Gaggia Anima Barista Plus or the Gaggia Anima Deluxe (or possibly the Magenta if there is much more to it than the Anima) It has the same 5 grind settings as the Brera, the same removable brew group, a similar (albeit smaller) front-loading water tank, and it's a very simple machine to use. As with the Magenta range, the coffees are really simple to change when it comes to strength, volume & temperature, and it's really simple to save each setting to your own profile.

Like the Rancilio Silvia, and unlike many other entry-level home barista espresso machines, the classic is more of an “old school” espresso machine that can be maintained and fixed over the years, by anyone with a bit of DIY competence, so this is a fairly low-cost machine which could still be going strong in 20 years or more! My classic at the time of writing is over 18 years old, and it's fine! In a nutshell, I'd say that this is a machine which has a similar compact footprint to the Brera and the Naviglio, but while bringing more in terms of features, with more grind settings & more strength settings. Philips (who own Gaggia) used to sell this same machine under the name “Philips 2100”– but it seems they decided to move it over to the Gaggia brand. Gaggia produce all of the above types of coffee machines, so I'm going to split their machines up into the various categories, to make it easier for you to dive straight into the most appropriate type of coffee machine for you. Best Gaggia semi automatic bean to cup coffee machines

Price comparison

The Anima Deluxe has all of the features of the base level semi-auto anima, but with the cappuccinatore to handle the milk for you instead of the steam wand.

The Naviglio doesn't have a bypass chute for pre-ground coffee, by the way, something it shares with the Besana. This won't be an issue for most people, but some people like to keep a bag of pre-ground decaf and for that reason need a bypass chute.

Proper espressos without taking up your entire kitchen

The Anima is one of the bean to cup machines from Gaggia that I think really hits the sweet spot when it comes to price point vs features. So I suppose my question summed up would be…. Does the Gaggia Anima Deluxe provide the same ability to manually get the same Milk froth results as the Gaggia Anima Barista Plus? Standard bean to cup machines are also known as semi automatic, or “one touch coffee” machines, and these handle the coffee side of things at the touch of a button, and have a steam wand for the user to steam the milk. The simple answer to this is that there isn't a best machine overall, but there will be a best Gaggia coffee machine for you, and hopefully, you'll have a much better idea of which one that is by the time you're done reading this post. Here's a little fun fact for you re Crema. While this now is something largely revered by coffee lovers, that's down to clever marketing – and this beloved foam on the top of espresso we now know as crema was once referred to as “coffee scum” and thought of as potentially a downside to this higher pressure extraction. Crema on Espresso. Photo Credit: Di Bella Coffee

I've used it, and it's fine for the money. It does have some competition, machines like the Swan Retro (which is a machine that sells under various different brand names) are a bit cheaper, and do a similar job. All of the Gaggia bean to cup coffee machines will flash at you to let you know when you need to do things such as cleaning and descaling, and some of the more premium machines allow you to select your water hardness so that it can prompt you to descale at a schedule which is appropriate. These two options are the cappuccinatore option (usually these versions are referred to simply as either “deluxe” or “milk”, and the carafe versions which are usually referred to as either “prestige” or “one touch”. The benefit of this, and the reason these are usually the best selling versions, is that they're one-touch machines, whereas the cappuccinatore machines require two button presses to make your coffee instead of one.

The only negative I sometimes read about this machine is that it was previously a Philips model so it's not really a Gaggia, but I disagree with that, I think it's actually the other way around.

This machine actually comes with a milk container, too, so it's not actually a great deal different from the prestige version really, the only real difference is that the milk sits next to the machine and is drawn up via the pipe, rather than this all being done in one self-contained unit. Although overall I'm quite impressed with this little machine, it has competition in the form of the De'Longhi Magnifica ESAM 4200, which is usually available slightly cheaper. It has more grind settings, strength settings, and a much bigger water tank, and overall I think it's a lot more machine for slightly less cash. For more see: In my humble opinion, the cappuccinatore version (usually called deluxe or milk) is a better bet than the carafe version With this came the “crema” we associate with espresso, which wasn't something present with espresso created under much lower steam pressure of the earlier espresso machines. So Gaggia didn't just invent the first modern espresso machine, they invented what we now know as espresso, too. It's not a pressurised portafilter by the way, it's a standard basket with a pressurised basket, and there are 53mm standard baskets that will fit it.

Why is Gaggia Classic better than Gaggia Gran Gaggia?

Domestic espresso machines also known as consumer espresso machines or simply as “cheap espresso machines” are made more for the “every day” coffee drinker, someone who just wants to spend a relatively small amount of money on a coffee machine, take it out of the box and start making coffee that they're happy with, straight away with little or no learning curve. These kinds of machines are made to work with pre-ground coffee beans or with cheaper grinders which wouldn't be capable of grinding for espresso with a home barista espresso machine, and they create espresso in a slightly different way than traditional commercial and prosumer or home barista espresso machines.