GaggiaBrera Bean to Cup Coffee Machine

This machine makes fantastic coffee.To be honest I wasn't sure how good this machine would be, as Gaggia, the godfathers of coffee machines, was bought by Phillips, and you can see evidence of their influence in the plastic casing on most of the machine, but the front has a nice brushed metal, and overall this machine has kept the traditional, stylish looks of earlier Gaggia machines.Not the quietest machine, but then it does grind beans to order, and has a decent water pump that works hard to push water through compacted coffee. Machine is relatively easy to setup, even though the manual is fairly poor, and once you have found the settings you want you probably won't need to change them.Steamer is good. The coffee nozzle height is adjustable, always best to keep it as close to the cup as possible to ensure a decent crema.Some parts that aren't so good... The water container will do about 3 1/2 normal cappuccino cups before needing refill. The tray is chrome, but scratches after a while as cups are put on/off. Cleaning can be a bit of a pain, due to the internal shape, lots of shelf/corners, but all parts are easily accessible.When you need to descale, be sure to find the video on youtube, as the manual I have gives instructions for an older model, which means you still need to do the descale after this lengthy process in the manual.Bottom line, I got this for a decent price, and for all its quirks and design flaws, this machine makes absolutely fantastic coffee, to the point where friends don't want to serve me coffee at theirs now after tasting the coffee from this machine, as they now think I am a coffee snob...

Bought this after much research and indecision - I had a budget of around £350 and it was between this and a Delonghi. The Delonghi won top rating from Which magazine for bean to cup machines, but well... this is GAGGIA! The company INVENTED the modern espresso machine! Obviously I don't know whether the Delonghi is any good, but I certainly don't regret choosing this machine. And this seller offered a fabulous price. If you take the time to read the manual properly, it's easy to set up and makes fabulous coffee really quickly. You have to spend some time tweaking the various options (grind, strength, short/long, single/double shot) to get it just how you want it, but really the quality of the coffee is amazing! Better than you get in the High Street shops - and I'm a fan of most of them. Makes great frothy milk too! It's not without it's quirks - the warning level for a full grounds bin is very inconsistent and it has given me a cup of hot water and thrown the ground coffee all over the place once - but I can forgive it when the coffee tastes this good. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I bought this machine for my hubby, as he loves good coffee and I wanted to purchase a quality unit that allowed you to grind whole beans, as most machines on the market these days a limited to the use of capsules only, which is not the same. If you want this, it does of course come at a premium but worth every penny.Slight issues with postage, as took a while to get to me from Italy but well worth the wait.

Bought to replace my previous Gaggia that gave up the ghost after seven good years. Can't complain to be honest as I suspect that I did something to render it DOA.Anyway, I had a couple of criteria for my new machine. Firstly, I had to have the facility to bypass the beans and use ground coffee when I fancied a change and secondly, I wanted to be able to top up the water tank without removing it.Well, I got a 50% hit with this but the price was too good to be picky so I bought it.And was initially quite disappointed with the results compared to my previous Gaggia - which I think was probably a higher spec model to be honest.The main reason being that there are very few options for the volume and strength of the coffee. My previous machine allowed me to infinitely choose the water volume between Americano size and espresso. I could also adjust the amount of grounds in a similar way with a dial. On this machine you have two sizes - espresso and lungo, which is about half a mug and which is watery and weak no matter how you set the machine. So forget that setting unless you like coffee more in tune with instant from Aldi.This had me grinding my teeth I'll have to admit and I seriously considered buying a replacement again but not trying to be so mean about it. However, I worked out that I could get an excellent coffee by going full on Italian.Instead of trying to get a lungo - my preferred size of coffee - I instead brew up two shots of espresso and then add water to suit. This is easy to do with the hot water dispenser which is almost instant in use.My wife prefers a latte which is also easy to do. Once again, a double espresso coffee and then using the steam dispenser warm up the milk but remove it before it ends up cappuccino'd.So, I'm happy with the end results.BUT. I'm not going to keep this for many years. Its a bit too inflexible and there are too many compromises. Firstly, I'm still irritated by the lack of flexibility for water and coffee. Can't get away from that. Secondly, the build quality is okay but not by any means high end. Definitely built to a price and that price is the lower end of the market. It does look very flash and it is much neater and takes up less worktop space than my previous machine, but that does not justify the 'feel' of it. Thirdly, the steam/water spout will only rotate but not move up and down meaning that the space under it is limited when using the milk jug. It also feels like it won't take much abuse if any at all. Fourthly, the water reservoir is small. I guess the price one pays for a compact footprint.So, the bottom line is that this machine looks good, makes decent coffee but is inflexible to use and feels a bit low rent. Good for the money but if you have the extra wedge available, then aim higher.

This has to be one of the worst products I have EVER purchased from anyone, anywhere. This machine failed to work properly almost from day 1, it constantly leaked water out of the bottom, all over my work surfaces and damaging a nearby kitchen unit. The leak was accompanied by a horrible stench from the water. The machine itself feels cheap and nasty, lots of flimsy plastic. Water container is ridiculously small. Machine has no auto switch off facility so if you forget to turn it off it stays on all day. Overall, I would absolutely 100% recommend not buying this product.