Both the removable drip tray and 27.05 fl.oz/ 0.8-litre water tank are dishwasher-safe; however, they’re just as easily cleaned under running water.

READ NEXT: Our full roundup of the best coffee pod machines Philips L’OR Barista Sublime pod coffee machine review: What’s good about it? Discover the new L'OR BARISTA® Sublime coffee machine featuring a compact design and a matt finish. This machine allows you to easily prepare all types of high-quality, espresso-based drinks, in a professional way and in your own home. Prepare two espressos at once, a double espresso, a delicious single espresso or a lungo. I really like using it, and guests have used it with zero instruction from me. Also, the early morning stupor-induced errors I've submitted it to prove it's pretty fool-proof. I've turned it on without putting a mug underneath the spouts, and I've turned it on without a pod in it. All that happened was the drip tray filled with coffee and I ended up with a mug of coffee-flavoured water, inadvertently giving the interior a clean. The pod bin holds about 10 used pods and is easy to remove. It's available in three colours, Piano Noir, Sunset Rubis and Satin Blanc. The water capacity is 0.8L which is enough for 3-4 long coffees.As is sometimes the case with capsule machines, quite a lot of water gathers in the tray beneath the used-pod drawer. Also, the twin-spout group head drips coffee for a few seconds after extraction. I haven’t found this to be the case with my favourite Nespresso machine, the Grind One, so I guess it’s a design thing. For noise, we measured the L’OR Barista Sublime at 52dB on our noise meter, which is somewhere between moderate rainfall and normal conversation. It wasn't loud, but you will hear it in operation, especially if there aren’t any other appliances running.

I’ve been very impressed with this machine’s performance. It extracts all makes of Nespresso capsules really well, and with excellent levels of crema to boot.Capsule recognition: The system identifies the size of the capsules used to ensure the correct dosage of water and offer you an optimal coffee experience. Most Nespresso machine capsule chambers use a simple lever that you pull up, put the pod into its recess and slam the lever down to engage it with the hidden group head. This machine has a much more complex pod-loading system and I love the way it works. You basically lift the top handle and the pod orifice articulates upwards. Now pop in either a small or large pod and close the handle – the machine can detect which sized pod is being used. It’s a lovely action but I do hope it’s never capable of jamming if, for instance, you load in a pod while the used-capsule drawer is full to capacity. This is because it ejects the previous pod when you lift the lever and, if there’s a used capsule in the way of the mechanism, it could feasibly jam. I should add that I haven’t had any issues in this regard. If you've got cash to splash, you may want something with a more traditional design, for example, Dualit or Grind pod coffee machines are stunning in shiny stainless steel and bring more of a classic charm to your kitchen worktops.

When I first emptied the pod reservoir it felt like I might break it, but I found you just have to be firm. The instruction manual says to flush the machine with fresh water before using it for the first time, which I didn't realise at the time. It's hard to exaggerate how much of a difference investing in the best coffee machines makes to your morning routine. Before reviewing the L'OR BARISTA Sublime I was using much more analogue methods: a cafetière on weekends and WFH days, instant coffee for those 'need coffee now' moments, and a Moka when I'm missing Italy. Mind, since it takes about 30 seconds to warm up, it would be good to be able to preheat the boiler with a single tap while you pre-heat the cup or make a milky cappuccino froth using the Best Milk Frother, but you can’t have everything. In terms of cost per use, if you buy the XXL pods in bulk, it works out as 30p per coffee. Sure, there's also a small cost of running it added to your electricity bill, and the cost of buying a descaler once in a while, but overall I think it's well worth it because coffee's one of those small but important pleasures. Removing the drip tray provides access to the bin in which used capsules drop. We found this bin could comfortably hold around a dozen capsules, so depending on how many cups of coffee you drink, it will need emptying every, or every other, day.How long does it take? I timed it, and it takes 1 minute, 28 seconds to make a coffee, including the time it takes to rinse and fill the water tank, find a mug etc. Compatibility: The L'OR BARISTA coffee machine has been created to work with L'OR classic espresso capsules and L'OR BARISTA XXL double espresso capsules, as well as Nespresso®* capsules and most other compatible capsules. See the complete list in the compatibility section.