Coffee

It depends on your end goal.

It’s a common assumption that costlier espresso machines add features that benefit an experienced user, but for the first several hundred dollars they add features that are kind of core to good espresso machines. These include even heating, consistent and predictable flow control, easier maintenance, and universal and interchangeable baskets. These features are most helpful for beginners over experienced brewers, who can sometimes claw good coffee from cheap machines. This listing claims several such features, but it’s being sold for $70. Were it as good as a $250 Breville, the firm that made it would have it on every YouTube channel under the sun and it would be $200.

If the end goal is to develop coffee as a hobby and get amazing, cafe or better espresso, $70 spent on a device that you’re planning to make obsolete is $70 that could go toward a great espresso machine or powered grinder.

That said, many people really like this sort of machine. I have some friends who adore their cheap espresso machine and this thing looks better than what they have. But to them, it’s not a first machine, it’s just their espresso machine and they accept that a cafe will do better.

It has a boiler which is good to see (as opposed to a thermablock or something similar). For $70 probably not terrible but I doubt it’ll last long and it’s a no name brand so I’m not sure how reliable they’ll be for servicing and such. If you want a budget espresso machine, check out the DeLonghi Stilosa. I’m not sure how much it is in your local currency (I’m not American) but in Canada it’s around $150 and regularly on sale for $100 and is probably the best machine you can get for the budget end.

Whaddaya want from us 😅 It looks like a bare bones espresso machine, tuned to work with a pressurized basket. It has collected a couple of short reviews. The Amazon page sums it up nicely, i think: "Easy to make prefect coffee."