To enjoy or serve the finest coffee with rich flavours and enticing aromas, an Italian coffee machine is a clear choice. Italy is home to some of the world’s most renowned coffee machine brands, celebrated for their craftsmanship and ability to deliver exceptional coffee experiences.
Owning one of these machines is like having a skilled barista at your disposal. With so many iconic Italian brands, choosing the perfect machine can be overwhelming. This guide simplifies the process, showcasing five of the best Italian coffee machines on the market today.
Why Italian Coffee Machines Are Some of the Best
If you know anything about coffee, you’ll likely already be familiar with Italy’s special relationship with this beloved drink. It’s the home of the espresso, the birthplace of so many other iconic coffee drinks, from the espresso to the lungo, the cappuccino, the macchiato, and the Americano.
Italian coffee makers are renowned worldwide, thanks to the long-standing expertise of the country’s leading brands. Companies like Gaggia, La Cimbali, and La Marzocco have been perfecting their craft for decades—La Cimbali alone has been producing machines since 1912. This rich history has allowed them to master the art of coffee machine design, blending tradition with innovation.
Over the years, these brands have consistently adapted to new technologies while staying true to their coffee heritage. Their dedication to quality and craftsmanship ensures that Italy remains a benchmark for excellence in the coffee industry.
Premium Materials and Industry-Leading Production Standards
Leading Italian coffee machine manufacturers also do not settle for second best when it comes to the materials they work with or the kinds of designs they produce. These brands invest heavily in the highest production standards, using leading materials, such as strong stainless steel, to create first-rate products.
This ensures that the end products are highly durable, and that their inner components are able to withstand the high levels of temperature and pressure to which they are regularly exposed. As such, they’re ideal for the fast-paced and hectic worlds of coffee shops, restaurants, and similar settings.
The 5 Best Italian Coffee Machines You Can Buy
Those are a few of the aspects and features that separate a top-notch Italian coffee machine from a more standard model. Now, let’s see some examples of Italy’s finest machines, including a mixture of models at different price points, and with differing features and advantages, to help you find your favourite.
La Marzocco Linea Classic S Espresso Coffee Machine
We’ll kick things off with the Linea Classic S Espresso Coffee Machine from La Marzocco. A true workhorse, the Linea Classic has been around in some form for several decades now, used in coffee shops and other establishments around the world and beloved by many for its all-around reliability, easy operation, and sleek, chic design. Let’s learn more about it.
Detailed Machine Performance Review
La Marzocco has made many versions of its iconic Linea Classic over the years, and the Linea Classic S is one of the very best. Compact, yet incredibly powerful, it features La Marzocco’s distinctive dual boiler design, with one boiler dedicated to espresso brewing and the second to steam production, as well as programmable auto-volumetric dosing for consistent brewing output.
Additional key features of the Linea Classic S include its controlled saturated groups to deliver the same temperature in every espresso shot, and its pro app compatibility, allowing you to configure settings via the La Marzocco Pro App on your phone. You can also customize this machine to include pro touch steam wands, LED barista lighting, a cup warmer, and more, to configure it to your precise needs.
Pros and Cons Analysis
Pros
Cons
A great range of customisable features and design elements
The design, while chic, may seem a little basic to some
Long history of reliability and popularity among major café chains
No sight glass
Consistent levels of temperature, pressure, and performance
User Experience and Insights
In everyday usage, the Linea Classic S proves to be a reliable and pleasant coffee machine to work with. It’s remarkably consistent in all key areas, and its premium construction shines through during those hectic periods when you need to make lots of coffee in a short period. It’s also easy to clean, making it a fine fit for a range of settings, like offices, coffee shops, and even the home.
La Cimbali M200 2 Group Traditional Espresso Commercial Coffee Machine
Next, the La Cimbali M200 3 Group Traditional Espresso Commercial Coffee Machine is another commercial-grade coffee machine that simply demands attention with its striking design. But it also hides plenty of powerful technology under its shiny hood, representing another great leap of innovation in the grand history of the La Cimbali brand.
