There’s also a container for beans, and one for ground coffee (you fill it one scoop at a go), so you can do decaf and caffeinated coffees with no stress. The downside is that they can be tricky to get the hang of, are more expensive than pod machines and create a bit more mess. Firstly, it’s made by Bosch, so you know you’re going to get that great German engineering and quality here. Its biggest con could also be a pro; it scans the barcode on your chosen capsule and auto-adjusts the settings for the ‘best’ brew, with no customisation possible. In a bid to find the best, our coffee aficionado poured a series of single and double espressos, judging each shot on the thickness and colour of its crema (it should be a cosy chestnut colour and last until the final sip), temperature (between 60 and 75°C is optimal) and volume of liquid coffee.

It’s an investment for sure, but it’s intuitive to use, as powerful as a commercial machine (while reasonably affordable to run) and produces addictive coffee.There are a lot of variables in coffee, and you can either take control of those and change them how you want, or you can make it easier for yourself. Rather than popping your pods into the top of the machine, you instead place the pods in a professional-looking portafilter which twists and locks into place. Although it’s not quite as high-spec as the Sage machine in the first spot, and lacks a built-in grinder, the Bambino is the model I’d choose to have in my kitchen.

However, it would be a handy feature if you wanted to switch between your favourite Nepresso blends. If you’re looking to get your morning caffeine fix, fast, then pod coffee machines are the way to go. For anyone who likes espresso or the slightly longer drink, the Lavazza is an affordable option that does the basics really well.Drinks recipes can be modified to cater for personal preferences and our tester achieved fine, velvety foam ideal for latte art with its automatic steam wand. It poured consistently accurate coffees for our tester, who loved that the height of the coffee outlet can be altered to accommodate those taller, chunkier mugs we all reach for on chilly days.