I bought a pretty coffee machine and I stopped buying Costa Coffee

24 November 2023 , 16:29

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The Swan coffee machine

The best coffee machine deal for Black Friday can be a tricky one. Do you buy a big, bulky and expensive bean to cup machine? Do you go for a budget pod machine from the likes of Nespresso?

The answer could be somewhere in the middle, where a discounted coffee machine that not only makes great coffee but also looks fantastic has been reduced for Black Friday. After trying out a number of barista-style coffee machines for Mirror Choice this year, my favourite is one of the cheaper ones on the market.

Last year I bought the Swan coffee machine for Black Friday for £100. Originally listed at £119, this year it is even cheaper at just £80 on Amazon. The 33% discount is one of the bigger price drops on coffee machines for Black Friday and I think it is the best around.

I chose the Swan coffee machine for the aesthetics initially. It looks better than most other machines on the market due to its retro style. There's no denying the machine is pretty and it comes in a host of different colours to match your kitchen. Mine is Nordic slate grey with wooden trim and it looks fantastic on the counter top - especially compared to bulky plastic coffee machines on offer elsewhere.

It is also a very good machine to use. It's not a bean to cup machine so you will either have to buy pre-ground beans or get a grinder (mine is the John Lewis grinder for £25). It's easy to set up too. Just fill the back with water, place the coffee into the espresso tamper and use the coffee presser. It easily attaches to the machine and then you just need to wait until the water temperature gets hot enough to pour.

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The result is a barista-style coffee that tastes just as good as a Starbucks or Costa. I prefer a black coffee but there is also a handy milk frother to create lattes and other variations. I found the frother to be a bit fiddly and it is not as good as a standalone frother as it takes a while to heat up, but it does the job well enough.

The Swan machine makes quality coffees that, as long as you're using good beans, stands up in quality to anything bought on the high street. It also looks great and at just £80 it represents a big bargain. If you, like me, are buying a coffee a day from a chain then it quickly adds up in price and the machine can end up saving you hundreds of pounds.

You can get the Swan machine here. If you are after something with a few more features our top choice bean to cup machine is the .

Launched earlier this year, the coffee shop-standard machine was originally £449.99, but has been reduced by over £100. Now £349.09, it’s even cheaper than it was for Amazon Prime Day in October, where it was £349.99. The total saving is on the top-of-the-range gadget and it is likely to be the

Stephen Hurrell