La Cimbali is another of the big names in Italian coffee machine manufacture. It’s one with a very long and storied history that starts way back in 1912, though the very first La Cimbali branded machines were actually made in the 1930s. The brand quickly became known as an innovator, releasing one of the first machines to have heads located at the front, rather than the side like prior models.
Tech-wise, the M200 has a range of smart systems to deliver tailored coffee experiences. It has independent boilers that let you set the temperature for each individual boiler to suit any recipe, along with La Cimbali’s PROFILE technology that allows you to modulate pressure and temperature for each brew to influence the levels of body, acidity, bitterness, and aroma in the final brew.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
A beautiful coffee machine, ideal for boutique coffee shops
Bigger and bulkier profile than other models
Highly customizable, allowing for personalised coffee preparation
Convenient and comfortable to use with intuitive design features
User Experience and Insights
From a user perspective, there’s such a lot to love about the La Cimbali M200. You can feel that this machine was designed by people who weren’t focused just on performance and power but on the actual process of using it on a daily basis. They included lots of aforementioned helpful features to aid the barista in creating a machine that’s equally impressive in looks, functionality, and convenience.
San Remo D8 Pro Espresso Coffee Machine
Next on our best Italian coffee machine list is the San Remo D8 Pro Espresso Coffe Machine. Designed for commercial use in busy cafés and similar environments, this is a machine that is all about performance and quality, boasting precision engineering and unmatched reliability to deliver coffee that you can feel proud to serve to your customers.
Detailed Machine Performance Review
The D8 Pro from San Remo has a lot of advanced features and technologies to help you produce premium-grade coffee with ease and speed. This all begins with the machine’s dual boiler system to ensure maximum stability and seamless brewing and steaming, side by side. The D8 Pro offers highly precise temperature controls, too, so you can monitor every step of the extraction process.
Another key feature of this machine is its high-pressure pump that helps provide the perfect conditions for the likes of espressos and ristrettos. Coupled with the pre-infusion technology, which lightly moistens the coffee grounds prior to extraction, this releases the full flavour and aroma of the beans.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Available with either two or three heads to suit your needs
Has a bit of a steep learning curve due to its many programmable settings and features
Powerful technology for premium performance
Provides lots of control over temperature, pressure, and other brewing parameters
User Experience and Insights
Once you’ve figured out how to get the most out of the D8 Pro, it’s a joy to work with. This is a machine that was made with great care and attention to detail in order to provide the very best coffee-drinking experiences for all. It’s a fab fit for coffee shops, bars, and restaurants that want to give their customers the kind of coffee that keeps them coming back for more, and it’s also well-suited to home users who like maximum control over their coffee output.
Gaggia Ruby Pro 2 Traditional Coffee Machine
One issue with many commercial coffee machines is that they can be pretty big and bulky and take up a lot of room. That can be a problem if you’re operating in a confined space like a food truck, for example. The Gaggia Ruby Pro 2 Traditional Coffee Machine, with its more compact form factor compared to other models, aims to remedy that.
Detailed Machine Performance Review
One of the first things you’ll notice about the Ruby Pro 2 is that it’s notably smaller and lighter than a lot of other commercial coffee makers. This compact design is a major selling point for those who are tight on space, like people working in food trucks, small coffee stations, or businesses looking for a quality coffee maker to put in offices, foyers, and similar spaces.
But despite its compact frame, the Ruby Pro 2 packs a real punch in making coffee that is consistently of high quality. It can work with grounds, capsules, and even paper pods, too, giving you plenty of options for preparing each brew. It also comes with a nifty range of features that make it a lot of fun to work with. These include its easy-to-use water and steam wands and programmable buttons on each of the group heads.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Compact, space-saving design
Lacks some advanced features compared to peers
More affordable than many other models
Simpler design may appear a little basic
Intuitive and easy to master
User Experience and Insights
The user experience with the Gaggia Ruby Pro 2 is generally very positive and rewarding. It’s capable of producing exceptional espressos and other coffee drinks in a short time, and its smaller size allows it to work well in kitchens, cafés, or other spaces where there may not necessarily be room for a larger, bulkier model.
