Go with a Delonghi, much better machine within the same price range.
Good point about the beans. One thing I noticed is that the Philips is very forgiving in terms of the types of beans, basically, due the fact that it's not capable of grinding fine enough and the brew unit self adjusting to avoid it from jamming, resulting in a weak under extracted shot. That was my biggest gripe, as no matter what I did, I was never able to make a strong, full-bodied shot with thick crema. Something that the Delonghi can do very easily and very well.
If you just like Americano, a simple espresso machine can be enough if you already have a grinder (as long as it can grind fine enough for espresso) as you suggest. Trouble with a lot of bean to cup machines is you can't get a good dose. You'd want 15-18g of coffee for a 250-300ml americano and a lot of machines top out at 8-10g. So whatever you buy keep an eye on that.
My wife likes Americano and I just boil the kettle, fire an espresso (18g coffee making 40g espresso) out from my espresso machine then top up from the kettle. It's super nice.
I had a Philips 5400 bean-to-cup for a long time and while good, the coffee it could make was super weak compared to the basic method I mention above. Those bean-to-cups often don't grind very fine, nor have a sufficient dose like I said. So you can't get espresso and you don't get great extraction. But....one button & zero faff so I get you. Just throwing out other ideas :)
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ac-panther
