10 Best Espressos 2026 in the United States

The Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine is designed for at-home baristas looking to enjoy high-quality espresso. Its standout feature is the integrated conical burr grinder, which allows you to grind fresh coffee beans directly into the portafilter, ensuring maximum freshness. The machine's dose control grinding feature helps you get the right amount of coffee for a balanced taste. With its precise digital temperature control and low-pressure pre-infusion, it extracts rich flavors from the coffee beans, offering a well-rounded espresso experience.

The manual steam wand is powerful and enables you to create microfoam milk, perfect for latte art and enhancing the flavor of your drinks. This feature can be a bit challenging for beginners but offers great customization for experienced users. The machine's brushed stainless steel design is both sleek and durable, adding a modern touch to your kitchen. However, it's relatively large and might take up considerable counter space.

Cleaning is made easier with the included tools, but regular maintenance is necessary to ensure longevity. While it comes with a variety of useful accessories, the one-year limited warranty might be seen as a downside compared to other models offering longer warranty periods. The Breville Barista Express is an excellent choice for those who are serious about their espresso and enjoy having control over the brewing process, despite requiring some space and regular upkeep.

The Breville Barista Touch is a high-quality espresso machine designed for home use, featuring a brushed stainless steel finish. It is equipped with several advanced features that make it stand out, such as an integrated conical burr grinder for dose control grinding, a ThermoJet heating system for quick heat-up time, and a low-pressure pre-infusion system to ensure balanced flavor extraction.

The machine also boasts precise digital temperature control to achieve optimal espresso extraction and an automatic steam wand for microfoam milk texturing, which is ideal for creating latte art and enhancing coffee flavors. The touch screen display simplifies the process of making café-style beverages, allowing users to customize and save up to 8 personalized coffee settings.

Included accessories, like the stainless steel portafilter and milk jug, add value to the package. The large water tank and bean hopper capacity ensure convenience for regular use. However, the machine's weight (21.8 pounds) and relatively high power consumption (1680 watts) may be drawbacks for some users. Despite these minor drawbacks, the Breville Barista Touch is a versatile and user-friendly espresso machine that caters well to coffee enthusiasts looking to make high-quality espresso-based beverages at home.

The De'Longhi Eletta Explore is a fully automatic espresso machine designed to offer convenience and variety, making it a great fit for those who enjoy experimenting with different coffee drinks. It uses built-in conical burr grinding with 13 settings, allowing you to freshly grind beans just the way you like for optimal flavor. The machine features two milk frothing systems—one for hot milk foam and another for cold foam—which is a nice touch if you enjoy both hot lattes and cold brews. Speaking of cold brew, it uses a special Cold Extraction technology to prepare it in under 3 minutes, which is faster than most cold brew methods. With over 50 one-touch recipes including classics like espresso, cappuccino, and iced coffees, plus a simple touchscreen display, it’s user-friendly even if you’re new to espresso machines. You can personalize your drinks and save profiles using the De’Longhi app, adding flexibility for different tastes. The 60-ounce water tank and included travel mug add convenience for everyday use.

The machine is fairly large and heavy (about 25 pounds), so it requires a decent counter space and might be less ideal if you need something compact. While cleaning is made easier with removable and dishwasher-safe parts, some users might find maintaining a fully automatic machine a bit more involved compared to simpler models. This espresso machine suits coffee lovers who want a versatile, high-tech appliance capable of creating a wide range of drinks with minimal effort, but it might be more machine than needed if you prefer basic espresso only or have limited kitchen space.