La Spaziale S9 EK 3 Group Espresso Coffee Machine
Last but not least, we have the La Spaziale S9 EK 3 Group Espresso Coffee Machine, another high-end coffee machine from a major Italian name. This is one of the more versatile entries on our list, with a long lineup of features and functions that empower you to feel in complete control of the coffee you create.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Sleek and timeless aesthetic
Complex design may be tricky to master initially
Excellent technology with rapid, reliable performance
High level of control and customization
User Experience and Insights
In everyday use case scenarios, the La Spaziale S9 brings plenty to the table. Lots of users love how this machine puts the control in their hands. It doesn’t restrict you in any needless ways. You can control the temperature, pressures, grind levels, and more with remarkable detail, so it’s a good option for cafes and other places that want to provide very varied coffee menus and suit a broad audience.
What Separates the Best Italian Coffee Machines from the Rest
Not every Italian coffee machine is the same, and not all of them represent the pinnacle of coffee machine technology. The best ones earn their status by excelling in key areas, like:
Durability
A lot of Italian coffee machines are used commercially, in coffee shops, bars, restaurants, etc. This is, in part, down to their durability. When you run a business that involves serving coffee to the public, your machine will invariably get a lot of use, and it needs to be able to cope with those high levels of pressure.
You might need to prepare hundreds of cups of coffee a day with the same machine. Some models will buckle and break under such heavy workloads, but the best Italian commercial coffee machine models can handle it, day in and day out, for years of steady, reliable usage.
Coffee Quality
This is arguably the No. 1 factor that most people think about when picking a coffee machine, from the likes of café owners to people buying a machine for their own home. People, especially serious coffee connoisseurs or those who rely on the quality of the coffee they serve to their customers to keep their businesses afloat, want to enjoy the best possible coffee product.
Coffee quality is highly dependent on the beans or grounds used, and the machine can only do so much of the work. But quality machines are most certainly able to create richer, more aromatic, and altogether tastier coffees than lower-grade models.
Customisation
Americano, cappuccino, mocha, latte, espresso – there’s a long list of different coffee types, and the variety doesn’t end there. You can have light roast coffees, heavy roasts, medium roasts, 100% arabica, robusta, or even different blends of beans from origins around the world.
When preparing coffee, too, you can adjust how finely or coarsely the beans are ground to get different taste profiles and adjust the brewing time for more or less intensity in every sip. This is something that the best coffee machine Italian manufacturers understand, offering incredible levels of control and customization in their machines, so you can brew coffee your way.
Speed
This factor is also one that’s particularly important for businesses planning to use their coffee machine on a commercial basis. If you need to prepare and serve coffee to customers without any unnecessary delay, you need a machine that can produce top-quality coffee quickly.
Capacity
Another challenge of serving coffee commercially is that you’ll often need to prepare multiple cups at a time. A cappuccino here, a lungo there, and so on. Basic coffee machines, with only a single group head, are only able to make one coffee at a time.
But more high-end Italian coffee machines often feature multiple heads and nozzles spread out along the body of the machine. This gives you the power to prepare a whole host of coffee drinks at the same time.
Features
Leading coffee machines also boast their own distinctive array of helpful features and functions. Dual boiler designs, with separate boilers for brewing and steaming, boiler insulation to improve efficiency, and programmable dosing are just a few of the add-ons that can make for a versatile, successful coffee machine.
Many modern Italian machines may also come with more advanced smart features, like the option to control them via exclusive mobile apps, or clever pre-infusion technology to lightly moisten the coffee grounds prior to extraction, enhancing the flavours and aromas of the end brew. In short, the best Italian commercial coffee machine models include special industry-specific touches that simply do more than the rest.
Final Tips of What to Look for in an Italian Coffee Machine
To find the best Italian coffee machine for you, consider:
Brand Reputation: Naturally, some of the Italian brands have been around longer and have more of an extensive track record when it comes to delivering the types of machines you might like.
Controls: To feel fully in control of the coffee you serve or drink, you need a machine that lets you influence the temperature, the pressure, the grind, etc.
Tech: Leading machines don’t compromise on technology. They use sophisticated and innovative systems, like pre-infusion and dual boilers, to deliver the desired results.
So, if you want the absolute best and most seamless coffee-making processes, choose one of the best Italian coffee machine models listed above, all available in the Logic Vending catalogue.
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