can anyone recomend a not too expensive expresso type cofee machine? The one we like is £600 so wont be having that one....but  ma wants to buy us one and will stretch to just over £100 but i dont have a cluewhere to start looking.

Not sur eif it's the type of thing you are looking for, but my sister has a 'tassimo' which she says is brilliant.

Tassimo for all types of coffee and delicious hot chocolate

my oh is a coffee fiend and he just got one from argos...perhaps its more the beans than the machine?

I agree :) I've had several cheap coffee machines, I have a separate grinder and buy my beans from a specialist shop, the result is amazing coffee

I bought a Gaggia last year half price for £125. It uses coffee pods, but you can get types that use loose coffee as well.

I don't use it at all, after a year+ my husband uses it once in a while.   My verdict is that a real expresso machine is a pain in the you know what to use - so I would opt for a Tassimo or Nespresso. 

Now, I have a regular coffee maker by Gaggia, which is wonderful.  The pot is insulated so the coffee does not sit on a hot plate all day; it stays tasting like the first cup. I don't like espresso, so it's perfect for me.

I would buy a cheap percolator if coffee is your thing. I have read and read about most of these machines and to me they seem over priced, Not every eco freindly at all.   A perco and ground fresh beans ;-)

I can highly recommend a Gaggia Classic, you can buy the coffee bags for it or use loose expresso.  It's very simple to use, no electronics to go wrong a lovely heavy silver coated brass 'thingummy' (cannot think what it's called) to put the coffee in.  Mine is 12 years old and is still going strong, you can also buy replacement parts for it (all parts are replaceable).  Current cost now is around £250-£300.  Worth every penny!  :)

i love fresh coffee beans, smell amazing! we have this tiny little shop here that sells coffe and tea and it weighs them out in old fashioned scales and puts them in a bag through an old gun powder loader!, lol proper big tea caddies to. its a real experience shopping there.

i'd second Nespresso. we've had two from them - a krups one and we've currently got a siemens one (the tk50) which is fab. Nespresso's warranty and service is brill too. If you machine breaks, they'll send out a replacement for you to use while they sort out your own machine. And the capsules the machine use are foolproof, and leave no mess. They really are good.

I am looking at the krups nespresso at the moment.  Is there a delivery charge when you order the pods, can you only buy them online from the nespresso club and how much are they?
Many thanks.
Jax :)

sorry for the late delay, but the pods come in packs of ten, each pod being 23p, so each pack's £2.30. The only thing is, you have to order in multiples of 50. Standard delivery is £4.95 for 50 - 200 pods, then £1.95 for more than 200. Express delivery if £9.95 for 50-200. And yes, you can only buy nespresso pods from nespresso. We just buy them online, but there's a shop in London. As for the coffee itself, they're all lovely. The Livanto's a good allrounder. And if you like it strong, go for ristretto (too strong for me though!)

if you do buy a nespresso machine, i'd recommend using a descaling kit - you're meant to descale the machines every 3 months i think. We have the krups XN4050, which was really good. It was a bit fiddly though, and the milk frothing took some mastering. The siemens one we have is so easy-its all automatic, and the milk's always perfect.

i'd maybe look at house of fraser for the macine? We've bought all ours from there, and we've managed to get them in the sale each time. And, i don't know is they're still doing it, but you used to get £50 cashback from nespresso too, which was a bonus :)

Many thanks for all that info. :)

I used to work in a well known chain of cafes(not sure if im allowed to say the name so i wont!). Used to go on lots of courses to do with origin of beans, how to make perfect coffee etc. If you are a true coffee addict like me and my colleagues were then unfortunately, you really cant get the kind of coffee makers that make quality coffee at home. I would recommend trying (if you can) a range of these coffee makers, because you could end up spending lots of money on a home coffee maker only to find it tastes like knats wee-wee (i found out the hard way)